JAN 4, 2019
Lately I have been trying to approach bigger tasks by developing processes rather than by trying to set and achieve goals. The problem with setting and achieving goals is that you feel that if you aren’t achieving goals, you are failing. Success comes from overcoming obstacles, not achieving easy, bite-sized tasks.
I found that I set a measurable goal that seems obtainable, but an obstacle arises that blocks me from achieving that goal. I realized that I am only setting myself up to succeed in obstacle-free environments. But the only way to grow is to work through obstacles.
To give you a more solid idea of what I’m talking about, here are three examples from my life where I am trying to replace goals with processes.
For this blog, for example, my goal was to develop a satisfying process of writing and publishing my ideas. I knew that the most difficult part would be finding a process for writing that I enjoy. I found that writing in markdown was helpful so that I didn’t have to worry about formatting. I also found that using a writing program such as Ulysses makes the experience of writing and publish much easier than trying to write and publish in a program like Microsoft Word. I also love that it syncs with my phone so that I can write down quick ideas and make edits on the go.
I can then export each post as markdown and paste it into the website. I also spent a bit of time making the process of publishing the post easier (although I still have ideas on how to improve it). I use Netify to host my site for free. It offers continuous deployment with GitHub so all I have to do is commit the new post and push it to GitHub and changes become public within about 45 seconds. This process has been surprisingly easy and more importantly, rewarding.
In my personal life, I’ve found that I dream about the appearance of a relationship rather than the hard work and dedication that goes into building a relationship like that. I was focused on setting a goal and achieving that goal, even if the goal may or may not even be in the right place.
I have been trying to take a more process-based approach to my friendships to start out. This means that I want to focus on making the process of building friendships the best that I can. This means being more involved, planning parties, spending time to get thoughtful gifts, and being there when it matters.
Think about the friends that you admire. I’m sure they aren’t the ones spending their time thinking about the appearance of their relationships, but instead they’re putting in the work to build friendships that they love to be in.
When it comes to software development, I find that it becomes very easy to focus on achieving tasks. We all set goals when it comes to what we want to achieve in a given day, but obstacles come up and we get frustrated.
I am very new to software engineering, but I was surprised by a least one thing that nobody mentioned in school, and that is the process that they use to get an idea out, designed, and built. An idea starts to take shape as a document that describes the idea and a rough estimate of how much energy it will take to make. After designers understand the idea, they start to work out more of the details about how it will function. Then software engineers take the design and build a scalable solution for it.
This process takes a while, so the faster a company can get ideas out, the sooner they can be to market and the more profitable the company can be. The process of iterating also needs to be very fast and efficient.
I’m still trying to find generic, new ways to improve the processes in my life, but I have found a few things that help.
The first is to be more mindful about what you spend your time worrying about. If I find that I worry about people judging me for not posting a new article, or that people will think I’m a failure because I don’t travel the world with friends, or that I’m not the most efficient programmer, I might not be setting great goals. I try to shift my focus from the outward appearance to the work, the process itself.
I have also found that taking note of the obstacles that come up can be really helpful in recognizing reoccurring problems that you might want to address. It is helpful to take note of what the issue is, why it came up, and what you did to fix it. If I run into an issue with, for example, creating a new database, I might want to note that somewhere and look into why it is occurring. If that issue keeps reoccurring, I should take steps to get it fixed. And when it gets fixed, I should also take note of how I fixed it. In summary,
Take note of the issue.
Take note of why it came up.
Take note of what solution you found.