In the name of Allah, most gracious and most merciful,
1. The Mini-system
I will add a mini-system to the big system I mentioned in this post. I mean by mini-system a system that I apply before each task. This is inspired by an audiobook I was listening to today called unscripted. He didn’t mention the mini-system idea or about how to learn or do your job, but he was talking about something somehow different but it may have clicked with me in this way because I am fond of learning skills and improving my learning.
The mini-system is to do the following before any task:
- Ask yourself what is the big goal that led to this daily routine or task. What is the end goal? Define success, or define the finish line. Remember that having an unclear destination will lead you anywhere. Try to pick some measures for your success so that you could evaluate how close are you to your goal from time to time.
- Ask yourself the same previous question but in terms of a mini-goal. In other words, what is the exact thing that you are doing now?
- Think critically. How could you do this? Why will you take this approach? Isn’t there a better approach? Did anyone do this before so that you could benefit from his experience? What are the possible challenges that you may encounter, and how to prepare for them ahead?
- Start working until you receive an echo or feedback. Don’t change your mini-goal which you expect will lead you to the big goal unless you receive feedback that you are going in the wrong direction. Feedback takes time, and evaluating the effectiveness of what you are doing takes time as well. So be patient using to implement the steps you decided on in step number 3 until you receive significant useful feedback.
- After receiving feedback, evaluate it based on the big goal measurements then go back to step 2 to improve your process. If it is difficult to find a measure for a specific feedback, just think about how could you improve the process based on your feedback. Critical thinking and evaluation matters.
2. Some useful pieces of advice
Most of these pieces of information are taken from The Magic of Thinking Big book.
- Don’t be Mr. I can’t stand to be alone. Successful people tap their super power through being alone, and you can too.
- When the fog is removed, the right choice becomes much clearer. Managed solitude pay off.
- Resolve now to set aside some time each day at least 30 minutes to be completely by yourself. Perhaps early in the morning before any distractions, or perhaps late in the evening would be a better time. The important thing is to select a time when your mind is fresh, and when you can be free from distractions. You can use this type to do two types of thinking, directed and undirected.
- To do direct thinking, review the major problem facing you. In solitude your mind will study the problem objectively to help you reach the right answer.
- To do undirected thinking, just let your mind select what it wished to think about. Undirected thinking is very helpful in doing self-evaluation. It helps you get down to the very basic matters like: How can I be better? What should be my next move?
- Remember that the main job of the leader is thinking, and the best preparation for leadership is thinking. Spend sometime in managed solitude everyday, and think yourself to success.
Finally
Thank you. I hope this post has been beneficial to you. I would appreciate any comments if anyone needed more clarifications or if anyone has seen something wrong in what I have written in order to modify it, and I would also appreciate any possible enhancements or suggestions. We are humans, and errors are expected from us, but we could also minimize those errors by learning from our mistakes and by seeking to improve what we do.
Allah bless our master Muhammad and his family.
