THE LIFESTYLE ENTREPRENEUR

Read time - 3 minutes

If you were forwarded this email from a friend and want to subscribe, go here.

The Planning Fallacy

This edition at a glance:

• Wellness Tip: One weird sleep improvement that works

• Quote: from Peter Drucker

• Framework: Type 1 & Type 2 Decisions

• Article: The Planning Fallacy

Wellness Tip

I’ve been hyperfocused on improving sleep for the past year, since having my 4th child Gabriel (aka Meatball), and also stopping taking the anxiety medication I started taking 4 years ago (which made me sleep without having to do any prep).

I’ve made massive progress in the past six months, and one of the latest tricks I’ve done is training myself to sleep on my side.

This comes from the learning, via a sleep study at the U of Minnesota, I did a few months ago. I have mild sleep apnea that only occurs when I sleep on my back. The solution? Sleep on my side.

Simple, not easy. I love sleeping on my back - it’s definitely the most comfortable position for me to fall asleep.

The sleep clinic offers a $400 sleep backpack that vibrates when you go on your back, which I thought was dumb. So I bought a $25 thing on amazon that is basically a harness with a hard ball on your back.

The results? It works!!

It’s been about 6 weeks, and while it was super annoying at first, I’ve gotten used to it, and my sleep has improved pretty substantially.

I’m still new at it, but I put it to the test this week in a hotel with my three older kids. I didn’t have the harness and got an 86 sleep score! Which is super high for me especially given I was in a hotel with my kids, at least one of them talks in his sleep, and I ate poorly on the trip down.

Here is the harness I use. If you’re a snorer - ask your partner if you sleep on your side. If not, it may help to try this, I’m glad I did.

Quote from Peter Drucker

“The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing”

I love this quote, and used it in a post this week here.

Simply put, less is more in life. And the more I live, the more I believe the point in life is to focus on just a few things that give us the highest return on our time. The rest is literally just noise.

Framework - Type 1 and Type 2 Decisions

I wrote a post about Jeff Bezos’ famous decision framework this week here.

I also wrote a full newsletter a few months ago on this topic here.

I love this simple framework - which is summarized here:

1. High stakes & Irreversible - He calls these “one-way doors”, meaning once you make the decision there’s no turning back.

2. Low stakes & reversible - He calls these “two-way doors”, meaning if you make the decision it’s relatively easy to course correct, make changes, even back out.

Taking a few seconds to determine the type of decision can speed up decisionmaking dramatically, and also save us costly errors when we encounter the truly Type 1 decision.

The Planning Fallacy

I grew up with a Marine Corps father and grandfather, and spent 4 years in the Marines myself - so arriving prompt has been engrained in my psyche. I’m rarely late for things, which is something I’m very thankful for.

Because let’s be honest people who are late all the time suck.

My toxic trait, however, is trying to cram too many things into the final minutes before having to leave for an appointment, forcing myself into rushing and sometimes being less prepared than I’d like.

Both of those issues, along with generally underestimating how long tasks take - is the Planning Fallacy.

The planning fallacy is a cognitive bias where individuals underestimate the time needed to complete a task, despite knowing past tasks have taken longer.

This fallacy affects all humans in different ways, and simple training and tools can help us manage it better in our lives.

The most simple way to fix this issue is to use the following framework:

1. Acknowledge it - where are we guilty of this bias? For me it’s when I’m getting ready for a new appointment.

2. Create a buffer - A buffer is a period of time added to a transition or completion, in order to accomodate additonal time required. A good rule of thumb is a 50% buffer added.

   That seems long right? Just add it. For my example if I think it’s going to take me 10 minutes to transition, I need to give myself an extra 5 minutes of buffer time.

3. Adjust and refine - Once you’ve added the buffer, then you see how long it actually takes for the task. As it gets repeated, you get more predictability and can make adjustments.

   What you’ll probably find is it still usually makes sense to have the full buffer, because we really do tend to underestimate time of tasks.

And if you’re chronically late for everything - seriously, fix it. You’re an adult and you can figure out how to be on time to things.

Talk to you next week,

Mike

Thanks for reading The Lifestyle Entrepreneur

If you were forwarded this email from a friend and want to subscribe, go here.

Whenever you’re ready, here’s how I can help you:

I’m a Professional EOS® Implementer. That means I work with entrepreneurial leadership teams (typically growth oriented business leaders with 10-250 employees) to develop three things:

• Vision - getting teams 100% on the same page with where the company is going and how to get there

• Traction - Applying discipline and accountability to achieve that vision

• Healthy - Creating healthy, functional, cohesive leadership teams

If you or a business owner you know would like to hear more about EOS®,

Please click here for to schedule a free intro meeting.