Write work instructions for yourself

TJL #89

Work instructions

“Elliott and Goldman weren't satisfied by the conceptual insight: they wanted to know precisely how F1 pit teams get so good – what practices they could steal. So - now with the addition of human factor expert, Ken Catchpole – they travelled to Ferrari's HQ in Italy to meet with Nigel Stepney, Ferrari's Technical Director. One of the first things they did was play him video footage of their medical handovers and describe the process in pictures.”

This is from the book Book - Copy, Copy, Copy: How to Do Smarter Marketing by Using Other People's Ideas and it’s really great. Have you ever recorded yourself doing something and played it back for yourself to see what you could improve? You should sometimes, it’s eye-opening.

Somewhat related to this is another story: I’m currently working for a client and for some unknown reason I wrote work instructions for myself. They go something like this:

• Log in on VM

• Set default browser to chrome

• Open anaconda prompt and launch Jupyter Notebook (should open in chrome)

• Open SAS studio by clicking here (should open in chrome)

For unknown reasons, I really like this.

Every time I log on, I open the instructions, and I just execute them. There’s no thinking involved at all. Then I realized that this is exactly an implementation intention that I wrote about here in TJL #88: Fig Trees, Intentions, and Elephants.

Previous TJLs

Read my previous TJLs by following on the links down below:

• TJL #1: How to conduct a weekly review

• TJL #2: How to set up a StackNavigator in React-native

• TJL #3: Money is not wealth

• TJL #4: You get rich by owning things

• TJL #5: How to not be overwhelmed

• TJL #6: How to remember the difference between margin and padding

• TJL #7: According to Jeff Bezos there are two types of failure

• TJL #8: A stupid coding mistake

• TJL #9: Akrasia

• TJL #10: How to set goals like Google

• TJL #11: How to write great copy for your startup product

• TJL #12: How to change font in React

• TJL #13: Civilisation advances by extending the number of operations we can perform without thinking about them

• TJL #14: The Motivation-Skill Dichotomy

• TJL #15: No plan is also a plan

• TJL #16: How to understand difficult code

• TJL #17: How to write self-help books

• TJL #18: The power of precommitment

• TJL #19: Reflections on my first remote project (part 1)

• TJL #20: Reflections on my first remote project (part 2)

• TJL #21: Three small things

• TJL #22: Building Wedje (part 1)

• TJL #23: Building Wedje (part 2)

• TJL #24: Obscurity is good

• TJL #25: Zettelkasten method

• TJL #26: Use a checkbox (Daily Productivity #1)

• TJL #27: Be aware of the spotlight effect (Daily productivity #2)

• TJL #28: Start with the upper-left hand brick (Daily Productivity #3)

• TJL #29: It doesn’t matter where you take it from, what matters is where you take it to (Daily productivity #4)

• TJL #30: Start with writing your README (Daily productivity #5)

• TJL #31: Work with an outline (Daily productivity #6)

• TJL #32: Use active recall (Daily productivity #7)

• TJL #33: Use quadrants (Daily productivity #8)

• TJL #34: How to get started (Daily productivity #9)

• TJL #35: Use the Pomodoro technique (Daily productivity #10)

• TJL #36: How to handle your negative feelings (Daily productivity #11)

• TJL #37: Imagine the work, not the reward (Daily productivity #12)

• TJL #38: Separate your writing from editing (Daily productivity #13)

• TJL #39: Make it visual (Daily productivity #14)

• TJL #40: Make it pleasurable (Daily productivity #15)

• TJL #41: Don't be ashamed to ask for help (Daily productivity #16)

• TJL #42: Block all distractions (Daily productivity #17)

• TJL #43: Don't expect perfection (Daily productivity #18)

• TJL #44: Sweep up every day (Daily productivity #19)

• TJL #45: Make fewer decisions (Daily productivity #20)

• TJL #46: Copy the greats (Daily productivity #21)

• TJL #47: Play some office music (Daily productivity #22)

• TJL #48: Focus on interests, not positions (Daily productivity #23)

• TJL #49: Eat your own dogfood (Daily productivity #24)

• TJL #50: Delete all your code (Daily productivity #25)

• TJL #51: Keep a (dis)traction list (Daily productivity #26)

• TJL #52: Don't be scared to fail (Daily productivity #27)

• TJL #53: Don't underline (Daily productivity #28)

• TJL #54: Change your font to Comic Sans (Daily productivity #29)

• TJL #55: Be more coachable (Daily productivity #30)

• TJL #56: Batch your tasks (Daily productivity #31)

• TJL #57: Stop forgetting things (Daily productivity #32)

• TJL #58: Manage your time proactively (Daily productivity #33)

• TJL #59: Limit what you save (Daily productivity #34)

• TJL #60: Think of future you (Daily productivity #35)

• TJL #61: Build momentum (Daily productivity #36)

• TJL #62: Make flashcards as you go (Daily productivity #37)

• TJL #63: Never give up (Daily productivity #38)

• TJL #64: Motivate yourself with these two questions (Daily productivity #39)

• TJL #65: Ask validating questions (Daily productivity #40)

• TJL #66: You can do it (Daily productivity #41)

• TJL #67: Set aside time to think (Daily productivity #42)

• TJL #68: Take a walk (Daily productivity #43)

• TJL #69: Some things are up to us and some are not up to us (Daily productivity #44)

• TJL #70: Life is like picking shells on the beach (Daily productivity #45)

• TJL #71: Internalise your desires (Daily productivity #46)

• TJL #72: Watch your step (Daily productivity #47)

• TJL #73: Don't say, be (Daily productivity #48)

• TJL #74: Serenity prayer (Daily productivity #49)

• TJL #75: Solve the right problem (Daily productivity #50)

• TJL #76: Tell yourself this in the morning (Daily productivity #51)

• TJL #77: Even Marcus Aurelius struggled with distraction (Daily productivity #52)

• TJL #78: It’s Not As Unfortunate As It Seems (Daily productivity #53)

• TJL #79: Everything is just an impression (Daily productivity #54)

• TJL #80: It’s Not As Unfortunate As It Seems (Daily productivity #55)

• TJL #81: Talk about your problems (Daily productivity #56)

• TJL #82: Everything is change (Daily productivity #57)

• TJL #83: There is no harm in change (Daily productivity #58)

• TJL #84: How to think about your possessions (Daily productivity #59)

• TJL #85: The View From Above

• TJL #86: Nothing is original

• TJL #87: Don't get upset. Do the right thing

• TJL #88: Fig Trees, Intentions, and Elephants