Weird optimization
It takes a lot of work to dig the well, and you’ve got to dig down deep enough. But then you get water whenever you want it.
It takes me ninety minutes to write a blog post if I write one in the morning right before I publish.
However, it takes me 45 minutes if it’s the third post I’ve written that day and won’t be published for two weeks.
There are probably a lot of factors involved, and I’m continuing to experiment. But in the meantime, I’m going to do anything I can to not have to write and publish on the same day.
The thing is, regardless of the reason, I would never have known this about myself if I hadn’t managed to get out of the cycle of writing and publishing on the same day — a cycle I was trapped in for most of the time I’ve been publishing this blog.
I’ve noticed that when I question things I never used to question, I am able to be more efficient and effective. But it’s hard to find those things. The cause and effect relationship is not always logical or linear, and they’re often buried behind beliefs and assumptions.
For years, I was miserable in my job as a music teacher, as much as I loved the work. Showing up to the lessons was fine — it was my schedule that was the problem.
My workday didn’t begin until 2 PM, which left me listless and unable to focus all day. Then, I didn’t finish work until 8:30 PM.
Because this was the only way I had operated as an adult professional, I didn’t know that my schedule was the problem. I didn’t know, as I do now, that it takes me two hours to wind down after spending time with people, which interfered with my attempts to get to bed early. I didn’t know that my best hours of the day were in the early morning — a time of day I was completely sleeping through on account of my late hours.
And I didn’t know that I didn’t have to have a life spent waiting around — I could structure my days and my life so that my work was done by 2 PM if I wanted to.
I just figured, as so many of us do, that I was the problem. In reality, I needed to systematically test every variable in the system in order to make improvements. Blaming myself was a cop-out.
For the past two months, I’ve worked really hard to make three TikTok videos every day. I tried to build a backlog, but when it takes virtually all of your free time to make three videos, there’s not much of a backlog you can build.
I enjoyed this work, but I knew that it was not sustainable. So this week, I dropped down to two videos per day. And mysteriously, it’s like I have all the time in the world. Somehow, making three videos took six hours, but making two videos takes ninety minutes.
That math doesn’t make sense. And the results aren’t linear either: Some videos attract a lot of attention and engagement while some get a few “courtesy likes” and sink into oblivion. The time I spend making the video is unrelated to its popularity. And the popularity of a video does not always translate to its impact on individuals or my relationships with them. And that impact doesn’t necessarily translate into new clients for my business. So, theoretically, I could keep tweaking my approach until I’m doing only what gives me the results I’m looking for.
What I know, both from my own experiences and those I observe vicariously through clients, students, and friends, is that if something is not optimal, we often have a lot more choices than we think we do about how to change it or influence it. And when we don’t, we can change the way we think about it or react to it.
Of course, the challenge is that we can’t always access the possibilities we don’t see. We don’t know they’re there if we can’t see them. But the first step is to recognize that these unknown possibilities exist, and the second step is to stop jumping to the conclusion that we need to try harder.
And the third step is to be aware that the solution to a given problem may be illogical, counterintuitive, or ridiculous. But you’ll never know until you try. Experiment, see what happens, and then keep experimenting.
