Boss as a Service – Hire a boss, get stuff done
bossasaservice.life
bossasaservice.life
Manasvini, who emails me regularly from the service, has been nothing but wonderful. Every email I've gotten has been encouraging and positive, and it honestly helps keep me accountable.
I really can't thank Manasvini enough for that. Never once has there been any scolding, nagging, or negativity - just gracious reminders and a good attitude.
(Manasvini, if you're reading this - thanks for putting up with me, and always being helpful getting me back on track, even when I manage to completely derail myself.)
Do you also have difficulty finding enough time, and prioritizing your backlog of todo items? How does the service help in this case?
It helps with the follow through, because you'll let someone besides yourself down if you don't. Besides that, they help you plan and keep things sustainable. When you send goals that are poorly defined, they help you convert them into actionable ones.
Ultimately, you decide priority on these matters, but it helps to have that second mind that actively thinks with you.
Unironically, the origin of the word 'boss'.
I think they should start with a lower fee and charge x more every time the user fails to complete a task, on time. People need incentive to finish something. Not sure if someone emailing you is enough
Inversely, offering rewards can be just as counterproductive.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/27/opinion/sunday/science-re...
If it helps you maintain intrinsic motivation then it may be of benefit. Maybe depending on the person a gentle reminder or a wakeup call works best, but the motivation shouldn't be focussed on getting a pat on the back or to avoid someone yelling at you.
You say this like it's obviously a bad idea. Why?
The more work you do, the better it will be, even if you're not trying for any particular quality level. Most people have much more of a problem with the amount of the work they do than with the quality.
I read of an experiment conducted on a college pottery class. Half of the class was told they would be graded on the quality of the pots they produced. The other half was told their grade would be determined by gathering all the pots they turned in, smashing them, and weighing the pile of shards. The heavier the pile, the better the grade.
The grade-by-weight group turned in higher-quality pots.
For example: ask a team to build a software project with excellent design and best practices and they may hit "analysis paralysis".
Ask them to build perhaps 5 distinct - but cheap and disposable - implementations and you might find they get a much better idea of how to do things "right" very quickly.
Note to self: remember this for future use!
I'm not sure where the latter comes from, but I've read several startup case studies that began with founders who did everything by hand at the beginning (just to see if their process worked).
Sounds like a sure fire way to spend all the time on premature optimisation.
Scott Guthrie at Microsoft used to talk about rapid prototyping, and to always throw away the prototype code and redo from scratch. Never keep the prototype, and especially don't just push it straight into production.
BAAS helps people to do something they set out to do, but can't get themselves to actually do it.
It seems to me it doesn't really matter if you start to like it less, since you already don't like it enough to get started. And the quality point is moot, since it's better to have something shitty (that you can then improve), than have nothing at all.
Don't forget that actually getting started is the most important part of doing something. An effective way to finally clean up the kitchen is not to plan 2 hours for it, but to just take 2 minutes to wipe the countertop. Before you know it, while wiping the countertop you move stuff back to their proper place and two hours later the kitchen is done. And if not, then at least the countertop is clean again, which was better than leaving it dirty.
This isn't really a web task/todo list service - think of it more like someone helping keep you accountable to tasks where you'd find it helpful for someone to do so, if that makes sense.
The comment make it look like that person is their mother, who knows everything about their life and can comment on. When in reality we know they only know what you email them about. And after a while emailing people is as much (if not more) of a chore than using a simple list.
Relevant comic: https://english.emmaclit.com/2017/05/20/you-shouldve-asked/
"Housework was defined as “core chores,” or routine housework that people generally do not enjoy doing such as washing dishes, laundry, vacuuming floors and dusting … Routine housework, like cooking dinner or making beds, was captured … . Other activities such as home repairs, mowing the lawn, and shoveling snow were not in the study. Items such as gardening are usually viewed as more enjoyable; the focus here is on core housework."
Also, in addition to the chores that are not counted men tend to sacrifice at a higher rate in other ways to provide for the family. They have longer commutes and more frequently work away from home [2], and on average work longer hours when working fulltime [3]. Women also more frequently work part-time with a man supporting the family doing the sacrifices mentioned here [4].
We are happy to do all of this, but the deal is that one partner don't get to discount what the other do and then talk bad about how we all contribute to the whole based upon this misrepresentation.
[1] https://www.nsf.gov/discoveries/disc_summ.jsp?cntn_id=111458 [2] https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/urban-survival/20150... [3] https://www.forbes.com/sites/karinagness/2016/06/30/new-repo... [4] http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2013/12/11/on-pay-gap-millenn...
edit: now I see - it's related to the comic in the GP comment. That comment implies that the comic is explaining emotional labor, but it isn't (the comic pretty much states this in the final panel). So that GP comment confused the thread. I'll respond directly to that comment.
Emotional labor as a concept is manipulative, and it makes it harder for us all to appreciate the part each of us play in making a whole in exactly the same way as the PSID misrepresentations and make it harder for us to gain the meaning we normally do through mutually caring relationships.
The sad thing about both the PSID and the emotional labor concept is that it discourages the ones with few healthy relationships from mimicking the actions that will most likely help build them.
While I'm highly skeptical of the notion that this concept is inherently manipulative, I certainly understand that select people will use whatever tools they have at their disposal to affect manipulation. I'm fascinated that you have had this experience and I'd like to hear more about what brought you here.
This is where I come from: The claims I can find about emotional labor mostly seem to refer to the PSID report, and it currently seems like there is an effort at claiming the conclusions of the PSID report support a similar claim about how the genders relate in the workplace. Emotional labor seem to be interchangeable be used for both contexts without a clear definition, and as a generalization of the PSID report. However, I can't find any data supporting that this is how the genders relate in the workplace and as I showed earlier the PSID report is also not a good representation of how people relate at home due to its misrepresentations.
Anecdotally: I did a big junk of the organizational stuff for my girlfriend during her five years of university (we basically met a month before she started) including pushing her through her bachelor and master thesis. Basically I kept a mental todo list for her and kept nagging her "like a boss". I also organized us moving different places, getting insurances, setting up contracts (like for tv and internet), shopping for tech, getting her car fixed and planning our holidays. I also organized and execute all the household related fixing. That's mostly stuff that happens on occasion and takes a lot of time and mental capacity then, but is not a daily load.
On the other hand she does a lot of the daily load stuff like washing, shopping and cleaning (basically because I'm fine cleaning once every 2 weeks when I can actually see the dust lying around, but she gets furious at this point). I probably do not appreciate this enough from a mental load / organizational point of view.
I'm sure though that I will be the one keeping track of doctor appointments and nannies, when we have kids, while she will keeping track of feeding, grocery shopping and changing diapers. I hopefully will remember this post and appreciate the small, but frequent and steady organizational load she takes and not only think about the rarer, bigger ones I take care off.
Of course. It provides a perspective, not all perspectives. But it's an important perspective. Not every household is this skewed in responsibilities, but many are. And just paying a bit of attention to what's going on and taking on some of these responsibilities, can alleviate a lot of stress.
It's certainly something I need to do more.
For anyone interested, here are some resources on emotional labor:
- https://www.fastcompany.com/90268277/men-emotional-labor-is-...
- https://www.forbes.com/sites/melodywilding/2018/06/06/dont-b...
- https://thebodyisnotanapology.com/magazine/7-ways-men-must-l...
10 years ago, when my wife and I had been married less than a month, there was an occasion when the dishes piled up in the sink, and my wife got upset, and asked why had hadn't I noticed them, and why hadn't it bother me enough to clean them up without her having to ask me.
The reality was, I'm not sure I had noticed it, sometimes I get lost in my own world, I have a different perception of what parts of the world need my attention than my wife does, not that my perception is better (its often worse),
anyway, we had a discussion where I stated that if she would like my help with something, a polite "hey, would you mind [cleaning the dishes, some other X, etc]" will almost always elicit a "sure", then me doing it, unless there is an extremely specific reason I'm unable to help her at that exact moment, I'm not going to refuse a request for help
I'm happy we had that talk, I think it significantly improved the communication in our marriage
I don't want her strewing over me not doing something that I'm oblivious to, (and sometimes I am oblivious to stuff)
after a few requests for the same type of help, I do get in the habit of anticipating that a particular help is needed, and try to do it before that help is formally requested (the sink rarely fills up with dishes these days)
The mental load sounds like it could be largely resolved by GTD, since eliminating mental load is the reason GTD was invented.
And if it's a shared system (eg whiteboard in kitchen) then the man/breadwinner can see at a glance what needs done and pick up tasks without having to ask.
Of course, there's a much more elegant solution, but I will leave it as an exercise for the reader :)
The difference is I don't ask her to do it, and I don't broadcast what I'm doing to end up on a list. It needs to be done so I do it. If you keep tally you will not have a good time either way.
On the other hand stuff I don't need or want moved (my work stuff in my closed home office) always gets "ordered" according to her standards so I have my doubts about whether much of that behavior is society's fault or some people's innate wish to see some things done a certain way or in a certain order. It has to be done based on an internal list of needs or ideals, not because society says my stuff has to be ordered by her standards.
When you're substantially better at something just do it. Your partner will do the stuff they're better at. The rest gets split or shared with a simple prior arrangement. If the result is what matters don't get stuck on the how. And if something doesn't need to be done, don't do it. You'll expend mental and physical energy for no good reason.
At one point an ex-partner of mine felt like she did way more than half the household workload. I felt under-appreciated because I was basically the only one to "fix" things if something needed to be done in the house.
We decided to set up a simple task manager for ad-hoc tasks, with some alternating recurring tasks like doing the washing. This worked quite well, as it gave some objective facts to balance our feelings and allowed us both to easily pick up our half of the work whenever we had some time.
The difference in my household is that I, the husband, not only do all the things that you're talking about but also provide "Boss as a service" for my wife. It puts a ridiculous amount of load on me and burns me out. The difference as you correctly pointed out is men tend to "man up" and just do it.
However, the comic does fail to recognize that the priorities of the woman (in this case) are also societal constructs. In the same way that women are taught to be the cleaners and boys are taught to go off to "save the world," women are also taught to value things like a tidy home. There's no inherent value in not keeping my jeans on the floor of the bedroom. That's something that women writ large have been taught to value.
If the men are being encouraged to think about what society has taught them to do, and change it based on this comic, I think it's only fair that the women also take a minute and consider the same.
The link explains in more detail.
I also can't imagine any of the men I know would do that...which the comic describes as a 'common scenario for many parents'.
That sounds like a low quality partner issue, not a gender role issue.
Everyone is happy that they are providing this, and we all agree that they are definitely experiencing this real need, and not projecting something into the world that's actually just going on in their heads.
It's pretty much the theme of the film: Masculinity as a desperate absence and conversely a desperate danger, in all it's facets from the comedic ("In death a member of Project Mayhem has a name") to the bathetic ("remaining men together") to the deeply sinister and violent. In a time when it is culturally deracinated and absent from so many men's childhoods.
Civilization is built upon the inclusion of men in childrearing, so ultimately all civilizations include men raised by both men and women (at least the successful ones).
I mean this BaaS probably "manages" 100s of people and is doing nothing else than clicking through a similar software for you.
Customer defining the goals is akin to setting the difficulty on "easy" and beating the game. What would be good is if BaaS would interview the customer, set realistic but challenging goals for the customer based on the project needs and then push them. Similar to a gym coach.
All via twitter.
To avoid setting bad incentives, i.e. that your boss still wants you to succeed, he personally should get a bonus out of the X even though the company earns less.
It doesn’t really matter if the parents see the fine as “a fine” or an unaffordable, automatically billed service if it’s priced right.
That said, if lateness is a problem, it’s impeding on the workers’ personal lives, which can’t be good for anybody, so I don’t mind exploring how those workers could be helped. I assume more upfrontness from the business office, and parent education, would go a long way, similar to other institutions.
(I mean, I agree it's a big problem. I also dislike haggling, and I think I would have done much better had i outsourced that function when I ran a business, even if I paid a lot to that person)
All that said, a sufficient guilt trip might be more effective than a fine in any case, and is something that a caretaker could probably provide.
If I am late to give back a book that I am still reading, I do not mind giving it back one or two weeks late after I am done with it.
The fine is actually considerably cheaper if you compare with the upfront cost to be able to use the library.
bossasaservice is about voluntary accountability where there previously was none. and it's fully in my control on how i use it.
part of the point of being a freelancer (or entrepreneur) is that i get to decide what i am accountable for and what not.
In the absence of consequences, they are obligated but not accountable to the daycare.
> and the payment enabled them more flexibility and actually reduce the accountability.
No, it replaced ethical obligation (which, insofar as it is accountability, is accountability to self) to defined-consequence accountability to the daycare, which in practice negates ethical obligation in favor of transactional accountability.
How that works out in price depends on the weight of the ethical rule involved for the individual vs the weight of the assigned consequence; it is counterproductive where you replace a strong ethical obligation with a weak consequence.
People often overlook that other people have ethics; that's actually useful self-protection in many situations, but it backfires when you undermine common ethics in an effort to create incentives and manage to replace it with weaker incentives than the target audience had from ethics in the status quo ante.
i don't believe in an absence of consequences. there are always consequences, even if they are not spelled out. sometimes we just don't know what the consequences might be. so at least i need to assume there are consequences unless it is explicitly said that there are none, at which point the obligation disappears.
however this is getting philosophical now, and strays from the topic.
I think it's beautifully HN-libertarian of you to consider "no financial consequences" equal to "no consequences".
Our daycare solves this with peer pressure and stern looks and it's super effective.
If you fail, you pay the charity an amount Y. If you succeed, you could do nothing, or give the Boss a bonus of .5Y for being a good boss
The perverse incentive has to land somewhere; not sure there's a way to neutralize this one. But it's an interesting idea.
At the end of the day, that's what's happening anyway. As in, why continue the service if it's not working.
The incentives are already set so I am willing to pay (more) for successful management, and they will get paid (more) for successful management.
You get what you pay for. Why pay for failure?
You should want to avoid the payment! Is the short version. If you _only_ paid when you failed, you might go out of your way to not fail, if it meant you could avoid the payment.
Especially as a conditioned response -- eg. planning to fail sometimes. You won't mind losing $5 once in a while, if most of the time you aren't failing as a result. It's no fun if you're paying the $5 every time. But it's no fun if you're failing at your goals every time, either.
Failed once, failed twice, still paying $5? Why not up the commitment? How much will it take to get you to not fail next time, $20? $400? Or give up on that goal, once and for all. It's quite a weird system, but there is a lot of behavioral science behind it, and you will benefit by becoming better at predicting your capacity for important things, and planning. (Sure, you don't need Beeminder to do that, but it's a system for it...)
There are a lot of ideas around the psychology of getting things done from Beeminder and friends. Like the legend of Murder Gandhi, you have to read this one for yourself: https://blog.beeminder.com/schelling/
[1]: https://blog.beeminder.com/psych/ [2]: https://blog.beeminder.com/punishment/
Edit: read the second part of your original comment which clarified this. Perhaps the charity idea circumvents the wrong way risk altogether.
For instance say I don’t like Donald trump. If I fail my money goes to trumps reelection fund. But if it succeeds it goes to a charity that buys malaria nets for poor communities around the planet.
Sounds like a normal project manager.
For the most part they are sales people who are good at telling others what to do, but you always feel possibly not that good or they would be running some business themselves.
There are even business coach franchises.
Often, they are running a business (specifically, a business-coaching business) themselves.
A business coach should be capable of stepping into a business and running it.
Just to be facetious: "Those who can, do; those who can't, teach".
Why is a business coach different than other kinds of teachers?
Going further, why should you learn anything from any kind of professional teacher? By your logic, doesn't the fact that they're teaching it imply that they can't do it?
Business coaching is something you do after running a business.
Teaching at a secondary you will often find people who previously worked in industry. My high school chemistry teacher for example previously worked as an industrial chemist which put his level of expertise way above what was required.
And at the tertiary you will get a mix of academics and tutors, who are either actively researching or working in their field.
Which is why mentoring groups with other business owners can be a lot more beneficial than a coach.
After having a structure my whole life in school which I did fairly well under, suddenly I found myself with literally no structure, deadlines that are always far in the future, and the ability to literally watch Youtube all day long without any _immediate_ penalty.
I love seeing things like this. I've had to build all sorts of structure into my life, but the hardest part is always getting myself to do it, because, you know, I could just _not do it._
Caddra has an interesting chart here for suggestions: https://caddra.ca/pdfs/Psychosocial_October2016.pdf
I also like Russell Barkley's lectures and books: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BzhbAK1pdPM&list=PLzBixSjmbc...
and
http://www.russellbarkley.org/books.html (especially Taking Charge of Adult ADHD)
And additionally, if you find that these things speak to you, medication makes a tremendous difference. I really can't overstate the degree to which it can change your life.
Now, despite having largely learnt to manage said anxiety, I still have a massive problem with “avoidance”; do you think it is perhaps worth revisiting the potential ADHD?
I do find that Ritalin helps tremendously, but obviously I do not have a prescription, it’s something I only take when in supply and I have a pressing deadline.
Like, the first psych wasn't wrong about anxiety being a thing. It often is very often co-morbid with ADHD. This is because ADHD interferes with keeping up with work and life commitments and deadlines, makes you tend to work closer to deadlines (and more vigorously), and causes other life issues. If your work performance is unsatisfactory, of course you are anxious.
We still have little to no understanding of how, why, and in some cases even if psychotropics actually work. And there are correlations to all sorts of nasty things with indications causality between things such as ritalin/methylphenidate and depression. Other studies on ritalin have shown neuronal/brain changes comparable to cocaine. [1] The only reason I mention this is because I think we're currently in the era of having a chicken and egg scenario between all sorts of mental/psychological disorders and a skyrocketing rate of psychotropic consumption.
Basically, turn to medication as a last resort and think about the differences in how you feel medicated and how you feel unmedicated. Now imagine the gross (as in total, not as in eww) effect of your brain over what may be potentially decades of usage of such drugs since the drugs won't cure you - they will just end up working as a crutch for an indefinite period of time. For some this may be the right decision, but it's not a decision that should be made with no analysis beyond 'Wow, I feel much better after taking this!'
[1] - https://www.nih.gov/news-events/news-releases/nida-study-sho...
Yes, it has risks and is not 100% safe. No, that doesn't mean that the risk/reward ratio is anywhere near "think carefully before trying it." People with ADHD have enough trouble scheduling stuff and getting through the bureaucracy standing between them and a diagnosis already, it's downright irresponsible IMO to suggest that they go down a rabbit hole of research and doubt.
I take 30mg Vyvanse daily but deliberately skip Sundays & Saturdays in an attempt to delay organism adaptation. It's similar to Ritalin but more gradual and longer effect. I see the drug as a temporary tool to help me get moving again. Hope to one day replace it with well ingrained habits plus dopamine from exercises.
True. These drugs aren't a cure. They are a tool. For many, more like an aspiring writer's desk than a cripple's crutch. ADD drugs are like coffee, but without the culture. Use wisely: they can help to improve motivation, which can then be applied towards or away from self-control. Don't expect a cure or for the drug to do your own hard work. Like any tool, there is a learning curve and skill set associated with expert use.
Which do you think is worse for long term health?
Beats the living hell out of my alternative: on the streets, in jail, or 6 feet under because ADHD is hell. It's a price I'd pay every time without hesitation. It's a price I think EVERYBODY would prefer I pay cuz like yo, I ain't safe to drive unmedicated, this a public safety thing.
Okay, so:
- people claim that not being medicated for ADHD would result in homelessness and other such things
- medication only started to really take off in the 90s, and has since exponentially increased
So why is that when we go a bit further back in time, before the 90s, that we don't see some massively exponential increase in homelessness and other such things? I mean if that's the alternative to not taking the drugs, wouldn't this be precisely what we'd expect to see?
Care was a little different as was the tendency for families to stick together. Perhaps the institutions, prisons and family spare rooms were used in place of modern homelessness? We can't know it wasn't responsible for significant homelessness. Figures were impossible to compare as the record would just show petty thief or lack of work ethic, or poor money management. If that.
At least from your post it seems to me like you're talking about something like the 50s. You need only go back a decade or two to see tremendous differences in rates of psychotropic prescription and usage. And the sheer numbers here mean that if these drugs are as having as large a positive effect as many users do believe them to be, then we should be able to see tremendous macro level positive indicators. But I'm not sure we really do. By contrast I could certainly point to sharp increases in a variety of physiological and psychological disorders which are considered side effects of these treatments.
[1] - https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/dear-mona-how-many-adul...
I've read enough histories and biographies to have thought "ADHD" quite a few times when reading of a life of missed opportunity, or the insufferable politician or military leader who seems to have all the symptoms but succeeded despite it. Maybe sometimes because of it.
The difficulty is appropriate medication can be the difference between achieving a regular career as lawyer or programmer and struggling through a transient series of failed unskilled jobs or ongoing unemployment. I'm not sure we have enough precision in the data to recognise that. I've seen wholly positive effects in those few diagnosed and on medication around me, but that's a useless anecdote. I'm in a country with a far lower rate of diagnosis. :)
Also, forget about direct side effects of the drug, going nonstop all day long every day is unsustainable, the body will crash eventually.
What would you tell to someone like me, who started taking 30mg Vyvanse for ADHD just a month ago?
I'm skipping weekends to delay organism adaptation and put less strain on the body. The drug doesn't let you feel that strain but I'm sure it's there since it works like a processor overclock. Before I functioned at 60% and now I function at 120% for most of the day.
Like, I got started out at 10mg Adderall XR, and even that has a little bit more oomph than I think is ideal. I might be more sensitive to stimulants than you, but even then you want to take as little as is necessary to control your symptoms.
I'd suggest talking to your psychiatrist about lowering your dosage. If you're taking three 10mg pills, try taking just one of them. If you're taking just one 30mg pill, then complain about side effects (feeling wired, upset stomach) and ask for a lower dose.
Unfortunately 30mg is the lowest dosage available in my country. It's available in 30mg, 50mg and 70mg here. Despite both both being amphetamine based stimulants, one could say 30mg of Vyvanse is equivalent to 20mg of Aderall but the formulas differ and it depends on the organism. Vyvanse is also more gentle and of a more gradual release than Adderall.
My question was more about tips and hints on long term usage of these stimulants.
I think it may be due to sleep disruption, but I don’t know.
You have to constantly be two people, wear two hats. And then, at some point every day you also get to wear the tally hat, to see how you did.
A bit more about being two people - it's like when you do awareness meditation, you have to watch yourself go, but you also have to be there and do the work.
I am getting good results in my last three years (tally hat on) but that's after six years of miserably failing to get any control whatsoever over my life. Lots of pain there, heaps of depression.
No individual trick has done it for me, nothing stuck or moved the needle any. What I ended up doing is: new place/town, new job, new acquaintances. Some distance from older acquaintances. Did that twice, and both times got fantastic results, got progress. So, reset lead to progress.
I fucked up the distancing the first time, didn't move far enough away, didn't change my cellphone habits. You really are the sum average of the people around you, that is true if you want it or not. You need to shut up and cut the noise to have a chance to hear yourself weep when you're miserable doing what you do, to feel yourself content and joyful when you do something that is you.
Tally hat is not optional. Measuring progress, noting it down as you go, reflecting on what did and didn't work makes all the difference. Do, note, reflect, adjust, do again.
Awareness is not optional. Sitting down to watch Youtube? Think about what it is you're going to do after that, before sitting down. Set a timer, so you won't find yourself with the sun down and nothing accomplished that day.
Before you go to sleep, half an hour before, shut down everything, your phone, your computer; take a shower and think - if there is one thing I am to do tomorrow, what would that be? What would make the most difference? Write it down on a sticky note and put it on your monitor's top bezel. This is what you'll do in the morning, first thing. Then you get to do anything you want (set a timer), and proceed to tally-hat, then turn your phone on. This is when you'd get back to everybody and do household chores or what have you.
Do four good days like that, in a week. You don't have to be good all week. Just most of the week. There are 52 of those in a year, set your phone and desktop dash to show you what week number you're at, and use that when putting on your tally hat. Where are you coming from, what are you to do right now, what's the immediate next thing? No point planning way ahead or keeping a todo list (do keep a backlog and review it weekly, do mark things on a calendar so as not to miss them). Don't make yourself do a list of things, you're not a machine, yet. Make yourself do 23 minutes of "I'll just start doing that, even though I don't feel like it, and then take a break". You will feel like it after 15 minutes, but never before you actually start.
Or hire a boss/secretary and they will do your tallying for you (moderately well), and your awareness (works better if not remote).
Cheers.
Seems like whether we call it ADHD or not, productivity and focus is a real problem.
And you mention "being your own life coach" - especially for people who work from home, I think that's almost a necessity. But, you can also hire other people to be your life coach too!
I have a personal trainer who makes sure I go to the gym. I have a therapist I see regularly who helps me a lot lot. I am about to get a psychiatrist to talk about medicine but I imagine he'll have more ideas too. I hired a business coach for 8 months and though expensive it was the best investment I've ever made for my career. I'm currently playing around with Boss as a Service. It did in fact help me get started today! I'm a part of 3 different mastermind groups. We meet for an hour every other week and talk about business and also life.
Being an introvert I had a tendency to isolate myself but my quality of life and business success has improved immensely by expanding my network.
This _combined_ with lots of little tricks and environmental changes have helped too. Things like having a physical checklist for my morning routine gets me out of bed. Having only a few staple foods helps me eat healthier. Going to coffee shops helps me work more. Etc etc etc.
It's a continual process that can always be optimized but as far as I can tell, the key is to keep trying things until you find things that work for you.
If anyone in here wants to talk more about ADHD and focus and productivity, happy to chat over email: david@lessboring.com. Cheers!
Accepting responsibility, time planning, prioritizing, all that is - or should be - learned during "growing up", and strenghtened during early adulthood.
Think like a beautiful airplane toy with a broken wing. It just needs some glue to fly again.
The "should be learned" I agree with, but that's just not the world that we ended up with, is it?
You can look at what recurs and could be optimized, or optimized away, maybe delegated or nixed. You could take a measure of how you did whatever it is you did today, better or worse than expected? Were you unprepared? What could be improved?
My work week should flutter around four days, so I keep an eye on that, see that I did enough work and didn't over-work myself. There are fixed costs to living, but then there are frivolous or unexpected expenses – there's a budget for that. I write invoices or tally up working days/hours what have you – to bill my clients or my employer, if I was contracting.
There are people which should be contacted periodically, some more often, some less often – I make sure not to miss out on this. Forgetting to go over that list leads to not enough work, or not enough social interaction.
I make sure I take care of my tools, housework, stock up on food and such. Take care of my body and mental state by stretching and breathing (that's Upa-yoga and Wim Hoff style pranayama). I cook my own food, which I sometimes need to do in advance.
I note the things that I ended up doing but didn't plan to, and how they went and made me feel. I get follow up with whomever tried to reach me and didn't get to talk to me, and email (that's the very last thing).
I note whether I got to do the things that I enjoy, and how that went and made me feel. If not – then why not? That is very much not OK and should immediately be taken care of, for fear of loss of will to live so to say.
In general terms, "where am I coming from? Where am I going? Am I there yet, should I adjust direction/effort/approach?"
Hope that gives you something to think about.
- Is there a target audience, ie. procrastinators capable of being productivity coaches? (I, for one, believe I fit the profile)
- How can the coaching be incentivized? Points system, matchmaking?
- Should it be monetized? If yes, how?
- How much community moderation would be required, and how could it be implemented?
We facilitate peer-to-peer "boss" support through phone calls. There's question prompts at the beginning of the call to guide the conversation (ie. "Is there anyone you're forgetting to email?")
The phone always says "Your boss is calling." so you know the app is calling you.
I've been self-employed (without a boss) for 10 years and have thought about this a lot. (Check out Your Boss in the app store! We launched 12 weeks ago. Would love to know what you think.)
the incentive was that everyone was coaching everyone else (in their small group), so you support others, and get support yourself.
i believe there are several organizations that provide this kind of support. mastermind groups do that too i think.
> Middle Dutch baes, of obscure origin. If original sense was "uncle," perhaps it is related to Old High German basa "aunt," but some sources discount this theory.
> The Dutch form baas is attested in English from 1620s as the standard title of a Dutch ship's captain. The word's popularity in U.S. may reflect egalitarian avoidance of master (n.) as well as the need to distinguish slave from free labor.
but the key point is accountability to another person.
that person doesn't have to be a boss. it can be an intern. just the fact that i have someone watching me work, because they want to learn about my job, is helpful. and i want to show them how to do the work too.
several years ago, i joined an online incubator called n-reduce. each team, or individual that joined the service was grouped with a few others, and we reported weekly to each other what we were doing via private videos posted on youtube. the goal and effect was the same. i had to set my own goals, and work at my own pace, but i was accountable to someone.
or, you know how you make an extra effort to clean your home when you expect guests? -> accountability.
bossasaservice looks like it could be very helpful. however i would like to structure it a bit different:
more like scrum, with daily standups and maybe sprints. so that once in a while i list all my tasks and goals that i want to accomplish over the next period, and quick daily reports on how i am doing, with the service helping me note if i am on track or fall behind. they could join the sprint-planning giving suggestions on priorities. or, someone else could help with that.
a scrum-master for hire, so to speak.
greetings, eMBee.
Even if you love your job, you're working on your own personal projects, and you know how to manage yourself and get away from distractions, you wouldn't believe how hard it is to motivate yourself some days...
[0] Possibly excepting "apartheid".
I think there could be a niche version or this service for that industry - esp if the "bosses" in this service were vetted in a way an artist could know they understand the industry. I could see some mid-high level artists paying for this (esp if social/marketing were slapped on top). Might need to be localised somewhat though...
As a complete aside if anyone running the business is reading this I found the centered text for everything inc body copy pretty hard to read. Solid website overall though.
She’s good, but much more than $25/mo.
Oh wow. This must be one of those service that make sense only if you life in a "high salary/high cost of life" area. I could buy a few good quality used cars a year at that pricing.
Name the episode "Safeword."
It's quite a funny idea, I wonder if that'd be sustainable though!
Existential question: are we really real if we don't exist on the blockchain?
Immediately bought a subscription.
If I can look at your Apple Health export and Strong/Fitbod/Fitnotes weightlifting data there is a tremendous amount of things I can tell you about how to optimize your training and lifestyle to get you closer to your goals.
Is this something you'd be interested in?
On the other hand, you can get them to do things in calendar, project and time management, which you really should be able to do, but for whatever reason cannot. Yes, even project management. A lot of P.M. is timeline enforcement. amazing what a 2IC can do in these situations.
My seniors who have PA, basically rely on them to coordinate the awesome. The PA has no functional authority, except the silent kind a camerlengo has...
I find I have more projects than I can track. A good PA/project manager might help with that, but it's hard to know in advance or how to hire one.
I run an online business, and have contractors for specific tasks, but I'm really the only one with a bird's eye view. And frankly, project management is my weak point.
Coincidentally the abbreviation BAAS is also Boss in Dutch!
I am just emailing me tasks one by one as they come, and I am receiving following up emails every morning until they are marked as completed. It's working well for me. It's an excellent service and it's free.
Anyways, brilliant idea.
It's hard to say whether that will happen in many cases here, but this does have the potential to set up lots of direct relationships with unusual power dynamics over time.
btw. I asked the question a year ago whether this whole "boss as a service" was viable and I think it is one of those things that you can't really imagine until you tried it out. I am glad there is now the opportunity to do so ;)
To get stuff done you need both community and organization. Organization can be automated but community can not. If the community is fundamentally different than you, it will not work.
Good Job!
Joking aside, wouldn't you just get a friend/family member/spouse to do this with you if you really wanted some accountability?
V2 should have Expert Bosses for specific Verticals ( premium plans! )
Maybe I should use MS Office.
Someone who is able to complete work without paying someone to tell them to be productive will always find much more success in what they're doing than anyone who finds a service like this valuable.
This is for the same type of person that believes in setting New Years resolutions.
Not bad for a business though, regardless of what I think of people who use it. Very low expenses, good profitability.
Some people break their get-it-done-femur instead. Why not embrace some crutches if they're effective?
> This is for the same type of person that believes in setting New Years resolutions.
More like the kind of person who knows damn well they're not going to keep those new years resolutions, is sick and tired of it, and wants to try something that might (or might not) be more effective.
What if yes, "you're either suffering from depression, or not behaving like a responsible adult" (many people are) - then what? There are people who need literal crutches because they have some problems with their legs, and some of them will need crutches for the rest of their lives. Crutches are useful.
What do you say ?