On thinking less.

What my father said.

Whenever I forgot something as a kid, my father told me the best way not to forget something was by not forgetting it. Think less, do more. He had his own ways of doing that:

• Making lists.
• Packing things together. It is why I travel with colour-coded toilet bags.
• Putting things where you bump into them. His way to remember to take something upstairs was to barricade the stairs with it.

As with many things your parents say, it made more sense every year.

Less thinking, more habits.

In business we often think far too much. We make the same mistakes because we have no process to track, learn and improve. And we do not share what we learned, so others make the same mistakes too.

The more habits and routines we build, the more we do things right automatically, and the more room we have for real thinking: creativity, and the big problems.

So less thinking, more habits.

Tony Dungy’s Buccaneers.

Charles Duhigg tells the story of American football coach Tony Dungy in The Power of Habit. In November 1996 his Tampa Bay Buccaneers were 2 and 8 and trailing the San Diego Chargers, and ESPN predicted he would be fired before the season was out.

Dungy’s goal was to get players to stop making so many decisions during a game. He wanted them to react automatically, out of habit. Late in that game, two players did exactly that, a safety intercepted, and Tampa Bay came back to win.

He did not create new habits. He changed the routine inside old ones and kept the familiar cue and reward. His teams went on to become some of the league’s most successful, and Dungy became the first African American head coach to win a Super Bowl.

Related: Thoughtfulness needs a system.

Charles Duhigg, The Power of Habit (2012). First published on 3 January 2019, as two posts. Toilet bags made with Midjourney.