Process over Product
Hello There. I am writing this to share a nugget of insight from my recent adventures. Over the winter break, I managed to plow through the Learning how to Learn class on Coursera. It is a course that combines neuroscience facts with constructive learning advice to help us understand our brain while it learns. I enjoyed the class very much. It taught me how to extend my working memory. It taught me the significance of spaced repetition. It even taught me an interesting technique used by Edison and Dali to tap into their creative subconscious ideas.
Out of everything I learned, however, there is one particular take away that impacts me the most on a daily basis. This is the idea of focusing on the process over the product. Before you think I am favoring added bureaucracy, let me explain a bit more.
Every day at work and at home, we set goals for ourselves. These could be small goals or big goals. They could be short-term or long-term goals. The concept of process over product is that we should focus on spending time making progress towards the goal, rather than obsessing about reaching the end.
Here is a simple example that applies the concept. If I am struggling with a new bug that I do not yet know how to solve, I would sit down at my desk with my mind set on spending 45 minutes on the problem rather than doing so with my mind set on solving it. After 45 minutes, I would take a break and repeat the process.
This change in paradigm may seem trivial or ineffective to you. In the next few minutes, I hope to convince you otherwise. I believe this way of approaching our goals is effective and non-trivial because of its several key benefits - increased focus, better learning, reduced procrastination and increased interest in experimentation.
Let’s talk about increased focus. Research shows that the brain can focus intensely on a particular task for at most 45 min to an hour. After this time period, the brain is exhausted, it will inevitably wander and its performance will deteriorate. To recharge the brain for another round of intense work, we need to take an explicit, preferably physical, break. Even after knowing these facts about brain efficiency, it is often hard to walk away from our desks when we have our minds set to resolving the problem at hand. If we instead focused on spending an hour on the problem and then returning after a recharge, we would have increased focus and better (even quicker) results.
Better Learning. With the process over product paradigm we measure our success by the amount of focused time spent on the problem. Not by the resolution of the problem. We see the resolution as a side effect. As a result, as we are working through the problem our levels of frustration are lower. There is a positive feedback loop which in turn motivates and sustains our continued effort. The continued focused effort with less frustration helps us absorb new material better. In my case, these 45 minutes give me time to approach the problem more methodically. By reading the documentation or the new code more patiently I keep myself from taking short cuts that would be extremely futile. I am more relaxed and all my negative mind chatter is reduced.
Reduced Procrastination. As a result of all of the positive feedback mentioned earlier, we also have reduced anxiety when taking on new tasks. This means we are less likely to procrastinate. The anxiety-inducing view of a mammoth goal is banished. Instead the large goal is simply a series of 45 min sessions.
Open to Experimentation: With high risk comes high reward. With reduced anxiety about large unwieldy tasks, we will be braver and more likely to take on higher risks and to experiment. With this approach may be we will finally volunteer to take on a task that we do not yet know how to complete. The impact of this paradigm in the area of experimentation, does not end there. With a focus on process over product, we would learn immensely from our risky endeavors without being scarred by a final product failure. This continues the positive feedback loop and keeps us from being worn out from experimentation.
In the past few minutes, I argued that the process over product increases focus, improves learning, reduces procrastination and heightens interest in experimentation. Together all of these benefits, in turn, result in improved day-to-day efficiency, more optimism, more satisfaction with life, a better sense of control over life and, as a result, increased happiness. With that, I would like to urge all of you to adopt the process over product principle in your daily lives. If you are feeling enthusiastic enough, also check out the Learning how to Learn class on Coursera.
Best of luck!