#47 - Unit Vectors & Productivity
I’m not sure it’s possible to work harder than my Dad did.
Save for Raptors games, house work, and the occasional outing with my mom, he worked every hour he was awake.
How do you top that?
His work ethic: remarkable. His return on his time invested: less remarkable.
No doubt, my dad did incredibly well for himself. Especially given his humble beginnings. But his output didn’t match his input.
And for a long time, that didn’t compute to me. How could a man working every waking hour for decades be anything less than a billionaire?
I didn’t know the reasons why, but my mom sure did. She yelled them at him often:
“You’re always doing the work yourself! Hire and train someone!”
“You’re undervaluing yourself! You could charge twice as much!”
“You’re doing too many things! Just focus on one!”
My dad knew all this too. He knew he should look for leverage, put a higher price on his time, and focus all his energy on one endeavour.
But knowledge isn’t enough. He let his habits steer him down the same road each day, and it takes a lot of conscious effort to put your hands on the wheel and turn down a different path.
I’m my dad’s son. I’ve got the same instincts to grind it out—to focus too much on how I can work harder and too little on how I can work smarter.
But when my dad passed, that started to change.
I stopped being so diligent with my Habit Tracker, got rid of my accountability coach (which I talked about in my last article), and instead started doing something I’ve termed, “Unit Vectoring”.
In math, a Vector is a quantity that represents both magnitude and direction. A Unit Vector is a Vector with a quantity of 1—it represents only direction.
When we work towards a goal, both magnitude and direction are relevant. You want to move towards your goal (direction), and you want to do so quickly (magnitude).
But for whatever reason, my brain focuses mostly on the magnitude part of it. Intense effort is something I can feel. A properly chosen direction comes with less immediate feedback.
But direction is what deserves all our attention. Unless you have your direction right, magnitude is just a distraction.
If you want to go to the beach in L.A., the best way to guarantee you never get there is to head North, South, or East. It doesn’t matter if you’re on foot or in a sports car.
But if you head due West, you’ll touch sand eventually.
Unit Vectoring is my daily reminder to focus only on direction and ignore magnitude.
The way I often phrase this intention to Zameer (my CEO, bestie, and roommate) is: "Let’s focus on doing the right things, the right way, in the right order. And the future will take care of itself.”
I still work hard, but the panic is gone. Less thrashing, more progress.
Productivity with peace.