Pseudocode for Intentionality

I’ve been interested in being more intentional with my work, time and life recently. Here is my working definition of how to be more intentional.

• Definition: One has achieved Intentionality when every major outcome was a result of explicit choices, planning, coordination and research to achieve it rather than accidental/implicit/passive/improvised. It is possible for Intentionality Overhead to kill outcomes.

• Key Tools: self/team alignment tools to have at all times. If not written down, doesn’t exist.

  • Purpose: why you are doing this. for when bad times come.
  • Goal: what you are realistically aiming for (just convey rough idea; systems are more impt). Should inspire ambition, reach, awe. BHAG but worthwhile.
  • Timeline++: what specific things will be delivered by when by a DRI
  • Systems: routines and policies that simplify decision-making and ensure things happen on time. eg regular daily/weekly sync.

• While (goal != true):

  • Planning: Don’t commit to things before agreeing on a plan
    • Inventory: Brainstorm and spell out EVERYTHING that is in scope vs not in scope vs maybe.
    • Budget: Assign effort/resource cost to each item (easy to underestimate!)
    • Rank: with limited time/people/money, force hard choices — prioritization has value
    • Unblock: Understand blockers to parallelization/delegation of yourself: key unknowns (“clear your fog of war”), lack of documentation/defined roles/trust/incentives/training
  • Execution: Getting Things Done
    • Maker time: Put execution blocks on your own calendar, lead by example. do boring things.
    • Manager time: keep RACI people in the loop, ensure they know what is expected of them by giving feedback early and often, change/direct systems
    • Mapper time: Make time to f around (with fringe ideas) and find out (what others are doing)
    • Marketer time: Some amount of Build in Public helpful but do not overdo it

• Review: Meditate and Accumulate learnings during/after each major ship —don’t let learnings go to waste. If not reviewed, it did not happen. Can interview people but also just jot down own notes on:

  • Good: what went surprisingly well and why
  • Bad: what could have gone better and why. Pay attention to negative core beliefs.
  • Nonlinearities: what the 80/20 effort and hard deadlines were
  • People: who to thank and keep up relationships with

Misc

• initially drafted w chatgpt but mostly me
• People often emphasize SMART goals: (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound). The problem with SMART:
  1. it neglects ambition/challenge, in fact prioritizing Achievable. JFK’s moonshot was not SMART but NASA made it so.
  2. false precision - 5 things to fret over setting goals when actually you don’t rise to your goals, you fall to the level of your systems
• SImilar documents:
  • Brent Beshore’s Blueprint: “The resulting list forms a planning document we are calling Blueprint. The Blueprint includes the objective, 3 to 5 strategies, action plans beneath each strategy, and then metrics, ownership, and timeline tied to each plan.”
  • David Sacks’ Cadence: “The Cadence puts the four key functions in a SaaS company (Sales, Finance, Product, Marketing) on a quarterly calendar. Human beings are wired for seasons so this is a natural way to work. The Sales-Finance System is oriented around a quarterly close as its central event, while the Product-Marketing System orients around a launch event. Synchronizing these calendars creates a single operating cadence for the company.”