Applying design thinking to your life
Learnings from Bernard Roth “The Achievement Habit”
In the recent years, design thinking has been taking business world by storm. But can a methodology used for business problem-solving also be useful in your everyday life? How can you take the same techniques from design workshops and apply them to your life to design it/ change it for better? And is this something only designers can do? This is precisely what Bernard Roth’s “Achievement Habit” can teach you. Roth, is one of the creators of Staford d.school, by many considered as the birthplace of design thinking methodology, but this is not a book for designers. It is much closer to self-development books, but without typical for this genre arrogant self-righteousness. Roth shares with his readers a set of problem-solving frameworks and tools illustrated with stories from his life. The result is an engaging and enjoyable mix of scientific theories, stories from Roth academic and personal life and few common-sense life-hacks. But just like the author of “Power of Habit” Roth does not offer any quick fixes — his stories are not of overnight successes, but of long-term mindset changes.If applied they would increase one’s chances of unlocking the ultimate achievement, that of “having a good life, getting the job of living done in a way that brings out the best of us and those around us.” A worthy read.
How you can apply design thinking to your life?
I am a great believer in putting your learning into testing and what better place to start than your own life. Here are some techniques and observations from “The Achievement Habit” I applied in my life.
1. Identify the right problem to work on
Design thinking emphasizes we always work on the real problem. Roth shows a simple framework to help identify it. It is built on a principle that each problem statement can be in fact an answer to other more high-level problems. By working our way up and converting each problem statement into answer to another question we can get unstuck by finding the real problem to focus on. Below is an example straight from the book that shows, how the find true high level problem. As you can see moving levels up also means we are given more potential solutions to a problem. Try it if you feel stuck on personal dilemma and you will realize maybe you were just working on the wrong problem in the first place.
2. Forget about “good” reasons
There is always a good reason not to do something — take that additional risk, learn something new or just going to the gym regularly. We all have a “good reason” lined up” as an excuse for yourselves or others. A mere fact of having such “good” reason is a mechanism that we often use to procrastinate and self-sabotage positive changes in our lives. Is there a way to stop it? Simply being aware of it is one step. More radical one is asking your close-ones for help. It may be as simple as being called out with phrase “good reasons” every time you try to excuse yourself from a personal challenge. Such approach works best when both friends/partners do it as it acts as a bonding experience in shared journey of self-improvement.
3. Make time for people/projects that matter the most
It is easy to get fired up about a project, but end up procrastinating and just talking about it. How others can manage to achieve so much, how they find the time, you wonder. But the hard reality is there is no secret overnight success formula. Only being consistent and putting in the time day and day out creates the results. So how to find time for things that matter? What if you too busy with work and family life to squeeze more hours out of the day? Being deliberate and strategic with your time is the only answer. There always hour or two a day we can gain by dropping activities that are less important. As an example: two months ago I started limiting my social media activity to the minimum going as far as removing social media apps from my phone. I was able to gain an hour a day that I now use to read and write this blog.
