How to Become a Master at Managing the Process of Making Progress
I love the old business adage that you can’t manage what you can’t measure. It always reminds me that if I want to make progress on something, I must find a way to measure it. However, outside the world of business it’s difficult to measure most things objectively.
As a result, I started using a simple framework to measure anything I’m working to make progress on that doesn’t have an objective measurement with a subjective (yet consistent) measurement.
For this framework to work, the assumption is that getting better is a product of repetition. Therefore, the more sets and reps I can get in over time the better I will get with all things being equal. So, to manage this process I must measure the quality of each set of reps as compared to the last set of reps.
This measurement only has three options:
- Stayed the same
- Got better
- Regressed
Obviously, only one outcome represents progress. Conversely, the other two outcomes if consistently occurring, indicate a need to adjust the process.
If you can learn how to frame up everything you are trying to achieve into measurable sets and reps, you will become a master at managing the process of making progress.