Stop licking your fingers

Shimmy shimmy ya

Welcome back to 5 Minute Masterclass, the weekly refresh for awesome humans on the clock.

Short on time? Skip the warmup, and jump straight to the question at the end.

The Warmup

Is work making you feel Kentucky Fried?

Can’t even remember your 11 secret herbs and spices anymore?

I feel you.

But you know what?

Time to say FCK feeling KFC (Kinda Fried and Cooked).

Cos this Colonel’s cooking up something hot and spicy.

All it takes is a lil’ perspective shift.

Like when my daughter pointed out to me a while ago that the KFC logo looks like Colonel Sanders’ huge noggin on a little stick figure body.

Can’t unsee it.

But sometimes that’s what we need - a new way of looking at things.

Let’s get to it.

Those fryer jockeys at Harvard University peeled off their hair nets and red polos longe enough to develop a game-changing piece of research:

The Power of Small Wins.

It’s finger lickin’ good.

Professor Teresa Amabile surveyed hundreds of people across all kinds of industries to unpack what makes for a good day…

…besides an extra shake of chicken salt.

And a bad day…

…besides copping cold, soggy chips.

In doing so, she cracked the code of day-to-day work satisfaction…

…which, of course, translates to life satisfaction!

Let’s break it down.

In a huge percentage of cases, a good day is soooooooooo simple.

On a good day

• You start a thing.
• Then finish that thing.
• And that thing is meaningful (to the broader work, or just to you!)

A bad day?

It’s one where that doesn’t happen haha.

AKA a day where your To Do List is some vile black hole sucking down every action item in sight before ripping you into a swirling dervish of inefficient hecticness.

So what do you do with this info?

Easy - make your work like a video game in 3 crispy steps:

1. Break big projects or assignments down into tiny popcorn chicken bites – never longerthan a few hours per task.
2. Chew down at least one of those bites every day
3. Track your awesome progress day by day, and celebrate like it’s raining drumsticks.

What a zinger!

Now go chase that chook.

The 5 Minute Masterclass

If you're new, here's the drill – this is your 5 Minute Masterclass in YOU.

Set a timer on your phone or computer. This week, you have EXACTLY 5 minutes to answer the following question.

Smash out your response, hit send (if you want), then have a marvellous weekend. I'll write back to you in the next few days 😊

First: Look at your calendar or ‘To Do List’ for next week.

Question: ‍

For each day, what is a small task, action or activity (that you’ll start AND finish) which will make that day meaningful… even if it’s the only thing you achieve that day?

Action: Answer the question, and schedule in for each day Mon – Fri.

‍

Have a lovely weekend everyone!

Nick

PS: If you find Five Minute Masterclass useful, please feel free to forward onto your colleagues, friends or family members – I’ll reply to anyone, once per week 😊