Hi Reader! 👋
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Hope you've had an amazing week. Lots of exciting stuff bubbling up over here, which I look forward to sharing soon.
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In the meantime, let's get to soulcrusher-crushing.

Empowering Experiments

As humans, we crave novelty.
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As people who have professional jobs, we crave solutions to stupid annoying problems that make our work mega-frustrating.
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Here's a thing of beauty that helps satisfy both cravings: empowering experiments.
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Take a challenge as simple as, say, procrastination. (I say "simple" — yet procrastination is one of the top-five leading causes of soulcrushers in the working world. And if you could see me right now, you'd know I'm raising my hand high and saying, "yep, that's me.")
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There are mountains of books and articles and research on the subject of procrastination, yet few of these helped me achieve get-stuff-done nirvana. That's because every single one of us is different — and there's no way to know whether any given approach will actually work for us until we give it a shot. Preferably, without any pressure of needing to be successful. Also preferably, while writing down what works and what doesn't.
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Give things a shot, and we have ourselves a simple experiment. Does this approach help? Nope? Cool. How about this? Maybe a little... Good to know. How about this? Oh, yeah, that helps a ton. Great. Let's stick with that, and go experiment with something else next.
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When it comes to procrastination... I experimented with using timers — turns out I just got distracted by social media while the timer was going and I felt worse afterwards. I experimented with tackling the hardest task first — turns out they're all hard in their own way. I experimented with rewards, with blocking off time on my calendar, with putting my phone on "do not disturb," and so so so many other things.
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Eventually, I uncovered an approach that worked well for ME. (And it might not be the approach that works for you... experiment with it.) For me, it's the five minute rule. Whatever thing I'm supposed to be doing, I commit to working on it for five minutes. That's it. Doesn't matter how soon my next meeting is, or how little "I'm feeling it," I can always commit to just five minutes. And for me, once I get going for five minutes, 92% of the time I get in the zone and keep on going. It's the STARTING that is my biggest personal block.
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It was a fun thing to unlock. And I've unlocked a lot of other fun things via empowering experimentation.
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​A few guidelines:

• Do one empowering experiment at a time: The simplicity is key. They should be easy and manageable. Too many at once is chaos — plus we might not be able to tell what worked.
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• Be creative: It's wonderful to get advice from other sources — but we should feel free to remix things to suit our own style or create unique solutions to our own challenges. The more unusual our solution, the more fun it feels. Speaking of which...
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• Have fun with it: Don't put high expectations on anything. Just be curious, playful, and see where it goes.
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• Do it for a week: One day isn't long enough to see if it worked. A month is way too long. A week is juuuuust right.
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• Reflect: Most people know I'm all about reflection — which, for me, means writing out how I felt about it, how it went, and what could be improved for next time. (Reflection can take mere minutes, by the way. Doesn't have to be a big thing.)

"When in doubt, try it out."

This week's creative thinking workout:

Remove the main thing​ ​ Whatever our "thing" is — we take for granted that "the thing" is what makes the thing most interesting. But sometimes removing the main thing makes it even more interesting. ​ In this brilliant sketch from 1977, Richard Pryor invited "and the Pips" to perform on his special. Gladys Knight was not invited. Just "and the Pips." And the results are hilarious. ​ ​Garfield Minus Garfield is arguably much much funnier than normal Garfield. (Removing the cat, who doesn't actually talk anyway — he only "thinks" his thoughts — serves to highlight how nutso-bonkers his owner Jon must be.) ​ABBA Voyage is a live concert experience that over 2 million people have seen and which contributed nearly $400 million (USD) to the London economy in its first year — and the members of ABBA aren't actually there. ​ ​ Try this out on some projects or ideas you've been thinking of lately, and see what kinds of unusual results come from the exercise. What might some of these look like? ​ An ad campaign that doesn't mention the brand at all? ​ A resume that doesn't list previous jobs? ​ A mobile app that doesn't need the phone? ​ A sales pitch that doesn't try to sell anything? ​ I always like to hear what people come up with during these exercises — but I'm especially curious about this one. Please hit reply and share!

Let's crush this,
-Tim-
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Let's Lightbulb - Founder / CEO / Crusher of Soulcrushers

Let's Lightbulb is a strategic facilitation consultancy, specializing in outcome-based workshops, off-sites, sprints and trainings. We specialize in working with leadership teams, inspiring creative thinking, and keeping things soulcrusher-free.

If you know of anyone looking for a facilitator for any of the above, we'd appreciate you sharing our info.

Every week in this newsletter, I share how to reduce the stuff that makes our work not-fun, and increase the stuff that makes work fun.

It's 98.3% Pollyanna-thinking-free.

Thanks for reading, and please share with friends and colleagues that might find it valuable — because we need more fun people in the world.