Books with Gavin 📚

3 Lessons 💡

1) Contrast Slackers and Hackers

• People can be slackers in execution or strategy
• Slacker in Execution
  • These are the types of people who are always dreaming of the things they could do -- always planning, but never doing
• Slacker in Strategy
  • They put in all the effort but lack direction and so end up just going down the same path over and over again
• Hackers
  • Identify what their goals are and optimize the fastest path to achieving them -- balance execution and strategy

2) Critical Hacker Characteristics

• Curiosity, Constant Improvement, Courage, Determination, Realism and Efficiency
  • These CAN be learned, BUT require action to grow

3) Hacker Methodology Repeating Process

• Objective → Reconnaissance → Analysis → Execute → Reassess
  • Clarify your objective at the beginning -- can be small to start
  • Reassess -- most important step
  • Always keep learning and repeat the process for best results

✅ Actionable Advice:

1) Reflect on the Hacker Characteristics:

• What's one action I could take to increase any of these abilities in my life?

2) Think about a problem in your personal or professional life

• Brainstorm 3 or 4 ways you might solve any problem

3) Reflect on what your most important employment objective is?

• What's most important to my career? What can I compromise on?

Helpful Links:

• The Hacker Mindset (ThriftBooks or BetterWorldBooks; only new copies available at time of publishing)
• Alex and Books Website
• Highlights from "The Hacker Mindset"
• Questions: Email [email protected]

Book Mentioned: "The Hacker Mindset: A 5-Step Methodology for Cracking the System and Achieving Your Dreams" by Garrett Gee

3 Lessons 💡

1. Perfectionism Lie #1: Goal should be Bigger
   1. Write down a number that is associated with your goal
   2. Now that you have your number -- cut the goal in half or double the timeline
      1. Not telling you to do less --> doing this will help you achieve more
2. Perfectionism Lie #2: You can do it all
   1. Just say NO
   2. This lesson relates to choosing what's NOT important to you -- this helps remove the sting of shame
      1. Ex. Keeping up with TV shows, connecting on social media, lawncare
3. Don't Play Golf at Night --> Use Data
   1. Data is a gift from yesterday that you receive today to make tomorrow better
   2. If you don't look at data, it's very difficult to learn, adjust and improve on your progress

✅ Actionable Advice:

1. Write down 3 things you'll ignore to focus more on your goal
   1. The things you choose don't need to be permanent, it can help you free up time
2. Pick 1 to 3 things to measure
   1. Possibilities: Dates with Spouse, Hours Slept, Thank You Notes Sent, Phone Screen Time
3. Write down the name of 1 friend you'll tell about your goal
   1. Friends often play a HUGE role in our success!

Helpful Links:

• Finish (ThriftBooks and BetterWorldBooks)
• Alex and Books Website
• Exodus 90 Challenge
• Questions or comments? Contact [email protected]

Book Mentioned: "Finish: Give Yourself the Gift of Done" by Jon Acuff

3 Lessons 💡

1. Solitude and Silence Benefits:
   1. Ability to be alone may be just as important as strong relationships
      1. 2 minutes of silence can significantly reduce heart rate, blood pressure and respiratory rate
2. Recommended Nature Dose: 20 minutes, 5 hours and 3 days
   1. Having plants in your office can boost productivity by up to 15% time
   2. Goal to enjoy:
      1. 20 minutes in nature (three times per week)
      2. Five hours in semi-wild environment each month
      3. Three days per year in backcountry nature (off-the-grid)
3. Simple Strategy to Eat Less:
   1. Eating an extra 100 calories per day or not burning 100 calories per day adds 10 pounds of body weight over 3 years
   2. People at a healthy weight are more likely to deal with stress by walking versus eating
   3. Track a few variables (examples below) to help change your behavior
      1. How much and what they ate (weigh all your food); Typical daily routine; Sleep schedule; Stress and energy levels; Workouts or step count

✅ Actionable Advice:

1. Shh, Please Be Quiet!
   1. Start a timer for five minutes in a quiet place (If needed, use ear plugs or headphones)
      1. Close your eyes and sit quietly
2. Track One Health Marker:
   1. Track one of the factors that impacts your health
      1. How much and what they ate
      2. Typical daily routine
      3. Sleep schedule
      4. Stress and energy levels
      5. Workouts/Step count
3. Get Outside (ideally in nature):
   1. Spend 20 minutes in nature three times this week
      1. Bonus: Enjoy five hours in a semi-wild environment once this month!

Helpful Links:

• The Comfort Crisis (ThriftBooks or BetterWorldBooks: Only new copies available at time of podcast publishing)
• Study on obesity's Impact on Mortality
• 100 Additional Calories per day for three years --> 10 extra pounds
• Major Highlights from "The Comfort Crisis"
• Alex and Books Website

Book Mentioned: "The Comfort Crisis: Embrace Discomfort to Reclaim your Wild, Happy, Healthy Self" by Michael Easter

3 Lessons 💡

1) Don't Shy from Objections

• Put yourself in the shoes of a potential backer and anticipate three key objections to your idea. When pitching, don’t avoid those objections; lean into them. Avoidance only leads to more questions later, and the possibility that the backer tunes out the rest of your pitch. When Reid Hoffman was first pitching LinkedIn, the company didn’t have a dime of revenue. But instead of veering away from the revenue question, he hit it directly, showcasing ways the startup could make money down the line. Get ahead of these criticisms, and you’ll gain credibility for the stronger parts of your pitch

2) 4 C's of Your Support Team

• Collaborator: Improve idea as well as presentation delivery
• Coach: Help you understand if this is the right idea for you
• Cheerleader: Help you feel confident before pitching the idea
• Cheddar: Someone who will deliberately poke holes in your idea
  • Will likely be frustrating but generally will be helpful in long-run

3) Story of Us

• Remember, decisions that affect your career often happen when you're not even in the room. That's why when we're when we pitch, we're not just looking for a backer, we're looking for an advocate - someone who can invest in our ideas with equal enthusiasm
• Understand and communicate how your gaps and your backer’s strengths come together. Show them why you will succeed together
• Share just enough to get the essence of your idea across, then open up the conversation.

3 Actions ✅

1. Go Beyond Google
   1. Ideas tend to stem from an earned secret - a hidden insight you learn through first-hand experience. Look for things that can't be found from behind a desk. As Brian Grazer told me “I want an idea that is based on a surprise insight. Not something I could find through a Google search."
2. Create Backable Team
   1. Identify people who can serve as Collaborator, Coach, Cheerleader and Cheddar for you
      1. People can serve multiple roles, but is helpful to have more than one person and clarify what role you're asking them to play for you
3. Rule of 21
   1. Practice important presentations 21 times before giving it to your intended audience
      1. After you practice, ask pointed questions to get better feedback and ask audience to explain idea in own words
   2. Show your idea instead of simply describing it

Helpful Links:

• Backable (ThriftBooks or BetterWorldBooks)
• Summary Notes from Backable
• Alex and Books Website

Book Mentioned: "Backable: The Surprising Truth Behind what Makes people Take a Chance on You" by Suneel Gupta

3 Lessons 💡

1) Expectations vs. Agreements

• Expectation: One person expects something to happen without communicating this
• Agreement: Both parties agree to the same set of terms (examples below)
  • I agree to follow my interests
  • I agree that my work schedule does not bind all my time

2) If-Then Planning

IF I run into X Problem…. THEN I will do Y

• Ex. If I struggle with sleeping in (instead of working on taking action steps toward a future career)
  • THEN I will place my alarm 15 feet from my bed so I must get up

3) Keys for an Indispensable Career

1. Create relationships
2. Create value
   • Make someone smile, give sincere compliments or solve problems for others

3 Actions ✅

1. Video Messages
   1. Recommend sending a video thank you message to make someone’s day and deepen a personal connection with them
      1. Your network relates to your net worth
      2. This is an authentic way to connect with people in your life 🙂
2. Failure Reflection Questions
   1. Four questions to reflect on to evaluate a past failure failures and create a new action plan with higher odds of success
      • What happened?
      • How did that make me feel?
      • What would you have done differently?
      • What will you do next time?
3. Identify an area of expertise
   1. Find a valuable expert in the field and do the things they’re doing
      • Set goal; Identify a subject; Study; Apply; Teach; Lead

Helpful Links:

• Indispensable (ThriftBooks or BetterWorldBooks)
• "Indispensable" Note Highlights
• Alex and Books Website

Book Mentioned: "Indispensable: The Prescription for a Fulfilling Pharmacy Career" by Alex Barker

3 Lessons 💡

1) Process Automation

1. Once you've identified a process that seems like a good candidate for automation, suggest the following steps:
   1. Partitioning
      1. Split the process into a series of well-defined phases that follow one after the other. For each phase, clearly specify what work must be accomplished and who is responsible
   2. Signaling
      1. Put in place a signaling or notification system that tracks the current phase of each output being generated by the process, allowing those involved to know when it's their turn to take over the work
   3. Channeling
      1. Institute clear channels for delivering the relevant resources and information from one phase to the next (such as files in shared directories)

2) Protocol Principle

1. Designing rules that optimize when and how coordination occurs in the workplace is a pain in the short term but can result in significant more productive operation in the long run.

3) Specialization Principle

1. In the knowledge sector, working on fewer things, but doing each thing with more quality and accountability can be the foundation for significantly more productivity

3 Actions ✅

1. Do and track your work on shared locations
   1. Examples include Project Management software, or task boards where you can have a separate board for each major role in your professional life
   2. Information about your work can be arranged into columns on a board. Recommends that you put time on your calendar each weke to review and update all your boards
   3. Benefit: When it comes time to work on the task, everything needed is all in one place
2. Work on no more than three tasks at one time
   1. You definitely will have more than three tasks to complete for your various projects, but Cal recommends keeping a backlog of items to work on after you complete one of your main tasks
   2. This can allow for more progress on your main tasks and you might defer meetings about tasks that aren't on your main tasks until you're actively working on them
3. Processes to Automate
   1. Cal recommends automating processes that occur more than thirty times each year
   2. Even if you don't automate a process, you can use tools (like many email software) to schedule reminder emails to be sent in advance

Helpful Links:

• World without Email (ThriftBooks or BetterWorldBooks)
• Books with Gavin Episode on "Slow Productivity"
• Alex and Books Website'

Book Mentioned: "A World Without Email: Reimagining Work in an Age of communication overload" by Cal Newport

3 Lessons 💡

1) Fixed Mindset vs. Growth Mindset

1. Believing your qualities are carved in stone, or having a fixed mindset, creates an urgency to prove yourself over and over. Failure has often been transformed from an action I failed to an identity, I am a failure. This is especially true in the fixed mindset.
2. Growth mindset supporting environments include presenting skills as learnable, conveying that the organization values learning and perseverance, giving feedback in a way that promotes learning and future success and presenting managers as resources for learning
3. Valuable Quotes:
   • An assessment at one point in time has little value for understanding someone's ability, let alone their potential to succeed in the future.
   • I'll be damned if I'm going to sit here and feel sorry for myself.

2) Praise effort, not intelligence

1. Praising children's intelligence often harms their motivation and performance.
2. Examples:
   • You put so much thought into this essay, it really makes me understand Shakespeare in a new way.
   • I like the effort you put in, but let's work together some more and figure out what it is you don't understand
   • We all have different learning curves. It may take some more time for you to catch on to this and be comfortable with this material, but if you keep at it like this, you will

3) Perspective about Change

1. Change often takes effort and requires patience to achieve what you want.
2. Even when you change, old beliefs aren't just removed and replaced with better ones. Instead, the new beliefs take their place with the old ones, and as they become stronger, they give you a different way to think, feel and act.

3 Actions ✅

1. Seek constructive criticism and ask yourself what you can learn from all experiences (both positive and negative)
   1. Could write on mirror “What are the opportunities for learning and growth today, for myself, for the people around me?
2. Create an environment that teaches growth mindset to all adults and children
   1. At the dinner table, discuss with your family, what you learned or what mistakes you made that taught you something?
3. Make a concrete plan for something you need to do, learn, or a problem to confront

Helpful Links:

• Mindset Book
• Gavin's Additional Notes on Mindset
• Purchase Books: ThriftBooks or BetterWorldBooks
• Alex and Books Website

Book Mentioned: "Mindset: The New Psychology of Success" by Carol Dweck

3 Lessons 💡

1) Measure yourself backwards, not forwards

1. Start = where you were 90 days ago
2. Achieved = what you’ve actually achieved in the last 90 days
3. Ideal = where you wish you were
   • You’re in the GAP every time you measure yourself or your situation against an ideal
     • Being in the GAIN means you measure yourself backward, against where you were before
       • Every experience can be viewed as a GAIN in some way (even really really hard ones)
         • Transform negative experiences into lessons

• Can continue measuring your gains on a weekly or monthly basis

2) Contrast the GAP and the GAIN

• The GAP is based on an unhealthy “need” or attachment to something outside of yourself. GAP
• When you’re in the GAIN, you’re completely free and happy right now. This enables you to commit 100% and pursue what you want without unhealthy attachments
• How you frame an experience changed how your body processes the experience. It can be helpful to remind yourself and others what perspective, one of abundance and gratitude, or one of lack and needs, you're in
  • You can want something and be 100% committed to that thing without needing it. Can have both: Intense commitment to succeed and a healthy detachment from what you're doing
• Ask yourself, your spouse or your kids – “Are you in the GAP or the GAIN right now?”

3) Inspiring Quotes

• “You, and you alone, are the person who should take the measure of your own success. I do not try to be better than anyone else. I only try to be better than myself.” – Dan Jensen
• “You are 100 percent disciplined to your existing set of habits.”
• “Training yourself to be happy is completely internal. There is no external progress, no external validation. You’re competing against yourself, it is a single-player game.” – Naval Ravikant
• “There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man; true nobility is being superior to your former self.” – Ernest Hemingway

3 Actions ✅

1) Journal on three wins: Today and Tomorrow

• Write in your journal three WINS (or GAINS) from today and three goals for tomorrow. Accountability partners can boost your success!

2) Practice mental subtraction to remind yourself of the GAINS in your life

• Select one specific thing to mentally subtract from your life
• Imagine how your life would be if you never had it and how this thing is a huge GAIN in your life

3) Start one Tiny Habit

• Suggested structure "After I ____, I will ______":
  • Ex. After I open my journal, I will immediately write about one GAIN in my life

Helpful Links:

• The Gap and the Gain
• Alex and Books Website
• More In-Depth Note Summary

Book Mentioned: "The Gap and the Gain: The High Achiever's Guide to Happiness, Confidence and Success" by Dan Sullivan and Benjamin Hardy

3 Lessons 💡

1) Five ways to say no to incoming requests

• Ask more questions
  • Understand time commitment
  • See if it aligns with top three priorities
  • Understand expectations and how others prioritize this assignment
• Say you’ll think about it or don’t respond write away
• Imagine the two scenarios: Yes and No
• No, but…
  • Preempt with email
  • Preempt with virtual comments
  • Divert/delegate to someone else
• No, because
  • No time
  • Your participation will be superfluous
  • Other priorities

2) Reasons why we procrastinate

• The activity has one of the following attributes
  • Boring
    • Suggest: Watch a TV show while doing it; Listen to music while doing it
  • Frustrating
    • Suggest: Talk to someone for help
  • Difficult
    • Suggest: Research the first steps as a task itself
  • Ambiguous
    • Suggest: Write what the three results would be and focus on one to start
  • Unstructured
    • Suggest: Clarify specific details what needs to be completed
  • Lacking intrinsic reward (not fun)
    • Suggest: Modify the task to include something you enjoy
  • Not meaningful
    • Suggest: Think about the impact of your actions in a positive way

3) Digital Detox Tips

• Put your phone to bed, ideally an hour before your bedtime
• Give your phone a bedroom outside of your bedroom
• Try to do one thing before picking up your phone in the morning
• Find short windows of time to leave your phone behind
• Turn your background image on your phone or computer to something neutral (boring)
• Trade phones with your spouse/partner/roommate while watching TV or eating dinner
• Delete social media and news apps on your phone
• 1 min outside = 1 min on the phone
• Do something for 15 minutes before using your phone in the evening after work
• Consider purchasing some items to reduce dependence on your phone – alarm clock, flashlight, etc.

3 Actions ✅

1) Establish One Boundary in your work or personal life

2) Identify how you want to tackle one task you've been putting off

3) Consider participation in No-Tech Tuesday

• No digital technology between work ending and bedtime on Tuesday night

Helpful Links:

• Uptime Book
• Alex and Books Website
• More In-Depth Note Summary
• Book Resources, including helpful templates

3 Lessons 💡

1) How to think differently

1. On the topic of advice, let people suggest their own solutions and try not to think you have people's solutions for them.
   1. You might ask them: "Have you encountered something like this in the past? What did you learn then?"
2. In addition, another way to use this skillset is during tense, conflict situations. Prior or during a more intense conversation, you can ask yourself the following questions:
   1. What would need to be true for their perspective to be accurate?
   2. What are they seeing that I'm not seeing?

2) Formula: Stop Overthinking and Start Experimenting, Learning and Improving

1. With creativity, the author suggests that learning best occurs through action. FAIL is the First Attempt in Learning.
2. Three questions to consider when running experiments:
   1. What am I testing?
   2. What does failure look like?
   3. When will the experiment end?

3) Words can boost creativity

1. What you call something can affect your attitude towards it.
   1. Calling your home office your "idea lab" or calling your "To-Do List" your "design list or play list" can increase creativity.
2. Journaling and walking can also help increase creativity

3 Actions ✅

1. Pick only 1 project to work each day and make that your priority.
2. Avoid scheduling meetings on Mondays (or a specific day each week) so you can ease into the work week.
3. Create Active and On Hold project lists. Only have three projects active at a time

Helpful Links:

• Awaken your Genius Book
• Alex and Books Website
• Fail Article (about accountability partners)
• Focusmate

Book Mentioned: "Awaken your Genius: Ignite Conformity, Ignite Creativity and Become Extraordinary" by Ozan Varol