The results mindset

In one paragraph

Activity is easy to see and easy to feel good about. Results are what actually changed. A week can be full of the first and empty of the second.

Activity thinking asks what did I do. Results thinking asks what is different now. They diverge constantly: a day of meetings, emails and calls can produce no change in anything that matters.

The shift is to define the result before the activity, in terms somebody else could verify. Not 'work on marketing' but 'the new page is live and three people have enquired through it'.

The test for any planned activity: if I do this and nothing changes, would I be able to tell? If not, you are measuring effort.

Where it bites hardest

In owner-managed businesses, because nobody is checking. An employee has a manager who eventually asks what came of it. An owner can be busy for years.

How to actually use it

• End the week by writing what is different rather than what you did. It is uncomfortable the first few times and it changes what you schedule.
• Convert your top three tasks into results before starting them. Half of them turn out not to have a result attached, which is itself the finding.

Where it breaks down

• Not everything valuable produces a visible result in the same period — training, relationships and reputation all lag. Applied too literally it kills exactly the [important, not urgent] work that matters most.

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