Bringing Sexy Back to Complexity
By: Kristina Jancar
Tags: Innovation, Growth Mindset, Self Improvement, Life, Change

Being complicated is sexy AF.

What?

I said what I said.

Why?

What I mean is, it’s time to get off auto-pilot and disrupt your life.

Think of it is as “job” security. Otherwise, you’ll be an easy target if our planet is taken-over by artificial intelligence (AI).

Maybe not literal robots (or perhaps it is?!), but operating on auto-pilot is missing the real work you are here to do.

I am advocating for you to de-simplify your life. If you don’t, you will have a lifetime of easy. Simple may sound great now, but you will get stuck in a perpetual rinse and repeat cycle until one day you wake up and realize you missed it all.

Here are four ways to disrupt your patterns and de-simplify your life.

Proof of Concept Phase 1: Start with a Baseline

Why do people argue with data?

I spent two years of my career as a product owner on an app dev scrum team. The magic decoder ring for non-techies: this means I guided the prioritization of our product backlog for one of our application development teams to create or enhance apps. (Even I have to admit that sounds kind of sexy, lol.)

But, the projects I was assigned were less than sexy. These were systems stuck in a perpetual status quo. I could have easily mailed it in and avoided change by going with the prevailing mantra, “this is how we do it.” (Or is that a Montell Jordan song?)

But I can’t leave things be.

I fell in love with the concept of automation. Robotic Process Automation, to be exact. Automation of simple tasks.

What I didn’t anticipate in lobbying for automation was the resistance to change.

You would think cutting out the “boring” stuff to create more time for strategic work would get people geeked up. WRONG. The struggle was real.

It’s not that leaders weren’t interested in this, but they wanted proof. They needed to see it working in action.

We collected every piece of data available to create a starting point — our baseline. From there, every incremental improvement driven by, I hate to say it, eliminating humans was an easy sell.

Measuring your trend is the easiest way to prove your results.

How to Find Your Baseline:

Start by taking an inventory of your daily tasks.

How much time do you spend on each item?

How repetitive are these items? Do you do them daily or weekly?

Can technology eliminate or reduce the time spent on any of these items?

If you find an app that can do what your brain can do, use the app. The app will make a better grocery list, Spotify playlist, Netflix watch list, you name it.

When in doubt, let the AI do it.

Proof of Concept Phase 2: Do the Opposite

“Where could you do less and feel better? Where could you do less and achieve the same results?” Sage Rountree, Teaching Yoga Beyond the Poses

The thing is, doing less doesn’t mean the simple stuff.

Are you a list-maker?

Do you find gratification in checking things off your to-dos? Many people are like this. The problem is if you’re focused on maximizing as many checked boxes as you can, you’re probably prioritizing the “low-hanging fruit” and continuously putting the hard stuff on the back burner.

That’s right, the complicated work that no one BUT YOU can do might be lingering in the background, following you around.

Until quarantine started, I didn’t even realize I was back-burnering (is that a verb?) my most challenging work.

Self-work.

My busyness of working, kids’ activities, social functions, etc., was the equivalent of front-loading the easy stuff. Not to mention a distraction from thinking about the hard things.

It was simple to keep this pattern going until it wasn’t.

When the global pandemic disrupted my pattern, there was no time for a proof of concept. I had to act on blind faith alone. De-simplifying meant re-evaluating my priorities to do less bull sh*t and make some damn space.

I started doing everything the opposite of what I would typically do, just like in the Seinfeld episode where George stops following his instincts.

How to Do the Opposite (AKA the Costanza Rule):

Which items on your to-do list are the easiest?

What’s on your back burner?

Reverse your priorities and front-load the back burner work.

Once you do that, observe whether you still feel the need to fill up your time with simple things.

Proof of Concept Phase 3: Embrace the Space

“Happiness is: the freedom that comes when you stop constantly craving for more and when you can embrace change without fear.” Yueng Pueblo

After you clean up your to-do list, what do you do with your space?

I did anything that helped me feel my feelings and see the truths I needed to see. This kind of self-work is physically, emotionally, and mentally exhausting. My intent is not to scare you away from doing this type of work.

On the contrary, I hope to be inspo.

I am falling in love with being my own change agent.

How to Embrace the Space:

Self-care in the form of meditation, journaling, introspection

Self-Improvement by reading, writing / blogging

Intentional physical activity — mind/muscle connection like yoga or strength training versus mindless cardio

Or just be f*cking still every once in a while. Do nothing.

I will leave you with this affirmation from Mark Groves’s Instagram page Create the Love:

“Do the hard thing. Have the scary conversation. Choose the uncertain future. Take the risk. Be yourself. Speak your mind and share your soul. Because when you do the hard thing, when you are able to stand up and count on yourself even when you don’t want to and don’t feel like it, when you are able to know who you truly are in the trying times, something magical happens. And that magical thing is real life.”

What does this leave you with? The COMPLEX work.

I am sending you all my peace, love, and complexity.