How to think objectively: A method that gave me >400% raise in salary within 2 years of my 9 to 5 job
By: Bhargav Lakhlani
Tags: Jobs, Personal Development, Personal Growth, Objective Thinking, Workplace

How to think objectively: A method that gave me >400% raise in salary within 2 years of my 9 to 5 job Bhargav Lakhlani Dec 27, 2020·6 min read

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This is an article about my opinions on how we can hit the bull’s-eye at every task in our job. This method has increased my productivity and propensity for solving harder problems which ultimately lead to increased compensation as Elon Musk said, “ You are paid in direct proportion to the size and difficulty of the problems that you solve”.

I have developed this method by studying all different characters throughout my experience. It ranges from Elon Musk to Y Combinator mentors to TV Series geniuses like Harvey Specter, Sherlock to my mentors in real life, and a lot of others… Eventually, this method can be extended to outside work-life as well but Hey! It’s just one man's opinion.

Let’s begin! How do we complete a task? Let us take an example of the task and go through each step in depth.

Task: Write a Medium post about an objective method of completing a task in a job.

Step 1: Clearly understand the objective of the task.

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The first crucial step of any task is to clearly understand the objectives of the task. It seems very normal but you will be amazed to see that not a lot of people do this properly. your objectives must be

Measurable in numbers: It should answer the question, “How would I know if this objective is achieved or not?” Ex: In our case, the objective is to get the 1000 claps, get curated post, reach a minimum of 10 people for feedback. Time-bounded at every step: Our final objectives are always subdivided into certain milestones/mini-objectives. We should always put an upper and lower limit on the estimated time required to complete each milestone. It should answer the question, “ What is the minimum and maximum time I might need to reach this milestone?” Ex: In our case, the first milestone is to do some literature review on Medium for 16 hours, the second is to write a post in 8 hours, and so on…

Once we have specified the objectives clearly, let’s move on to the next step.

Step 2: Prioritize each objective/milestones.

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Giving priority to the task leads to the sequential arrangement of each task based on its urgency in the project pipeline. There will be some tasks that you thought are important but after prioritizing you figured out that as non-essential/optional. By prioritizing,

You will clearly understand the importance and details of each subtask/milestones You will spend minimum time on non-essential tasks. You will hit the target in the shortest possible time.

Elon Musk is famously working with this style where he always prioritizes his tasks with 5 minutes time-boxed schedule. Ex: In our case, the highest priority work is to do some background research, then write a post, then edit/FactCheck it, and so on…

Now that we have clear prioritized objectives in our minds, it's time to design the process to reach each milestone.

Step 3: Design your process based on the first principles.

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Every step of the milestone can be designed based on the first principles. You must think of two things at every step

What do I want to achieve? (Output) What do I have as of now? (Input)

Finally, you should think, how can I get output based on my current input in the best physically/scientifically possible way? This will give you the optimal path to reach the milestone instead of making an analogy from someone else’s work to reach the same milestone. Ex: In our case, instead of reading a lot of articles about how to get 1k claps on medium, I just focused on creating the best content of the post as per my capability to reach my objective of getting 1k claps on the post. Because the first principle says that if I want to achieve 1k claps as output and if I have a blank post as input then all I have to do is to create the best content of the post.

There is one famous quote of Sherlock Holmes which Sir Arthur Conan Doyle has written in A Scandal in Bohemia, “It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit theories, instead of theories to suit facts.”

Now that we have designed the process, let us move on to the next step.

Step 4: Execution of the task with effective communication.

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The execution of the task based on predefined objectives and process is far more optimal compare to the execution without any plan. I will not focus much on psychological factors of execution such as persistence, smart work/hard work, etc… They are important but there is a lot of literature available for that. What I want to focus on is Effective Communication with team members.

If you are working alone or in a team, effective communication is required to get the job done effectively, especially in these pandemic times when most of the communication is online/Work-From-Home. While communicating

You should be able to clearly convey the message in the simplest possible way. You should get confirmation from the recipient about what is it that they understood from your message and if it's in line with your thinking. You should timebox when and what should you expect in return from the recipient. Write done everything in email/notes/text. Basically, don't just speak but make a written argument so that you can come back to that in the future.

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As Warren Buffett says, “An idiot with a plan can beat a genius without a plan.” Now that we have completed the execution of the task, let us move on to the last but most important step of the process.

Step 5: Kick-ass showcase of your work.

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After all the hard work you have done till now, it's fair to say that you deserve some applaud for your work. Wait, not yet! To get all the appraisal of your work till now, first, you need to make that work presentable. This is a sad story of many brilliant works that are not recognized in society because they fail to make their work presentable. To make your work presentable,

Always convey the most important factors in the simplest possible way that a layman can understand the work. Show how you have achieved the objective by following the scientific method that we discussed till now. Make use of all the best available tools to get to a point that the person who has seen your work gets the Ahhaa moment. Ask for feedback to improve your work in the next iteration.

And that’s it! This is basically all of it put in a most simplified way. I have been following this in my job that gave me more than 400% raise in salary within two years.

Interestingly, this method can be extended to our normal life as well, for example, to learn how to play guitar, to learn cooking, etc… I am no expert in this and you are free to take anything, if nothing, from this article.

Most of you must be having additional ideas for this topic which I would love to hear either in the comments or you can email me at bhargav1195@gmail.com.