How to Optimize Your Life for Quality
Quantity Makes Quality.
That’s it.
Really.
Quantity makes quality.
These three words will change the way you look at everything.
The more you do something the more the output will improve.
Simple, right?
Not exactly.
As always, there’s a catch.
It took me a long time to figure this out because the approach to getting real quality, and faster, even though it’s simple, isn’t easy.
Full disclosure: I didn’t figure anything out. The answer just slapped me in the face recently as I started to get back into making content. See, there is this prevailing narrative in the content space that if you post as much as possible all of the time then you’ll eventually find success. While there is some truth to that philosophy, it isn’t the full picture. It’s just a tiny snippet of the picture.
I fell into that trap until, well, just now. I thought that if I posted every day, multiple times a day, the quality of my content would improve on its own, and Wham! I’d be successful. Truth be told, it did, and by conventional standards, I was.
When I look back at my old video content, it’s horrible. It improved dramatically simply by posting a lot: my on-camera confidence increased, and my cadence, hand gestures, editing skills, and even the topics I spoke about, all got noticeably better.
My writing even got better. (Well, kind of.)
If Quantity Doesn’t Make Quality, What Does?
However, I recently noticed a massive problem: all of my content didn’t improve nearly as much as it should have based on the timeframe in which I had been posting.
But why?
At first, I wasn’t sure. I mean, I was doing everything that other creators had said to do: post consistently, as many times a day as possible, and on all of the platforms. But, looking back, it just didn’t add up. I had posted (admittedly, sometimes half-assedly) for almost one full year. Again, I had had success, made money, and improved, but something wasn’t right.
And then it hit me:
The secret lubricant that allows quantity to slide into real quality is consciously choosing and trying to improve a specific aspect of a skill each time and being honest with yourself about how well it went and how to do it better.
You need to focus specifically on learning a new process, skill, or feature, improving an existing process, skill, or feature, or incorporating a new process, skill, or feature. And then give yourself honest feedback.
Simple. Not easy.
This isn’t just for creating content, either. Oh no, not at all.
This principle applies to everything in life: making friends, sports, dating and relationships, hobbies, cooking, music, programming, work, parenting, gaming, you name it — consciously trying to improve specific aspects of a skill each time you do it, and self-monitoring the process, leads to quality.
Want to be a better guitar player? Practice every day and focus on learning one or two new things each time you pick up the axe to shred. Then reflect on how well it went and whether or not to repeat or move on to the next skill.
Want to exercise better? Go to the gym as often as possible and focus on perfecting one movement or lift while there. Then reflect on how well it went and whether or not to repeat or move on to the next skill. (Don’t be afraid to ask someone for help, either.)
Want to be a better partner? Spend as much time as you can with your significant other (maybe) and focus on improving one specific relationship skill each time you show up (Err — communication anyone?). Then reflect on how well it went and whether or not to repeat or move on to the next skill.
Want to have better sex? Sleep with as many people as possible as often as possible and each time try some new, weird, freaky upside-down-but-sideways-while-underwater-with-hands-tied-behind-your-back technique.
Well, maybe don’t try that one. But, you get my point.
But how often do we actually pick one or two things to improve in our successive attempts to improve a skill? If you’re anything like me, it’s usually a generic “Let’s just keep showing up” approach.
Don’t get me wrong, consistently showing up and spending time on a skill — quantity — does matter, but not that much, despite what you might have heard.
The 10,000 Hour Rule Is a Lie
In his book Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell references the 10,000-hour rule: that in order to achieve true mastery of a skill, one needs 10,000 hours of deliberate practice. (That’s about three hours a day, every day, for 10 years, just in case you were wondering how long it would take you to become the world’s next greatest nudist-trapeze artist, or whatever weird shit you’re into.)
*Sigh* 10,000 hours is nothing to sneeze at. And even more, some research caps one’s ability to focus and learn at a maximum of four hours per day. After that, we’re just goop.
Alas, no need to worry. 10,000 hours is, at best, just a fun guess that got thrown out into the world and, unfortunately, stuck. Tim Ferriss has repeatedly shown that the 10,000-hour rule is complete bullshit.
But wait! You might be wondering (I hope), what “deliberate practice” is, and how you do it?
Good question, dear reader. That might just be the answer to quality in all that you do.
Deliberate Practice Isn’t Quality Either
In 1993, Ericsson, et al. introduced a concept that they believed led to expertise in a skill or discipline: deliberate practice.1
Deliberate practice is defined as being effortful in nature, with the main goal of personal improvement of performance rather than enjoyment, and is often performed without immediate reward.
Okay, now we’re getting somewhere. But there’s one problem: how exactly do you do “deliberate practice?”
Based on a review of research on skill acquisition, we identified a set of conditions where practice had been uniformly associated with improved performance. Significant improvements in performance were realized when individuals were 1) given a task with a well-defined goal, 2) motivated to improve, 3) provided with feedback, and 4) provided with ample opportunities for repetition and gradual refinements of their performance. Deliberate efforts to improve one’s performance beyond its current level demands full concentration and often requires problem-solving and better methods of performing the tasks.
Got it! Fully concentrate on a “given task with a well-defined goal.”
Specific tasks are invented to overcome weaknesses, and performance is carefully monitored to provide cues for ways to improve it further. We claim that deliberate practice requires effort and is not inherently enjoyable. Individuals are motivated to practice because practice improves performance. In addition, engaging in deliberate practice generates no immediate monetary rewards and generates costs associated with access to teachers and training environments.
Wait, what?!?! Monitoring? Not enjoyable? Teachers and training environments?
Why can’t practicing new skills be enjoyable?
And who’s going to “carefully monitor” your interactions with your spouse and kids? Who’s going to “provide cues” for you to improve your cooking? Reading? Video editing? Who the fuck is going to watch you and give you tips on how to improve in the bedroom while you’re upside-down and tied up?
You.
You are responsible for all of that.
Sure, you might go train and have a coach for some things you do in life. Good, use that.
But, for the majority of things you do in life, it’s up to you to decide what to improve and how.
Here’s the problem with studies like these: they don’t correlate to real life! Findings of a study focused on one area (violin students), don’t always correlate to other areas (real life!) no matter how hard people try to use the study to fit their narrative.
The Reality of Quality In Our Lives
Sometimes, there is no “well-defined goal” in areas of your life in which you want to improve the quality.
Sometimes, quality can’t really be defined at all. You have to decide what it means to you and what it looks like in your life.
Pursuing quality and learning new skills is inherently enjoyable. Why else would you choose to improve by doing something you hate? Yes, the process will be difficult — that’s called growth — but do things that you enjoy and the attached skills that ultimately generate quality are also enjoyable.
Unfortunately, even if you enjoy something, some days will suck and you won’t feel motivated (like those days you have zero motivation to exercise even though you sincerely enjoy it and it makes you feel amazing).
Even if it isn’t always present, motivation is still very real.
The most cited condition concerns the subjects’ motivation to attend to the task and exert effort to improve their performance. In addition, the design of the task should take into account the preexisting knowledge of the learners so that the task can be correctly understood after a brief period of instruction. The subjects should receive immediate informative feedback and knowledge of results of their performance.2
So make sure to consciously choose skills to focus on that are on the fringes of what you already know — skills that complement your prior knowledge but are still difficult enough to provide an engaging challenge.
And, if possible, get feedback as quickly as possible. Since most of the feedback will come from you, learn how to self-monitor — pay attention to what you’re doing and how you’re doing it. We all like to get feedback on new things we are learning and we like to know that we are doing well, so be nice to yourself (even if you suck at it).
Getting to quality is messy.
At the end of the day, having quality in all areas of your life is simple.
But it’s not easy.
It’s nuanced.
What skills should you focus on to get to where you want to be?3 How much time should you spend on each skill? Should you repeat the skills? Are you learning this skill for the right reasons? How do you get immediate feedback in some areas of life? Should you trust your own assessment of your skills and progress?
How to Optimize For Quality In Your Life
The answer?
For real quality in all that you do, you need five skills:
- The knowledge to know what expert quality is
- The skill to pick the appropriate skills you need to stack that lead to real quality
- The correct tools to learn each skill efficiently and effectively
- Consistent practice of the skills you choose, in a conducive environment
- An immediate feedback loop. That’s you—learn to give yourself honest and helpful feedback
So…
Quantity does still matter—so show the fuck up daily. Once you show up, you need to have the skill of choosing the right skills to focus on — Skill Stacking — and the skill to pick the right tools to learn each skill the fastest. And…you need to be brutally honest with yourself. All the time.
- https://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/blogs/freakonomics/pdf/DeliberatePractice(PsychologicalReview).pdf ↩︎
- https://positivepsychology.com/mihaly-csikszentmihalyi-father-of-flow/ ↩︎
- https://www.scotthyoung.com/blog/2016/07/12/get-better/ ↩︎
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