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A friend once presented me with a model of thinking about work and time. Categorize all tasks on two scales: how much you like doing something, and how good you

A friend once presented me with a model of thinking about work and time. Categorize all tasks on two scales: how much you like doing something, and how good you are at it. Now, draw a square and break it into four quadrants. One will be "good at it, but don't like doing it". Another will be "Good at it, and like doing it". The remaining ones are "Bad at it, but like doing it" and "Bad at it, and don't like doing it". Assuming you have resources to hire help and outsource, consider doing the following: For things you like doing that you are good at, make that your main job. You will be effective and happy. For things you don't like doing and are bad at, outsource. If you try doing these yourself, you will be miserable, and the outcome will be sub-par (you're bad at it!). For things you like doing and are bad at, make that your hobby. For the things that you don't like doing but are good at, either do them yourself or outsource, depending on your time availability and resources to hire help. I've been doing this for a few years as much as possible. Even at home, my wife and I naturally divide chores along these lines.

austinjp 9y ago
Two-by-two grids are almost ubiquitous in management circles. They go by many names: BC grids after Boston Consultancy Group, decision matrices, and so on. They crop up in Covey's 7 Habits. They're extremely useful for concisely articulating a tightly-defined situation and mapping items in order to make decisions. Their weakness is that they may oversimplify and lack nuance. I used to use important/urgent decision grids quite frequently at work. http://www.informit.com/articles/article.aspx?p=709139&seqNum=7 http://www.informit.com/articles/article.aspx?p=709139&seqNu...
- kangman 9y ago
  What about things that you don't like that would have a material benefit to you in the long run? A simple example being exercise. Decision matrices seem bound for immediate needs.
  - mseebach 9y ago
    These models aren't meant to be algorithms you can mechanically life your life by, they are helpful in thinking (differently) about a number of things. Exercise is clearly an example of something that's important but non-urgent in Covey's model. The good-at/enjoys model is mostly applicable to things you've decided (or had decided for you) you have to do, somehow. Once you've decided that exercise is something you should do, thinking about it in terms of good-at/enjoys can be helpful in deciding how to go about it.
- dlee2 9y ago
  The Conjoined Triangles of Success. They're taught at Business schools haha.
- koliber 9y ago
  Yep. Simple models are great when you have no experience with something. You can grasp a simple model relatively quickly because... it's simple. As you use the model, you realize its weaknesses. You also gain knowledge about a domain. You learn how to perform with speed, agility, nuance, and expertise. the model has served its purpose. It is no longer useful, because your personal prowess outgrew it. However, it was useful in the beginning.
denzil_correa 9y ago
This matrix is an adaptation of the "Eisenhower Matrix" used in Time Management.
thenomad 9y ago
I'd suggest that for "things you like doing and are bad at", "use time and money to get better at them" is another valid approach. Particularly if you like doing them more than any of the things in the "things you like doing and are good at" quadrant, or if there are other ancilliary benefits to the things that you'd be learning.
wvh 9y ago
But what if you're good at multiple things, but just don't have enough time or foresight how to prioritise to maximise happiness?
- wruza 9y ago
  >I'm happy with too many things I can do good Life's hard.
- basseq 9y ago
  I suspect you're asking the wrong question. If you're truly good at multiple things, and you've eliminated everything you don't like doing, you're ahead of the curve and beyond this model. Happiness is a funny thing, because you can't just keep going straight. Doing only things you like (or things you're good at) isn't a recipe for long-term happiness. Both lottery winners and victims of horrific accidents revert to an average happiness over the long term. You can read more. This book[1] by my college Psychology professor is the first that came to mind: [1] https://www.amazon.com/Happiness-Hypothesis-Finding-Modern-Ancient/dp/0465028020 https://www.amazon.com/Happiness-Hypothesis-Finding-Modern-A...
  - joaomacp 9y ago
    >Both lottery winners and victims of horrific accidents revert to an average happiness over the long term. Could it then be that people who buy time also regress to the average happiness after a while? It seems pointless to measure happiness then, if we're just bound to always have the same happiness.
Sleeep 9y ago
>For things you like doing that you are good at, make that your main job. You will be effective and happy. The other outcome besides being "effective and happy" is "turning something you enjoy into something you hate because now you have to do it." Just because you love doing something doesn't mean you love being forced to do it for someone else 40 hours a week. It's pretty naïve to think that the things you enjoy in your free time are the things you enjoy doing for paid work and vise versa. I absolutely hate cleaning around my house, I hate everything about it, but I don't mind cleaning for paid work at all. There's other issues too and quite a few people I know took that route ("doing what you love") and it lead to career dissatisfaction for various reasons. Jobs have other "stuff" other than just your work, you may love X but hate working in X industry for various reasons, like work environment, salary, job prospects, etc. The things you enjoy and are good are probably not even viable paid opportunities. (Nobody's going to pay you to put together model airplanes). You don't get to "test drive" the vast majority of jobs at home first. There's something to be about not being invested in your work and, essentially, not making your work the focus of your life. http://www.getrichslowly.org/blog/2012/03/18/reader-story-i-quit-my-passion-and-took-a-boring-job/ http://www.getrichslowly.org/blog/2012/03/18/reader-story-i-...
- collyw 9y ago
  > There's something to be about not being invested in your work and, essentially, not making your work the focus of your life. Sure but you spend a good chunk of your life at work, so it's difficult not to want it to be meaningful.
  - Sleeep 9y ago
    From the article I posted in the GP: >I miss teaching a lot. Every day, in fact. But the truth is I’m so much happier than I’ve ever been. Getting out of teaching and not being emotionally invested in my work has forced me to do things besides work more. I’ve learned how to cook, I’m making new friends, I’m reading more, I’m rediscovering my love of things I used to do before I was ever a teacher all over again. I do productive things on the side too, like study for my CPA license. >And the thing is now that I’m thinking about other things, I’ve learned so much about saving, investing, and I’m doing much better with my salary and working toward eventually being independent of a salary if at all possible. >Your career is just one part of your life. You might not become a much happier person just because you do the work that satisfies you the most. You have to consider the effects it could have on you as a person besides just having to do the work. You should do the work that gives you balance, and not the work you love the most. There's something to be said for it. It's not for everyone,there's some people who do work they find truly meaningful and are happy about devoting themselves to it. However, most people probably shouldn't look for meaning in their work less it traps them from experiencing meaning and happiness elsewhere. To be clear, I am not saying nobody should ever make a career out of doing what they enjoy during in their free time, I'm saying it doesn't guarantee career satisfaction and there are potential pitfalls of going down that route. It also definitely should not be generic advice to everyone. "Do it for the money" is good advice. I feel like if I were trying to find satisfaction in paid work I'd be supremely unhappy and unfulfilled.
dmoy 9y ago
My dad explained this to me the same way decades ago, but with a third axis - things people will pay you money for. I may be good at some stuff that I like a lot but nobody will pay me for, so if it's my main job I'll starve.
jstelly 9y ago
Your description sounds somewhat similar to the concept of Ikigai: e.g. https://medium.com/@jantegze/finding-your-ikigai-17afa04d681 https://medium.com/@jantegze/finding-your-ikigai-17afa04d681 It adds "the world needs this" and "you can be paid to do this" to the four-quadrant diagram you are building.

austinjp 9y ago

Two-by-two grids are almost ubiquitous in management circles. They go by many names: BC grids after Boston Consultancy Group, decision matrices, and so on. They crop up in Covey's 7 Habits. They're extremely useful for concisely articulating a tightly-defined situation and mapping items in order to make decisions. Their weakness is that they may oversimplify and lack nuance. I used to use important/urgent decision grids quite frequently at work. http://www.informit.com/articles/article.aspx?p=709139&seqNum=7 http://www.informit.com/articles/article.aspx?p=709139&seqNu...

kangman 9y ago
What about things that you don't like that would have a material benefit to you in the long run? A simple example being exercise. Decision matrices seem bound for immediate needs.
- mseebach 9y ago
  These models aren't meant to be algorithms you can mechanically life your life by, they are helpful in thinking (differently) about a number of things. Exercise is clearly an example of something that's important but non-urgent in Covey's model. The good-at/enjoys model is mostly applicable to things you've decided (or had decided for you) you have to do, somehow. Once you've decided that exercise is something you should do, thinking about it in terms of good-at/enjoys can be helpful in deciding how to go about it.
dlee2 9y ago
The Conjoined Triangles of Success. They're taught at Business schools haha.
koliber 9y ago
Yep. Simple models are great when you have no experience with something. You can grasp a simple model relatively quickly because... it's simple. As you use the model, you realize its weaknesses. You also gain knowledge about a domain. You learn how to perform with speed, agility, nuance, and expertise. the model has served its purpose. It is no longer useful, because your personal prowess outgrew it. However, it was useful in the beginning.

denzil_correa 9y ago

This matrix is an adaptation of the "Eisenhower Matrix" used in Time Management.

thenomad 9y ago

I'd suggest that for "things you like doing and are bad at", "use time and money to get better at them" is another valid approach. Particularly if you like doing them more than any of the things in the "things you like doing and are good at" quadrant, or if there are other ancilliary benefits to the things that you'd be learning.

wvh 9y ago

But what if you're good at multiple things, but just don't have enough time or foresight how to prioritise to maximise happiness?

wruza 9y ago
>I'm happy with too many things I can do good Life's hard.
basseq 9y ago
I suspect you're asking the wrong question. If you're truly good at multiple things, and you've eliminated everything you don't like doing, you're ahead of the curve and beyond this model. Happiness is a funny thing, because you can't just keep going straight. Doing only things you like (or things you're good at) isn't a recipe for long-term happiness. Both lottery winners and victims of horrific accidents revert to an average happiness over the long term. You can read more. This book[1] by my college Psychology professor is the first that came to mind: [1] https://www.amazon.com/Happiness-Hypothesis-Finding-Modern-Ancient/dp/0465028020 https://www.amazon.com/Happiness-Hypothesis-Finding-Modern-A...
- joaomacp 9y ago
  >Both lottery winners and victims of horrific accidents revert to an average happiness over the long term. Could it then be that people who buy time also regress to the average happiness after a while? It seems pointless to measure happiness then, if we're just bound to always have the same happiness.

Sleeep 9y ago

>For things you like doing that you are good at, make that your main job. You will be effective and happy. The other outcome besides being "effective and happy" is "turning something you enjoy into something you hate because now you have to do it." Just because you love doing something doesn't mean you love being forced to do it for someone else 40 hours a week. It's pretty naïve to think that the things you enjoy in your free time are the things you enjoy doing for paid work and vise versa. I absolutely hate cleaning around my house, I hate everything about it, but I don't mind cleaning for paid work at all. There's other issues too and quite a few people I know took that route ("doing what you love") and it lead to career dissatisfaction for various reasons. Jobs have other "stuff" other than just your work, you may love X but hate working in X industry for various reasons, like work environment, salary, job prospects, etc. The things you enjoy and are good are probably not even viable paid opportunities. (Nobody's going to pay you to put together model airplanes). You don't get to "test drive" the vast majority of jobs at home first. There's something to be about not being invested in your work and, essentially, not making your work the focus of your life. http://www.getrichslowly.org/blog/2012/03/18/reader-story-i-quit-my-passion-and-took-a-boring-job/ http://www.getrichslowly.org/blog/2012/03/18/reader-story-i-...

collyw 9y ago
> There's something to be about not being invested in your work and, essentially, not making your work the focus of your life. Sure but you spend a good chunk of your life at work, so it's difficult not to want it to be meaningful.
- Sleeep 9y ago
  From the article I posted in the GP: >I miss teaching a lot. Every day, in fact. But the truth is I’m so much happier than I’ve ever been. Getting out of teaching and not being emotionally invested in my work has forced me to do things besides work more. I’ve learned how to cook, I’m making new friends, I’m reading more, I’m rediscovering my love of things I used to do before I was ever a teacher all over again. I do productive things on the side too, like study for my CPA license. >And the thing is now that I’m thinking about other things, I’ve learned so much about saving, investing, and I’m doing much better with my salary and working toward eventually being independent of a salary if at all possible. >Your career is just one part of your life. You might not become a much happier person just because you do the work that satisfies you the most. You have to consider the effects it could have on you as a person besides just having to do the work. You should do the work that gives you balance, and not the work you love the most. There's something to be said for it. It's not for everyone,there's some people who do work they find truly meaningful and are happy about devoting themselves to it. However, most people probably shouldn't look for meaning in their work less it traps them from experiencing meaning and happiness elsewhere. To be clear, I am not saying nobody should ever make a career out of doing what they enjoy during in their free time, I'm saying it doesn't guarantee career satisfaction and there are potential pitfalls of going down that route. It also definitely should not be generic advice to everyone. "Do it for the money" is good advice. I feel like if I were trying to find satisfaction in paid work I'd be supremely unhappy and unfulfilled.

dmoy 9y ago

My dad explained this to me the same way decades ago, but with a third axis - things people will pay you money for. I may be good at some stuff that I like a lot but nobody will pay me for, so if it's my main job I'll starve.

jstelly 9y ago

Your description sounds somewhat similar to the concept of Ikigai: e.g. https://medium.com/@jantegze/finding-your-ikigai-17afa04d681 https://medium.com/@jantegze/finding-your-ikigai-17afa04d681 It adds "the world needs this" and "you can be paid to do this" to the four-quadrant diagram you are building.