The 1% Solution

Image from domainehome.com.  Oh to have this office!

I came across an online newspaper article recently explaining something called The 1% Solution.  It piqued my interest and had some great information in it.  Unfortunately I cannot find the article again to reference but I’m pretty sure it’s tied up with a book of the same name by Tom Connellan (which I haven’t read yet but plan to).

I’ve used the 1% Solution with success at work so far.  The basic premise as I understand it is that so often we either do all, or if we can’t do all, we do nothing.  There is no in-between.  The 1% Solution proposes that it’s actually more beneficial to make tiny changes. 

If you’ve been staying up until midnight every night, rather than make a grand statement that you are going to be in bed by 10pm every night, just aim for half an hour earlier – 11.30pm.  Or instead of saying you’re going to get up at 6am every morning rather than your usual 7.30am, set the alarm clock for 7.15am instead.  It’s more do-able and you’re more likely to do it.

At work I feel constantly behind.  I know I don’t help myself sometimes by dithering around or looking up non-work-related things on the internet which little by little chop into your work time.  But I often think, ‘I haven’t got time to complete that entire job today, I’ll start it another day’.  Well you know that day never comes, as the only day you have is today.

The 1% Solution also helps me with my ever-increasing filing.  I pay all the bills, so my in-tray is constantly receiving invoices and statements.  My goal is to have them hole-punched and put in the right folder every day so the in-tray is clear, but that doesn’t seem to happen. 

But even if I don’t have them time to do them all, I can do some.  It’s a far better idea than my previous method of operation which involved putting it off until the 20th rolls around when I have to pay our suppliers.  It’s a big squeeze once a month which is rather stressful.  Plus if there are queries on anything I have to sort that on the day too.

At home the 1% Solution can be used with housework.  Rather than save it all up for a once a week gut-buster (sorry, horrible word!), why not do a little bit each day.  I want to clean the windows in our living area but then I think to myself, the entire house needs its windows done.  Is that a helpful thought?  Non.  I will do the living room windows and that will be a start.

When it comes to any self-improvement project you’d like to do, aim for small changes.  They will be easier to motivate yourself to do, you’re more likely to stick to them, and over time the small changes add up to bigger changes.  Our life is made up of small moments, small changes and small habits which all add up.

We are setting ourselves up to fail (or never even start) if we wait for that perfect time when we are geared up to make that giant change.

The reviews on Amazon for Tom Connellan’s book are great and contain some really useful tips from the book.  Here are a few quotes on one of the reviews.

'1. The difference between exceptional and EXCEPTIONALLY exceptional = 1 percent.

2. You can't be 100 percent better than everyone else, but you can be 1 percent better at hundreds of things.

3. You may not win all the time, but you can have a winner's heart if you do something better today than you did it yesterday.

4. Not everyone can be great, but everyone can be better than they are right now.

5. Aim to be swifter, higher, stronger - not swiftest, highest, strongest.'

I admit I am a person with all-or-nothing and perfectionist tendencies, that if I can’t do something perfectly and all at once I abandon the idea altogether.  This does nothing for the stress levels in my life.  So The 1% Solution is good for me to remember.  Just do 1%.  So simple!

Update 9 May 2015:  Incredibly enough, it seems that two men named Tom have written a book about the 1% idea.  I have just borrowed a book from our library called The 1% Principle by Tom O'Neil and it sounds much more like the article I initially read.   I borrowed the Tom Connellan one when I first wrote this post and... it was really dry and wordy.  But if dry and wordy is your thing, go read it.  For the rest of us with short attention spans and who are looking for quick and fun ways to implement the 1% idea, see if you can find Tom O'Neil's book.