DIVERSIONBOOKS

The Front Nine

How to Start the Year You Want Anytime You Want

by Mike Vardy

DIVERSIONBOOKS

Copyright

Diversion BooksA Division of Diversion Publishing Corp.

443 Park Avenue South, Suite 1008New York, NY 10016

www.DiversionBooks.com

Copyright © 2012 by Mike Vardy

All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever.

For more information, email info@diversionbooks.com.

First Diversion Books edition December 2012.

ISBN: 978-1-938120-24-4

DIVERSIONBOOKS

Table of Contents

ForewordIntroductionPatricia’s StoryPART ONE: THE DRIVE

Getting Into The Swing Of ThingsHow To Prepare For The Tee ShotTaking The Tee ShotPlenty of DriveBefore The Second Shot

PART TWO: THE FAIRWAYThe Problem With ChoiceWorking The PlanHow to Pick Your Next ShotTools Of The TradeMidway on The FairwayStuck Off CourseGetting Around The HazardsHow to Avoid Taking a MulliganHazardous HealthPlaying ThroughBeing Deliberate with NoThe Power of ReflectionThe Tough MudderFore-ward Thinking

PART THREE: THE GREENFear and The Short GameAdd More Meaning To The ShotFine Tuning The FinishPutt Up or Shut UpThe Last ShotThe Next Hole

ConclusionEpilogue: Going Until It’s GoneAbout the Author

DIVERSIONBOOKS

Foreword

By Cal Newport

Author of So Good They Can’t Ignore You

The Front Nine is not a book about managing the tasks on your to-do list. It is instead a book about figuring out what should go on that list in the first place. And this is why I love it.

To better understand my enthusiasm for this book you must first understand the culture it transforms. Rewind time to the early 2000s. I call these years the Age of Productivity. In the decades preceding this Age, knowledge workers had embraced bare bones time management tools. They learned to use calendars and keep their responsibilities on a list, perhaps labeled with simple priority codes. Because most workers had a fixed set of responsibilities that changed only rarely these tools worked fine.

By the early 2000s, however, the knowledge work sector had fully assimilated the digital age. With the rise of email, in particular, and the flattened organizational structure it helped to spawn, the idea of a manageable and slowly changing set of responsibilities became a relic. Now any number of different colleagues could easily grab your time and attention and request work from you—it became as easy as jotting down a request and clicking “send.” The same became true of friends and family outside work. The type-A classmate you barely knew from college, for example, could now find you on a social network and send you an email requesting a coffee to discuss your industry—the type of energy-demanding task that would have been rare in an earlier period, but now is common. Bare bones productivity tools were quickly swamped by this new onslaught.

Two important forces rose in response to this problem. First, writers like David Allen, with his popular book Getting Things Done, introduced super-charged “action management” systems that could handle hundreds of tasks and juggle dozens of projects. At the same time, the “lifehacker” movement began to gather steam. This movement’s promise that digital tools could manage and conquer life’s increasing demands was a perfect fit for the type of systems writers like Allen were pitching. Thus we entered the Age of Productivity—a golden period when we believed that with a smart enough system to process and organize our obligations, we would be obtain a life that was not only stress-free, but also successful and focused on things that matter.

The problem, of course, is that this vision never came true.At its best, the Age of Productivity helped us keep track of our growing list of

obligations, but it didn’t free us from feeling overwhelmed, and it certainly didn’t push us toward accomplishing more meaningful work. As we enter this new decade, it has become clear that we need something more than just smart task management. This brings us to Mike Vardy and the important book that you’re currently holding.

The Front Nine is an example of a new topic I call meta-productivity. Whereas classical productivity focuses on managing your obligations, meta-productivity tackles the equally important question of figuring out what those obligations should be. The Age

DIVERSIONBOOKS

of Productivity, with its bulging tasks lists and overwhelmed inboxes taught us that we need a lot of help with this latter issue.

In this book, Mike Vardy pursues a simple question: Why are we so bad at following through with the projects we think are important, and what can we do to get better? He smartly points out that there’s a big gap between deciding on a goal and translating that decision into a series of steps that will actually accomplish the goal. In the pages ahead, you’ll learn why strategic reflection can be just as important as action. You’ll also learn about managing your psychology, avoiding hazards that derail multi-stage endeavors, and discover why the final steps of a project can become the hardest to finish. These ideas are classic examples of meta-productivity. Until we understand the art of how people accomplish meaningful goals, Vardy emphasizes, no amount of task management can get us where we want to be with our lives.

If the early 2000s was the Age of Productivity, we’re now in the Age of Meta-Productivity, and it’s thinkers like Mike Vardy, penning books like The Front Nine, that will help lead us into this absolutely necessary new stage in the evolution of knowledge work and our quest to live better lives.

DIVERSIONBOOKS

Introduction

It’s a familiar scene.Each December—usually near the tail end of the month—we all profess what we’re

going to do in the year that is fast approaching. What habits we’re going to adopt, what habits we’re going to abandon, what projects we’re going to tackle, and all things in between. We go into January with the full intention to make these things happen, and we’re fuelled by the idea that others are accompanying us on this journey.

And by February, the gyms that were teeming are far less busy. The go-getters are gone. The goals you had set for yourself are now cast aside, or at least not progressing very reliably because—well, life happened. And you’re okay with this, right?

Sure you are.After all, everyone else’s resolutions hit the skids as well. You’re not alone when you

aspire to do—or not do—something at the start of a new year, just as you’re not alone when it doesn’t happen.

I’m not suggesting you’re happy about this. The problem is that you’re not ready to see these things through when you start on January 1. You’re not able to give these new goals the attention—and intention—they deserve, despite the fact that the beginning of the year is when you’re supposed to do just that. Again, you’re not alone in this. We’ve all been there—and we keep going back there, too.

So, why aren’t you able to make these goals, these ambitions, these things that are important to you stick?

Energy levels, that’s why.You’re just coming out of a busy holiday season, a time of year for some people that

can be a six week–long grind of heavy eating, heavy socializing, and a heavy workload that can put you in a position for some much-deserved time off. Then you’re compelled to come up with ideas, goals, and habits you are going to take on in the coming year—when all you really should be doing is recovering from the onslaught of activity you just survived.

We have to stop doing this. We have to stop setting ourselves up for failure in the areas that we really want to succeed in. I’m not saying we won’t fail—we will fail from time to time. What I am saying is that we need to fail on our terms, not on someone else’s terms, or the terms set up on a calendar.

This is where The Front Nine comes in.The Front Nine is a golf term that is defined at About.com as follows:

“ . . . the first nine holes of a golf course (Holes 1 through 9) or the first nine holes of a golfer’s round.”

The first part of that definition should seem obvious to those who are not familiar with the sport. The front side of the game should be the first half of it, and since a round of golf is generally eighteen holes, the front side would be the first nine holes. But that’s not exactly the case, now is it? Because the latter part of the definition allows for the front nine to be the first nine holes of a golfers’ round. So, if you’re going to play some golf with your friends and you are late, showing up by the time they reach the 4th hole, then your front nine are holes four through thirteen. And when the final scores are tallied, your scores will be based on the same amount of holes, but not on the exact same holes.

DIVERSIONBOOKS

Now, while you still may rush to the course to be on the same hole as your friends, you don’t have to. The degree of difficulty may differ, depending on which holes you’re playing versus what they have already played—but it could also work in your favour to play different holes. The bottom line is that you will all be judged on nine holes—your front nine—and if there are minor differences in the holes you’ve played, they get ironed out in the scoring. That way there is no handicap on either side of the equation.

What The Front Nine does is ask you to think of time as a hole on a golf course. Not any particular hole, but any of the ones that you plan to play as part of your first nine. Knowing that you can start playing at any time and be no further behind in achieving your goals, adopting a new habit, or making something happen is a pretty powerful realization. Knowing that you don’t have to start your game at the same time as everybody else, but you’ll still be scored on a similar level as they are, is something you can take great advantage of over the long term. The Front Nine is a strategy that allows you to start your new year whenever you want—and that way it can truly be the new year you want.

Who This Book is ForThis book is for anyone who is tired of watching their resolutions go by the wayside

year after year. It’s also for those who have problems seeing a project or goal through from start to finish. The ideas and tactics presented in this book are meant for people who are familiar with the practices of task and time management, but are delivered in a simple and forthright manner, so that even those who haven’t explored it as deeply as others—or at all, for that matter—can follow along without problem.

How to Read This BookThe Front Nine should be read from start to finish, in the order it is presented. Think

of reading this book as your first exercise in seeing something through to completion. Admittedly, it isn’t a long read, but the work that you create and follow through with by using the book’s ideas as a structure will take time.. Don’t skip anything. Skipping a step in a project—no matter how small and insignificant it may seem—can have a significant impact on the project as a whole. Again, this book is a project of sorts. Treat it as such and you’ll reap the benefits of the rewards it can offer, fully and completely.

This book is broken up into 3 sections:

1. The Drive2. The Fairway3. The Green

The Drive is essentially the springboard. It’s where you start off, full of ambition and excitement with what’s to come. The idea in this stage is to make big gains without veering too far off course. In this section, you’ll spend time looking at the bigger picture of what you want out of your new year, and then take the first steps to get there. While absolute focus isn’t the idea here, getting started on the path is.

The Fairway is where most of your time will be spent. In this section you’ll fine-tune your year, doing what you can to avoid the hazards that will inevitably get in your way,

DIVERSIONBOOKS

and yet still make strategic, efficient, and effective progress as you go. This is where a greater arsenal of internal and external tools will be required, and I’ll provide you with the resources to tap into them.

Lastly, we come to the final section—The Green. In this section you will not only work toward getting a great year underway, you will also reflect on how you got there, and what you will do next time to ensure as smooth a ride as possible. There’s no rushing through any of these sections, but this one is the primary section that will make you look ahead as well as to the past, so that you can make a better future for yourself in both the short- and long-term.

Let me be clear: there is no chance for a hole in one with this book. You’ll need to work through each section in order to get the most out of what The Front Nine has to offer. And by taking that time you’ll be able to apply the same routine anytime you need a restart—no matter the time of year.

DIVERSIONBOOKS

Patricia's Story

Patricia hasn’t had a rough life. She’s had a good life, full of the ups and downs many of us face ourselves. But she’s also had a lot of unexpected “restarts” during her life.

Sure, many have—I know of several people who have—but it’s how she has faced those restarts that has helped her craft her life in a way that works for her and that is admirable.

Married for twenty-seven years, she decided to make a change and move on. All she’d known for those twenty-seven years was marriage and life with two boys, but it was time for a restart. So she did just that. This was the least of her unexpected restarts, because it was something that had been in the back of her mind for some time . . . but she hadn’t “hit the ball” despite planning the approach for a while.

Some time later, she met a man who she did want to share the rest of her life with. This wasn’t unusual; others before and after her have felt the same way and acted upon it. But it was definitely unexpected, and it definitely was another restart. She moved with her new husband to a part of the country where she was going to be farther away from her family, including her two boys, now also on their own, than ever before. Yet she did it because this was a time in her life during which she could make progress toward her goal of living a life for herself—and with her new husband.

Then . . . another unexpected restart happened.After far too short a time together, her husband unexpectedly passed away. Suddenly

she was in a very unfamiliar place. This time something—someone—was taken from her, which forced a restart. After catching her breath, she did what she had to do and restarted again. She moved back to be closer to most of her family, except for her oldest son, who was living on the west coast, and began shaping her newly-rebooted life once again.

All of these restarts have led to a life rich with experience. Some great, some not so much. She has faced her numerous restarts with tenacity and as much grace as humanly possible. She’s not perfect, but that’s okay. None of us are. But she’s faced adversity and seen many things through—not all mentioned here, because this book is about you and not about her. And I’m proud of her for all of that and so much more.

While this book may not be about Patricia, it is dedicated to her.I love you, Mom. Thanks for everything, especially for instilling in me the ability to

handle my own restarts.

DIVERSIONBOOKS

PART ONE: THE DRIVE

The Drive is the smallest step in The Front Nine action plan, but it plays a key role in your progress toward completing your project or goal. How well you start is important. If you start off full throttle but veer off course, it actually may keep you further away from your desired outcome than when you first started. If you are too focused on direction, but sacrifice making significant progress forward in the process, then you may never get to any outcome at all.

So let’s get to work on getting an outcome. Let’s start with The Drive.

DIVERSIONBOOKS

Getting Into The Swing Of Things

I recently came up with an idea for a fantastic project—a project that really got me excited. I could see the end result of the project clearly in my head, and that was what really excited me. The prospects were amazing, and I felt strongly that it was something that I could deliver, especially as I got closer to starting toward my goal.

And that’s when the fear set in.The fear that I wouldn’t start off right, which would mean that I couldn’t possibly

finish right either. The fear that I wasn’t the right person to do it. The fear that I couldn’t pull it off, even if I had all of my “ducks in a row.” But that fear didn’t set in until I got closer to pulling the trigger, to taking the initial shot at making it happen.

That’s what happens when you get closer to making a project a reality. As you step up to take the first shot, you see how far away the end result is, not to mention what terrain you might have to navigate in order to get there. You wonder if you can make the right first step—both in distance and in accuracy—and that may just stop you from taking any steps at all.

But here’s the thing: the first step is just that . . . a first step. You’ll have many more steps along the way that can bring you to the desired outcome. You’ll get closer to that outcome with each step, allowing you to be more precise and giving you a better shot to be on target. So that first step, while important, isn’t the be-all and end-all. In fact, the biggest risk involved in taking that step is just doing it. That’s it.

Still, when you take that step, you want to get the most out of it. In golf, the first shot off the tee can set you up for success in one fell swoop. Sometimes—although rarely—you can go from start to finish in that one shot. But getting a hole in one is not just reliant on the skill of the golfer. The course, weather conditions, and other external influences play a role. The same applies for projects. You may have every intention of making a project happen in as little time as possible, but despite all of your intentions and skills there are outside factors that can alter your course. While you can’t control these outside factors, you can control how you deal with them. (I’ll talk more about these outside factors later.)

Now let’s explore what you can do to make that first shot—that tee shot—as rewarding and progressive as possible.

DIVERSIONBOOKS

How To Prepare For The Tee Shot

So you’ve got this great idea for how you want to land that first step. You know where you ultimately want to go, and are ready to make the first move to get there. Here are some important things to do to make sure that you get the most out of that first effort.

Be honest with yourself and the landscape of your life.In golf, before a golfer takes that first shot, they take a good look at the hole. They

make note of both the boundaries and the hazards that lie ahead, and then they position themselves in a way to avoid them. There’s really no difference in terms of what strategies are effective when applying this to life.

Boundaries are areas that you’ve defined as places you won’t venture off into, such as anything that you are opposed to ethically or morally. You may also have boundaries that you have set for yourself based on the type of work you do. For example, I have set clear boundaries as to what I am willing to write about on my blog. There are several boundaries I’ve set up in that area of my life, and by setting those I keep myself on course and am able to reach “the hole” that much more efficiently and effectively.

Setting boundaries for your life is an important thing to do, and one of the best ways you can set them is by creating a mission statement for yourself. A mission statement can also help define you in a profound way because it takes a real commitment to sit down and figure out who you are and what you are willing to do. Anything that strays from your mission statement, or cannot be reconciled with it, is something you should stay away from.

Hazards are different in that they are obstacles that stand in your way, but are still within the boundaries. Obstacles outside your boundaries are easily avoidable because you’re not going to encounter them—unless you end up outside your boundaries . . . and you will undoubtedly have to deal with hazards if that happens. Hazards come in many forms, just as they do on a traditional golf course. I’ll be talking more about hazards later on, because they’ll be more prevalent as you make your way through the course of realizing your goal. During The Drive, the idea is to make sure you don’t hit one from the start, so make sure you survey the landscape of your life and take that first shot in a way that pushes you forward into a positive place, not a negative one.

When it comes to really looking at what lies ahead, there’s a real advantage to doing this with your life as opposed to on a golf course. The advantage is that you don’t have anyone behind you waiting to tee off. You can really take your time and examine the landscape. Which leads me to the next tip . . .

Don’t rush it.Any golfer will tell you that one of the most important aspects of a quality tee shot is

a balanced swing. Not rushing things goes hand in hand with surveying the landscape of your life in that you really can’t get a good look at it if you try to hurry up the process.

(Let’s bring another sport into play here . . . )American football, like golf, is a game that involves distance. However, the former

measures this distance in yards, while the latter is called “a game of inches"—and rightfully so. The best football teams offer a balanced offence and defence, in that they both have to deal with the running and passing game at any given time. If you’ve ever

DIVERSIONBOOKS

watched either of these sports, neither is a fast moving one when compared to the likes of basketball or hockey. But American football does have aspects of a game that moves very quickly, and depending on strategy, one team can move so quickly that it can catch the other team off guard, resulting in a quick—and unexpected—score.

As time dwindles on the game clock, some teams will resort to using what is called a “hurry-up offence” in order to put the opposing team at a disadvantage. The defensive side has no chance to make any changes to personnel. They have little time to make adjustments to what the offence might throw (or run) at them and that can put them at a disadvantage.

But the thing is that both sides—the offence and the defence—have had a chance to practice for such situations. They know the possibility exists that a hurry-up play can be called and that they need to be as ready as possible for that. Even then, there’s no guarantee they’re going to get it right—and certainly not every time.

Let’s bring this back to you and your life. If you hurry up the process of moving forward with that first shot, then your chances of putting yourself in a better position for the next one is greatly decreased. Be as prepared as possible for the first shot. Be as precise as possible for the first shot. That way you can make the most of that first shot.

Not rushing the first step is one thing, but not taking it is another. I’ve seen too many people with a great idea of how they want to start things off and they take so much time looking that they ultimately don’t leap. I’ve fallen prey to that as well. Again, that first step is just one step . . . but it’s the one that leads to the next step. If you want to have the new year you want anytime you want, you need to want it badly enough to move toward it.

If you’re still feeling timid when it comes to taking tee shots, one of the best ways to get especially good at taking that first shot of a big project is to practice with smaller goals and projects. Think of it this way: golfers spend hours at driving ranges simply practicing their tee shots, using different clubs and honing their technique. On a driving range there are fewer hazards to concern themselves with. They can simply fire away until they get really good at making those shots. The idea here is that the more shots they take on the driving range, the more shots they’ll make on the golf course . . . where it really counts.

DIVERSIONBOOKS

Taking The Tee Shot

Let’s break down the different approaches you can take when taking your tee shot. They are:

1. More Speed, Less Accuracy2. Less Speed, More Accuracy3. Measured Speed, Measured Accuracy

Obviously, your mileage will vary on each of these approaches because the “more and less” components are subjective. Even the term “measured” has subjectivity attached to it. But, again, how you start things off does play a role in setting up how you are going to finish, despite the fact that it is really just one shot compared to the many you’ll have once you’re on the “fairway” and “green.”

More Speed, Less AccuracyApproaching the tee shot with speed in mind is a very dangerous idea, and certainly

shouldn’t be your first course of action as you start down the path to creating the new year you want anytime you want. That said, once you’ve practiced enough and have a great understanding of where your boundaries are, then it is a viable approach in some instances. If you’re the type of person who can “get out of jams” easily (i.e. the hazards I mentioned earlier), then you can give this approach a try. If the goal or project is something that you feel needs to be dealt with quickly and the details don’t need to be worried about too much, then firing off a tee shot with speed in mind may be the way to go. Keep in mind, however, that if you go too far off target, you may wind up finishing up later than those who were more methodical about their approach. The other thing to keep in mind is that you shouldn’t rest on your laurels if you land a few of these tee shots easier because you were quick on the draw. Remember that each time you step up to take that first shot you’ll be facing a different landscape, and while having this approach in your arsenal isn’t a bad idea, it might not be a good idea to use it on a regular basis.

Less Speed, More AccuracyThis goes back to my argument about being prepared and precise, which means you

should have a very accurate first shot—without taking outside factors into account, that is. By going with less speed in your approach, you will take more methodical steps toward your goals and that can be a very good thing—especially if you’re making or doing something that you know is going to take a lot of time to build, but will stand the test of time when it’s ready. A mission statement falls into this category. You want to take your time building it because you want it to be as accurate as possible, right? So this approach is best suited for things that are being built to last and involve no “race to the top” in the process.

Measured Speed, Measured AccuracyI don’t like to use the term “medium” or “average” in this case, because each thing

you face along the way will require different levels that you’ll have to gauge. That’s why

DIVERSIONBOOKS

taking a measured approach with both speed and accuracy gives you the best chance for success on a variety of goals, projects, and, ultimately, life. You’re not lagging behind gathering evidence, formulating ideas, and executing action with less regard for the time it takes (less speed, more accuracy) and you’re not heading into the fray with guns blazing (more speed, less accuracy). Instead, you’re moving forward steadily while making informed choices and, as a result, noticeable progress along the way. This approach is the one you want to master so that you can use it the most often—and also it gives you a great benchmark to work with when evaluating a goal or project. If you look at taking a measured approach first, you can easily speed up or slow down and not lose as much accuracy or speed in the process.

DIVERSIONBOOKS

Buy the eBook:

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | iBookstore | Kobo

****

Connect with DIVERSIONBOOKS:

If you liked this book, connect with Diversion Books for updates on new titles and authors:

@DiversionBooks

Facebook.com/DiversionBooks

Monthly eNewsletter

DIVERSIONBOOKS