Do you have trouble getting things done? Have you ever decided to do something that was important to you, but later found you just weren’t making any headway at all? If you’re having trouble completing tasks that you want to do, and which you know you’re capable of doing, you might considering using a technique called benchmarking.
A benchmark is nothing more than a certain level of output that you’re establishing as your bare minimum. When using benchmarking, what you want to do is decide what your daily benchmark will be for a particular task, and accept nothing less than hitting that benchmark consistently.
For a benchmark to be realistic, it should be well below the maximum that you’re capable of, and substantially less than what you really want to do. You want to have an idea of what you’d ideally like to accomplish each day, but if you fail to hit your targets, you want to be sure that you at least achieve a certain minimum standard. Shoot for your goal, but accept no less than your benchmark.
An Example of Using Benchmarks
Let’s say you have a book that you’ve been meaning to read. You know it’s a book that will be very helpful, so you really want to read it in a reasonable period of time. But it’s a really big book and it requires a lot of concentration to fully understand it, so you’ve been procrastinating, hoping that you’ll find the time to read it someday. Of course, that day never comes, and the book continues to collect dust every day. How can you use benchmarking to ensure that you stop making excuses and actually read the book?
First, decide what your goal will be, how many pages you would like to read each day. How about 100 pages? No, that’s too much because it’s a fantasy. You might read that much on the first sitting, but you know the book’s material is too complex and you won’t make the time to read that much consistently. How about 20 pages? OK, you decide that you can shoot for 20 pages a day. That’s your goal.
But it’s OK if you don’t always reach your goal. Sometimes, life gets in the way. Even though you’ll try to read 20 pages a day, some days you might not have the time or the energy to hit your goal. And that’s fine; you’re allowed to sometimes fall short of what you’d like to get done. But you decide to set a benchmark of reading 5 pages a day. No matter what, you’re going to read a minimum of 5 pages a day, every day, without fail.
That means that even if the kids have soccer practice, or you get a flat tire, or you get sick, or you have a huge argument with your boss, or whatever, you still have to read those 5 pages. Your benchmark of 5 pages is considerably less than your goal of 20 pages, but that’s because things are bound to come up once in a while, and you’ll need to have some flexibility to slow down. You’re still shooting for your goal each day, but you’ll accept no less than your benchmark, no matter what.
Your benchmark needs to be low enough that you can easily achieve it, but high enough to be significant. You can’t honestly complain that you don’t have time to read 5 pages a day, so it’s a realistic benchmark. And if your book is 1,000 pages long, then even if you only read the bare minimum of 5 pages a day, you’ll be done in 200 days. That’s not exactly lightning speed, but it guarantees that the job will get done within that window of time. I’ve known people who have been meaning to read a book for years, but never seem to get around to it.
Other Ways to Use Benchmarks
What kinds of things can benchmarking be applied to? Anything that can easily be broken down into measurable chunks. If you want to read a certain number of pages, or make a certain number of sales calls, or go running for a certain period of time, or clean out a certain number of items from the garage, these are all things that lend themselves to benchmarking. The one key is to make sure that your benchmark is a measure of output, not results. You can set a benchmark of how many sales calls you want to make, but you shouldn’t set a benchmark of how many new clients you’ll sign up, because you can’t directly control that.
You might have noticed that I didn’t specify what should happen if you don’t meet your benchmark. That’s because there’s no need to work out a punishment, as it won’t happen. You simply have to meet your benchmark. If you haven’t met your benchmark for the day, then the day isn’t over yet. Of course, in some extreme cases, you’ll want to postpone your project. If your house burns down, then you need to deal with that, and forget about your benchmark of running for 30 minutes on the treadmill. I only state it as mandatory because people are far, far more likely to be too easy on themselves than too tough.
Final Thoughts
So there you have it, a very simple and practical method of getting something done in a reasonable period of time. If you find that certain things you want to accomplish just seem to elude you even though you know you’re perfectly capable of achieving them, try using benchmarks to guarantee that you make consistent progress.
Hunter Nuttall wants you to stop sucking and live a life of abundance. Visit his site to learn how to improve your life and your income.
Image by Moriza.
er….sorry to be contentious, but you have just described realistic goal setting…not benchmarking.
Benchmarking is noticing what already happens at current levels ie. I read an average of 25 blog posts a week. Thats a benchmark, then you measure your aspiration activity levels against that. ie. adding your 5 extra reads per day. and then measuring your new readings against your established benchmark…the tracking of progress.
Neil, I’m sure people use the same terms to mean different things. If you don’t agree with this definition, then fine–let’s just consider the concept.
The way I’m using it here is different from realistic goal setting, because even realistic goals are going to be higher than your minimum standards. I agree that observing current levels is very helpful for setting goals.
Benchmarking sounds like a great way to get going when you really hate to get started on a project! And, for people who can get going but want to maximize their efforts to their full potential, there’s the awesome productivity book “Eat that Frog!,” summarized at http://shanelyang.com/2008/06/02/eat-that-frog/ : )
Shanel, absolutely! It’s hard to get started when you’re looking at this big project you don’t want to do, but it’s a lot easier when you think “all I have to do is one little part every day.”
According to Dictionary.com Benchmark means:
1. A standard by which something can be measured or judged:
2. often bench mark A surveyor’s mark made on a stationary object of previously determined position and elevation and used as a reference point in tidal observations and surveys.
According to Wikipedia …
1. Benchmarking in simplistic terms is the process where you compare your process with that of a better process and try to improve the standard of the process you follow to improve quality of the system, product, services etc.
2. A process similar to benchmarking is also used in technical product testing and in land surveying. See the article benchmark for these applications.
The way I read these definitions both Neil (comment 1) and Hunter – Author are correct.
Hunter, I loved the article. Now maybe I’ll get my book read! Truly simplicity is the answer to getting things done. For some reason our natural instint is to make things harder to achieve than they really are.
Thanks for looking up the definitions. Like I said to Neil, I’m sure there are different definitions floating around out there. I picked up this term from an organization that was big on using it, and they consisted of several thousand people. But if you have a different word to describe the same idea, I think that’s fine.
That’s a great way to approach things Hunter – it’s all about the action – thinking or planning or wanting do not accomplish things – only steady action.
People have to choose to act, then measure the actions to make sure they’re moving forward.
Well done!
Alex
Alex, I’m all for thinking, planning, and wanting, in order to help us decide what actions to take. But far too often, people get stuck in those states, and forget that only action will make things happen. It’s really true that slow and steady often wins the race.
Thanks for the article Hunter. This is an interesting technique you have described.
I must admit, I have had some trouble lately “getting things done”. Like you suggest, I think sometimes it is necessary to be tough on ourselves. Postponing things until tomorrow, or some unspecified day in the future, is a bad habit that often results in that “thing” never getting done at all.
I can relate, Peter. Getting things done is bound to be tough for pretty much everyone. While I generally try to be laid back about things, I’ll use benchmarking on certain projects that I want to be sure to make good progress on. It definitely works, but it can also be overwhelming if you use it on everything.
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It’s a good concept.
You should start by deciding what you really want to do, your key objectives.
Then break them down into actionable things.
And then set your ‘benchmark’.
That’s right, Open Heart. Objectives are often too abstract to apply benchmarking to, until we break them down into actionable items.
I’ve been practicing something similar that I learned from software engineers.
You can check it out here: http://www.simpleology.com/blog/2008/05/boxing_up_time_gets_things_don_1.html
My productivity definitely increased so now I have more time for a life outside of work.
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