Rewards are valuable because they inspire us to persevere when we wouldn’t otherwise.  They encourage us to overcome obstacles that seem too large.  Rewards are a form of recognition and celebration that we look forward to even if it is strictly private.  Rewards can play a valuable role in bringing on achievements, but the best rewards must be carefully constructed.

Rewards vary greatly in size and importance.  Some would consider a physical reward like a new sports car, to be too big, while believing that a less expensive reward like a weekend away, to be too small.  The important point to note here is that the best reward for you, is the reward that you decide is just big enough to motivate you.  Any smaller will not work, and any larger will make the reward take over from the primary objective.  Effective rewards can vary in size from a cold drink to early retirement and can vary in scope from physical objects to freedom.  The only strict criteria about what is the right reward is that it must be big enough to motivate but not much bigger.

Rewards are a bizarre concept in that the best ones are from yourself to yourself.  Sure, rewards from others are powerful but we cannot rely on others to effectively reward us.  Many people feel strange about giving themselves a reward.  The secret is to remove the term “giving” from the equation.  Instead of “giving” yourself a reward concentrate on the idea that you have earnt the reward.  Then you will be able to proudly accept the reward (from yourself) and it will have been a powerful motivating force leading up to your achievement.  Having a reward sitting, waiting for you at the completion of your goal, can revolutionize the way you feel about producing results.  If you have to finish in order to get the reward, then you will be certain to ride the project right up onto the sand.  You will make sure that you finish, and that the finish is effective, and fast so you get your reward.

So here are 7 rules of effective rewards:

1. The reward must add to you goals (or at least be neutral).  The worst kind of reward reinforces behaviour that you are trying to avoid.  For example, rewarding yourself for sticking to your healthy eating plan by having a chocolate feast is self destructive, and inevitably sends confused messages to your subconscious, about what you really want.  In contrast, a reward that increases your effectiveness in pursuing your goal will compound your motivation.  For example, if you get up an hour earlier in the morning, reward yourself with a short midday power nap.  The reward will then motivate achievement but also help to push it even further.
2. The reward must be personally, not popularly defined.  The reward must have specific and valuable meaning to you only.  Forget about how others would like to be rewarded.  It is only your motivation that counts.  If a reward for training hard is to let yourself train even harder, then go for it.  So long as it boosts your motivation and doesn’t harm your achievement then it is up to you.
3. The performance, or achievement must be accurately defined in advance.  Loose goals are very hard to effectively reward.  When do you reward yourself if your goal is to become happier.  How will you know if you have ever reached your goal of becoming a people person.  An effective reward comes at the completion of a precisely defined objective.  It should be 100% clear what completion will look, feel, sound or even taste like.  If your definition is accurate, then you will know exactly when you should issue the reward.  The definition must be soundly based on factors that you can directly controlled.  The goal “Sell 100 vacuum cleaners before the end of the week” is not a valid goal to hang a reward on.  You can do everything 100% correctly and still not make the mark.  Instead the reward should swing on factors that you can control “Visit X number of households, making Y number of sales presentations exactly as I have planned.  I will answer every objection truthfully and convincingly and will give each of the sales calls no reason to turn down the sale”.  Every one of these factors is in your control.  If you fulfill all of these you are worthy of your reward.  These are the actions that lead to sales but it is the customers who have control over whether they buy or not.
4. As soon as this point has been reached, you should issue the reward.  Idealy when the goal is completed the reward will be sitting there waiting.  At least, the reward should follow as closely as possible to the achievement.  To delay for even a short time, will devalue the reward.  The association between achievement and reward will be much less vivid, and the whole concept of motivation via reward will be less effective next time.  This is no time for delaying gratification.  As soon as the goal is met, issue yourself the reward.
5. An effective reward is  related to the size of the achievement.  A reward that is too small will not be sufficiently motivating.  A reward that is too great takes over from the goal and becomes a goal in itself. 
6. An effective reward will sometimes be public, and sometimes private, but will always be meaningful to you regardless.  An effective reward does not require you to tell the world.  It is good enough even if only you know.  If the world finds out, that is not a problem, but it should not be a requirement.
7. You must never, ever cheat on a reward.  If you haven’t reached your goal yet, there is no way that you have earnt the reward yet.  There is no excuse for cheating on your reward system.  It is set up to help you and it will cease to do so if you cheapen it.  There is no point in convincing yourself that you have come close enough.  If you have reached your clearly defined goal you have earnt your reward.  If not, then you will have to wait until you have.

Here are a few examples of rewards that I think would be effective and motivating:

• If you work hard until X o’clock then reward yourself with Y minutes of relaxation and recreation
• If you stick to your healthy eating plan, then reward yourself with some new clothes that show off your new shape
• If your complete your training program for X weeks, then reward yourself with some new racing gear
• If you study hard for final exams, then buy yourself the brief case that you will need in your first job.
• Tom O’Leary’s example: I love to read articles that other people have published but it can take all of my time, so my reward is that if I write the articles that I plan for a day, then I reward myself by reading someone else’s.

So it is simple.  Motivating rewards that are closely linked to your achievements are a valuable tool to help you succeed.  Today, pick a goal that you want to achieve in the short term and try out the concept.  Set up a reward or a series of rewards and watch your motivation soar.  Rewards really work and most importantly, they work in a way that is specifically designed for you.

What rewards do you use?

Thanks

Tom

 When I heard the story, I couldn’t be cross.  Sure the team wasted time and money, and we had became the owners of a load of sand bags that we had no use for, but nobody could say that this enthusiastic employee didn’t get things done.  The only problem was that he was doing the wrong things.  Was he productive? Yes.  Was he effective? No.

Getting Things Done is a concept that has become very popular recently due to the work of David Allen.  However, I believe that there are a lot of people who still fail to make the distinction between Getting Things Done (GTD) and what I will call, Getting The Right Things Done (GTRTD).  We can’t blame David Allen for this, it is actually our fault if we don’t know which are the right things to do in the first place.

If GTD leads to productivity, then GTRTD leads to effective productivity.  I will use the term Effectivity a bit more than productivity, around this site to remind us that productivity is useless unless it is effective in producing outcomes that take us closer to our goals.  Effectivity seems to be a much more meaningful term if we are truly seeking high performance.

There is one obvious but overlooked way to work out if you are GTRTD or just GTD.  We have to compare the things that we are doing with what will achieve our goals.  We have to develop a reliable way to decide ”Will getting this done, now, be effective in progressing me towards my goals?”.

One way to decide in advance what things to get done, is to fill our lives with effective action steps.  An effective action step is simply the result of carefully planned goals.  The short version of the process goes like this:

1. Decide what you want to achieve with your life.
2. Decide how you will go about achieving it
3. Compose this achievement into a motivating live goal
4. Break the goal down into as many definite steps as you will need.
5. These steps are your action steps, so do them.

It is these action steps that are the keys to achieving your goals.  If you have accurately formulated these steps, completing each of them in turn will inevitably lead you to your desired goal.  I will write more about effective goal setting in another article, but for now, just remember that effectivity comes from precisely carrying out your action steps, not just getting things done.

This is all very well for a perfect world, but what if other things still have to be done?  Who is going to take out the rubbish if it doesn’t appear on you priorities as an action step?  Of course there will be things to do that don’t directly work you towards your goals, but my point is that we must radically reduce these things.   

Very soon, I will finish writing for this morning, and go to the kitchen to make breakfast for my family.  This doesn’t feature directly in me achieving my goals, but it is simply something important that has to be done.  The best that I can do is use every tool that I have available to do things, like this, as efficiently as possible.  This will involve, streamlining the process, bulking tasks together, focusing on one task at a time and delegating or even employing others to get these things done.  Leo at Zen Habits is doing an excellent job of writing about putting the GTD concepts into action, head over there and read what he has to say. 

So remember that before you can get the right things done, you have to know which actions will contribute to achieving your goals.  So plan before you act and it will be clear what things need to get done.  Your life should be filled with clearly defined action steps.  Completing these action steps is the most effective way that you can progress to your goals.  These are the things that you should focus on getting done.

So consider today, where are you productively getting the wrong things done?

What do you have to do to raise your effectivity in these areas?

As they head back home, they catch a glimpse of a fellow cycling club member and fierce rival who lives around the corner.  He is also returning from training, on his bike, after training hard all morning.  Tired but content.  And we wonder why some people get ahead in life and others are left behind! (more…)