Inversion - a tool for change

[Jon]

I have started using a mind hack to assist in making personal change. It comes highly recommended as a favourite tool of Charlie Munger, Warren Buffett's business partner and fellow billionaire.

Here is some brainstorming I did mid-December on an issue I was dealing with:

Problem

I can't get out of bed early. This is costing me dearly in my earnings and career. So, let's think about this using inversion, Charlie Munger style.

To get up late, I need to:

• Get into bed late
• Watch YouTube on my phone in bed
• Take my phone to my bedroom
• Eat late
• Watch football late
• Stay exposed to blue light from computer screens until just before bed
• Give myself long snooze times, like 30 minutes.
• Have my alarm easy to turn off
• Be in my office until late, rather than in my bedroom
• Start thinking about bed when it is after 11pm, instead of before then.
• Clean my teeth late
• Get my water later
• Turn off the telly late
• Have no defined time to go to bed
• Not be changed for bed until just before getting into bed(?)
• Take dirty plates, cans and drinks down to kitchen late
• Making excuses that tonight is different, and so therefore it is ok to go to bed late tonight.

Ideas to transform this:

• Target 11:15pm as time to get into bed.
• Target 11:30pm as time to turn lights out
• Leave phone in office
• Get light for reading physical book in bed, rather than reading on my phone
• Eat around 8pm
• Limit my snooze to 10 mins if possible
• At 10:45pm, take down drinks and plates to kitchen, get water, clean my teeth, change into dressing gown

I hope the above was a useful example of how to use inversion. If you have a go at using it yourself, let us know what you did!

 

[Bee]

Useful.

As an aside, 'inversion' was one of the ways of describing homosexual relationships in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

 

[Jon]

Sometimes seeing a specific example can give pointers to how to use it yourself.

e.g.

How to be lonely:
- Turn down opportunities to meet people
- Favour alone activities to group activities
- Don't go to religious meetings
- Don't search the internet for local interest groups
- Don't invite friends over
- Don't travel to meet other people
- Have little time left for socialising by working too hard
- Bath once a week!
- Irritate the hell out of people
- Bee really fussy about who you meet up with
- Be single

Just some ideas.

[By the way, I don't do ALL the above! ]