We’re basically like a computer program…

We know having time limits and deadlines work when it comes to making sales. It causes people to sh*t or get off the pot, so to speak.

Yesterday, I talked about how deadlines (or in my case, scheduled trips) increase productivity like crazy because we then spend less time thinking and more time doing.

But, even though we know and see these things go on, why is it that way?

You know me as a blogger and an online marketer, but I actually have a fairly extensive background in technology and programming. The blog that put me on the map was a tech blog. And I have done quite my share of PHP programming. All this means that I know how to think systematically, logically and look at things like an algorithm.

Computers work in binary. A simple set of 1’s and 0’s that represent switches being either on or off. Those switches are inside the processor, very VERY tiny. But, all those switches are switching on and off based on the 1’s and 0’s flowing through there. Hence, the processor does work.

This is quite the simplistic view of how a computer works, but there it is. 🙂

So, the processor does work based on 0 or 1. On or off. Yes or no. It is very binary.

And any algorithm that a programmer creates runs quite nicely as long as things remain quite binary and there is no third input needed (usually user input). When user input is needed, the algorithm grinds to a halt and it’ll sit there and just wait for input.

So,  yes or no means action. Without a yes or no, the system will sit there like a pile of bricks and wait for user input.

This is a SYSTEMS view. It is an algorithmic view of how life and energy works, when you get right down to it.

Energy is meant to FLOW, just like the electricity inside that computer processor. When energy flows, things happen. As long as we have simple yes/no decisions and those decisions are made, the energy flows as it should.

But, inject arbitrary data into it, and the system grinds. Energy no longer flows. The energy will only begin to flow again once the arbitrary is removed and we return to a yes/no decision. A decision is made and we flow yet again.

Ya with me here? 🙂

The reason a deadline works is because it forces us to return to the yes/no decision. Because we no longer have the time to dilly-dally, we tend to re-evaluate the arbitrary crap that we’ve injected into the process that has gummed things up.

As an example, I mentioned how one of the things I did before I left to Paris was to write out an email sequence. Now, writing out an email sequence can naturally lead to arbitrary user inputs in the algorithm (so to speak). Stuff like:

• What should I say and is my thought on this right?
• What tone should I have?
• What if it doesn’t work?
• How many emails should be in the sequence?

Yada yada. Doesn’t even matter what the questions are, but the point is that we get into this figure-figure mode on the task at hand. And usually, it gums things up and we don’t do the work. We spend way more time thinking about it than doing it.

But, in comes the deadline. We’re forced to remove the arbitrary and just focus on the output.

I see people who are brand new to online business constantly get stuck into figure-figure mode when it comes to niche selection. They can buy tools all day long (yes/no decision trees which are more concrete), but that niche selection has all these arbitrary thoughts coming in. The algorithm awaits user input which never arrives and the system hangs.

But, if we FORCED a niche decision with a deadline, it would happen and you’d be off to the races. 🙂

This idea, though, of algorithms and energy flow is important and seen in a lot of aspects of business and life.

Things flow when we have yes/no decision trees and a process to follow, step by step like an algorithm. Things halt when arbitrary user inputs come into the line.

When it comes to sales, we want our prospects to make a yes/no decision. The deadline helps make that happen and bust through some of the arbitrary stuff in their mind.

When it comes to our productivity, we work best with yes/no decisions and a process to follow. The deadline, again, is a tool to help bust through the arbitrary.

This algorithmic view of things actually has a lot of applications for us – and really is a major business-expanding tool in many ways. We’ll get more into it, but I hope this issue helps shed some light over why it works.

– David