4 Steps for Improving Your Results with Logical Performance Planning

If you have read about our history, you know that the story of our methods started from Doctor Aki Hintsa and his work in Ethiopia. He worked with some of the best runners in the world, but that’s not all. He mainly served as a doctor in a remote clinic and worked on community development projects in the region. This is where he became familiar with a project planning methodology called the Logical Framework Approach (LFA).

Since the method could be used to help a community, Dr Hintsa thought similar principles could be applied to helping individuals. Using himself as a test case and he started to plan how he could improve his own health, wellbeing and performance based on the Logical Framework Approach. This laid the foundation for the way we develop plans and programmes for our clients today. Here is a simplified outline of how it all works. You can even download an example worksheet and fill it in as you read!

1. Perform a logical analysis of your situation

The first step is not about what you should do, but rather how you feel and what you experience. Take a step back and listen to your body. How do you honestly feel? Is something hindering your performance? Is there something you are concerned with? What is going well? You can also ask some friends or family members to share their thoughts on what they see going on in your life. These can be written freely on a piece of paper for example. Once you have identified some key issues, start to build logical connections between them and select the most significant ones that you should address. As you are doing this, aim to analyse what is causing these issues, and also what their consequences are, or what do they lead to.

I’ll give you an example. Let’s say that I’m struggling with being constantly tired and it’s the key issue I want to address. I have also realised that I feel that I can’t concentrate well and I’m often grumpy and overreacting to small issues. These are examples of consequences related to tiredness. Let’s say I had also noted that I struggle to fall asleep, and often wake up too early without being able to fall asleep again. These are examples of issues that cause tiredness. To continue the process, you can dig deeper into the consequences related to tiredness by asking ‘so what’ and also to the causes of tiredness by asking ‘but why’. This would start to build a comprehensive and logical picture of my situation. The analogy of a tree is sometimes used for this step, where the trunk is the main issue, the leaves and fruits are the consequences, and the roots are the causes.

2. Set concrete goals

One of the foundational elements of the LFA methodology is that it always starts with defining goals and only then choosing appropriate actions. Actions should be customized based on what you specifically want to achieve, rather than having a one size fits all solution that is enforced, which really doesn’t fit anyone well. We divide goals into two different levels, Life and Performance goals and Health and Wellbeing goals.

Start by defining your Life and Performance goal. This is a long term higher level goal that you want to pursue in your life. It could relate for example to experiencing positive emotions, achieving specific accomplishments, having good relationships, being engaged and energetic, finding meaning and purpose in life, and so on.

The next step is defining Health and Wellbeing goals. We believe that better life and better performances is achieved as a consequence of improved health and wellbeing. Consider what improvements in your health and wellbeing could enable you to achieve your Life and Performance goals. These could be for example improving your general health, fitness level, body composition, sleep, movement ability, energy levels, and so on. You can define several health and wellbeing goals, and if possible, aim to also think of ways to measure your status in these and set realistic targets for improvement.

Going back to my earlier example, my Life and Performance goal should not focus on tiredness, but rather the consequences that happen as a result of that. I could for example state it as follows: I want to feel more energetic and engaged, so that I can perform better at work and be present with my family. This is the real impact that I want to see happen. My Health and Wellbeing goals on the other hand can be directly related to the issue of tiredness. I could for example set goals around reducing stress and improving my sleep. If possible, I would also aim to define how I can measure these.

3. Define concrete actions

It’s only now that you would start to get into concrete actions about what types of changes you should be making in your life. The key to determining the appropriate actions will be the causes that were identified earlier. In my example, one of my main causes related to tiredness was not being able to fall asleep well. To help with this, I could identify simple actions for me to work on, such as:

• Stopping all work by 8 pm (including checking emails)
• Avoiding all screens after 10 pm
• Taking the dog out for a walk in the evenings

These are simple actions that would also be easy to monitor. Without building the logical connections that were made earlier, I may not have realised how important these simple acts actually are to achieving my health and wellbeing goals and ultimately through those my life and performance goals.

The key to achieving your goals is starting small and doing small things consistently well. Don’t aim to change everything at once, but rather go forward a step at a time, and think of small actions that you can start to implement systematically. The Better Life application content progresses forward through the different elements of the Hintsa model. Aim to set yourself actions inside the app from the element that you are currently going through. You don’t need to set actions right away for all elements, but rather just focus on one or two things at a time.

4. Evaluate obstacles and risks

The final step is to think about potential challenges, or obstacles, which may hinder you from implementing the actions that you have planned. In some cases, there are external issues, which are out of your control. In these cases, it’s good to go back and re-evaluate whether the planned actions are really feasible. In other situations, it may be more internal obstacles, which you can work with. It’s important to be aware of these and develop a plan for overcoming them.

There you have it, a brief introduction into what we call Logical Performance Planning. Download the worksheet and have a go at it yourself. If you need further support, don’t hesitate to get in touch with your coaches.