The LNO Framework For Parents
Inspired by on Lenny's Podcast
You agonize over the birthday party favors like they're quarterly strategy. Meanwhile, the actual bedtime conversation got three minutes.
Shreyas Doshi was drowning until he realized: tasks fall into three buckets. L (leverage) - 1X effort, 10-100X impact. N (neutral) - get what you put in. O (overhead) - get less than you invest.
The trap? We treat them all the same. Perfecting the lunchbox with equal intensity as the conversation about what's wrong at school.
For parents, L tasks might be: the conversation about why they're scared. The repair after you lost your temper. The ritual that makes them feel safe.
N tasks: getting them to practice, filling out forms, coordinating schedules. Important, not high-leverage.
O tasks: organizing the craft supplies nobody uses. The Pinterest birthday party. The class email chain.
'The same type of activity can actually be either an L task or an N task or an O task.'
The birthday party you're stressing about? Probably O. The five-minute check-in about their day? Probably L.
Save your perfectionism for the L tasks. Phone it in on the O.
PM Theme: Time management / prioritization
Parenting Theme: Prioritizing parenting energy
“There are L tasks which are leverage tasks. And the L tasks are such that when you put in a certain amount of effort, you get 10X or 100X in return in terms of impact.”Shreyas Doshi · 36:47
“The same type of activity can actually be either an L task or an N task or an O task. So say a classic PM task activity of filing a bug report... Well, it turns out that filing a bug report depending on the situation can actually be an L task high leverage task, and in other cases, might actually be an O task.”Shreyas Doshi · 38:43
