Hi Reader,

I write two newsletters every week: Life-Changing Concepts & Distilled.

It’s fun.

But it can also get tough as every week I have to find interesting ideas to write about.

In the end, reading fuels writing.

So besides books, I heavily use other newsletters to discover new stories and ideas.

I recently found two newsletters that improved my content diet. And I wanted to share them with you.

• ​Deepculture is a weekly smart digest that curates 20 interesting things (articles, tools, free resources) for you. I find some good articles and useful free tools thanks to it every week.
• ​The Sample sends you different newsletter editions based on your interests. I like it because I discover good writers who write about what I’m interested in.

I'll start sharing more of what I discover from now on.

Now, in this edition of Life-Changing Concepts:

RICE Scoring Method

“This is done, what’s next?”

That’s what you ask yourself after finishing a project.

It seems trivial, but it’s the most important question that defines your results over the long term.

Why?

Well, most people believe productivity is doing a lot.

But that’s an illusion.

Real productivity comes from doing the work that brings you the best results.

So it’s about doing the right things, repeatedly.

And sometimes the high-impact action is obvious, but it requires too much effort.

Or the chances of getting that impact are uncertain.

So how can you choose the best thing to work on?

Measure first. Choose later.

That’s when the RICE score comes in to help.

It’s a method of product management. Product managers use it to decide on the next feature to implement.

But you can also use it to find the best project to work on.

It helps to put unclear factors into numbers.

So you can compare different activities (or features) and choose the best one.

RICE stands for reach, impact, confidence, and effort:

• Reach: How many people, leads, or customers the project will reach
• Impact: What’s the impact of the project on your goal
• Confidence: Chances of getting the impact
• Effort: The cost (time and money) of the project

And the formula goes like this:
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Now, you can use different measures in the formula.

If you have real numbers (like the number of customers or a concrete time for effort), use that. If not, make an estimation.

The key point is using the same measure for different projects to compare accurately.

Let’s make it concrete with a real example.

Using the RICE score for prioritization

I’ve spent the last few weeks focusing on SEO and building Frontera premium.

So I was thinking about what to do next to grow the newsletter.

I came up with three options:

• Focus on social media
• Buy ads
• Build a referral program

To use the RICE formula, I estimated the reach, impact, and effort of three projects relative to each other.

And gave points out of 10 with a confidence level.

Focus on social media

Reach: 8
Impact: 9
Confidence: 40%
Effort: 8
​RICE Score: 3.6

Buy ads

Reach: 6
Impact: 6
Confidence: 90%
Effort (including cost): 10
​RICE Score: 3.24

Build a referral program

Reach: 3
Impact: 6
Confidence: 70%
Effort: 3
​RICE Score: 4.2

Before this, I was thinking of focusing on my personal Twitter account next.

But after putting things in numbers using RICE; building a referral program seems like the best option thanks to its low effort.

So I decided to choose the referral program as my next project.

If you also have lots of ideas and can’t decide what to do next, use RICE scores to find the right action to get the best results.

P.S. Here’s a simple sheet to use it.
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You can reply to this mail with your thoughts and feedback. I'd be happy to hear from you — I read and reply to all messages.
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Have a great day.

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References: RICE formula was developed by Sean McBride, Intercom.
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