photo credit: sjsharktank

“I could do it if I really wanted to” is one of the oldest and most overused excuses for not getting off your butt and going after something you would very much like to do.

I could lose weight if I really wanted to.

I could start learning how to speak japanese, if I really wanted to.

I could become self employed… if I really wanted to.

I do agree that some degree of will power is necessary in order to gets started at doing something.

However relying on it completely to achieve your goals is not generally the most effective approach.

The reason for this is that as humans, we have this natural tendency to feel doubt at some stage towards pursuing your goal.

Why will power is overrated

Trying to pursue a goal while relying solely on will power is like trying to climb a cliff wall without a rope or safety harness. The moment you get tired, or in this case feel doubt, there’s a high chance you’re going to let go and fall straight back to the bottom.

If you don’t need to rely solely on your will power, then don’t.

Unless you are a person who believes 200% that you will definitely succeed, relying solely on your will power to help you overcome a challenge you have never faced before is a recipe for failure.

Will power is not constant like a flash light that shines at the same brightness all the time. It has moments when it dims, which makes the path ahead that much harder to see.

This is when alot of people are likely to give up, and when that happens, you lose.

Why mentors are important

A mentor or a coach is a person who has already reached the destination you want to reach. This means that they know the path and have 100% confidence on how to get to where you want to go.

Many times people will treat life challenges like school exams. You have to rely completely on yourself and you can’t cheat by referring to the answers.

Well guess what? Having a coach is like having a cheat sheet during an exam.

Anytime you feel stuck or need help with a problem, you refer to them.

Anytime you reach an obstacle you feel like you can’t cross, your coach will be there to show you how to cross it and to push you to keep moving forward to the next milestone.

Coaches and mentors are important because they take the guess work out of achieving your goals.

They already know the path, all you need to do is pay attention to what they are telling you to do.

Even if your flash light runs out of batteries and you’ve lost sight of your goal, you can put your arm on their shoulder and they will lead the way.

Mentors and coaches are there to make sure you don’t stop short before reaching your goals, so if you’re really serious about succeeding, get one.

Related posts:

1. My 2 Step Process To Achieving 9-to-5 Freedom
2. What Losing Weight Can Teach Us About Succeeding At Online Business

photo credit: MrB-MMX

Recently I was trying to get a new project off the ground but for some reason I was procrastinating on it.

I had the time and the means but for some reason I just wasn’t doing anything about it.

At this stage most people would just assume that they are just lazy, however I’ve learned that this is usually never the case.

When I thought about the situation more, I realized that every time I thought about the project, my mind would drift towards 2 specific problems.

Even though I had identified the problems, they were fairly complex and took me several frustrating days to come up with solutions.

Once I’d solved them though, I was able to speed through the project without any major issues.

Your brain, as highly evolved as it is, is not designed to solve multiple complex problems simultaneously and I explain why below.

Why can’t I solve multiple complex problems simultaneously?

Complex problems require significant conscious attention and creative thinking. This is why when you try to solve multiple complex problems simultaneously, your brain goes into overwhelm.

Trying to solve multiple complex problems you’ve never dealt with before at once is like trying to listen to two separate conversations on separate topics simultaneously while coming up with intelligent responses to both. Very hard to do and extremely frustrating for everyone.

Projects all consists of multiple tasks, some of which do not have clear solutions.

As such, when you focus on a project as a whole, there is a high chance you will be attempting to focus on multiple problems with unclear solutions.

This is generally how people end up feeling overwhelmed when they think of big projects.

So how do I avoid procrastinating on projects that  feel overwhelming?

Whenever you are faced with a big project, it is best to break it down into its individual tasks.

From here, it is best never to multi-task when dealing with a complex problem within that project.

By doing that,  you are able to focus your full attention on coming up with solutions for that one problem. This then allows you to progress faster through the project.

By progressing faster, you will automatically feel more productive and this will motivate you to keep moving forward.

Aren’t convinced? Try this exercise

Think of something you have been procrastinating on, grab a piece of paper and start writing every single step you need to take in order to mark it down as complete.

You will find that while you are writing this list you will get stuck.

The reason you will get stuck is because you will be faced with an action item or multiple action items that require you to think hard in order to come up with a solution.

For instance, you may find that the reason you are procrastinating on asking your boss for a raise is because you are afraid that you will not know how to respond to his counter arguments for not giving you a raise.

Here you would need to focus all your energy and attention into figuring out how to solve that problem. Maybe you could role play. Perhaps you could take a class on negotiating. Maybe you could imagine your boss is a cute harmless kitty when you go in to see him/her.

Whatever the case may be, procrastination stems from your minds inability to automatically come up with a clear solution for a particular problem.

On a more positive note though, once you have devised a clear solution for the mental obstruction, your path towards your goal becomes much clearer and you are less likely to procrastinate.

When you’re trying to solve a problem where the solution is not obvious, you need to focus.

Otherwise you risk getting frustrated by your lack of progress which leads to procrastination and ultimately causes you to give up.

Related posts:

1. Exercise 1.8: Creating plans to deal with persistent problems
2. Step 6: Post-Office and potential problems
3. Exercise 6.1: Common teleworking problems and solutions

The reason I’m writing about procrastination is because at the end of the day, procrastination is ultimately what will hold you back from escaping the office.

I used to be a serial procrastinator because I used to carry the belief that no matter how hard I tried, I would never be able to achieve my desired goal.

I believe this is the fear that many would be office escapees carry around as well. They believe that no matter what they do, they can never escape the office, so they either do nothing or avoid the mission critical tasks by making the excuse that they are too busy with something else.

Below I’m going to talk about 4 simple ideas that helped me overcome procrastination and push myself past the mental barriers that were holding me back from escaping the office and living the life I wanted.

Trimming the Fat – Applying the 80/20 Rule to Everything

When I learned of the 80/20 rule (also known as the Pareto principle), it changed everything for me.

I used to be a hoarder. Not just of stuff, but of information as well. I used to feel that in order to learn how to do something well, I needed to know everything.

Along with this I’m also an efficiency addict. I hate wasting time and like to do things as quickly as possible with maximum impact.

This meant that often times I would get frustrated from trying to do or learn things, as I would always try to learn every single thing there was to know about a subject in order to be good at it, which in reality is impossible if you don’t have all the time in the world.

The 80/20 rule taught me that in the majority of cases, only 20% of what you need to know is actually high impact.

The other 80% is just icing on the cake so to say.

For instance, if you talk about baking a cake, most could agree that making the base is the easiest but most important part.

The part that really takes up all your time is the time spent decorating it and putting all the intricate detailing to make it look better.

You could have left out all the decoration and you would still have what most would agree is a cake, and most people would be happy to eat it if you put it on a plate.

This is just a simple example of the 80/20 rule, but I’ve found that I can apply it to almost everything, especially activities I don’t enjoy so I can get through them as quickly as possible.

The rule isn’t perfect, but for me believing that there is always a simpler and faster way to do something to achieve  the most important results has done alot to help me overcome procrastination and to feel excited about doing new things.

Understanding Yourself – The Rules of Pain and Pleasure and The 6 Human Needs

When I first came across Anthony Robbins audio course entitled Personal Power I was skeptical. I’d had experience with motivational guru’s and they usually never provided practical information that I could use.

I thought this course was going to be same positive thinking mumbo jumbo I’d heard so many times before, but this course came recommended to me from a friend who usually wouldn’t send junk my way.

After going through the first 10 days of the course in a few hours, I was quite impressed by the simple ideas he presented which I could apply to myself immediately.

The key lessons I got from the course were the rules of pain and pleasure and the 6 human needs.

The rules of pain and pleasure

The rules of pain and pleasure state that all our actions are determined by our desire to avoid pain and feel pleasure and that we were ‘hard wired’ to function this way.

This didn’t seem right to me until I understood his definition of pain and pleasure.

Pleasure doesn’t refer solely to physical pleasure; there is also emotional pleasure, which sometimes gets referred  to as psychological or spiritual pleasure .

This applies to pain as well, whereby we experience physical as well as emotional pain as well.

An example of when physical pleasure and emotional pleasure can clash is taking drugs to feel good but feeling guilty later because you feel your family wouldn’t approve.

Another example is the man who experiences physical pain and hardship climbing a mountain in order to feel emotional pleasure later in the form of pride and achievement.

Understanding the simple fact that we will always try to avoid pain and gain pleasure, and also understanding at the same time that physical and emotional pleasure don’t always go hand in hand, allowed me to better understand why I did things and also to change negative mindsets and behaviors that were holding me back.

For instance, I remember the day when I wanted to ask for my telecommuting agreement. I was nervous and my whole body was racked with tension from the thought of finally taking the steps towards achieving the goal I had spent so many months preparing for.

Thoughts of failure filled my head and my focus was moving in completely the wrong direction.

Taking a moment, I reflected on the pain I was instinctively trying to avoid and realized that it was the pain of failure.

I was afraid that all my effort would have been for nothing and that as long as I avoided walking into the office and talking to my boss, there was still hope that  my plan could succeed.

I was avoiding the chance that I could fail.

The next thing I reflected on was the original pain that had caused me to attempt to gain a telecommuting agreement in the first place.

The stress of being in the office even if I didn’t want to be there, the feeling of being trapped and having no freedom, the pain of having to get up every morning at 7am whether I wanted to or not to go to an office where I would sit and stare at a computer for 8 hours, the pain of not being able to spend my most productive hours doing things I enjoyed instead of working, the pain of gradually getting more and more unhealthy with each passing month from spending too much time sitting down, the pain of coming home feeling too exhausted and wanting rest to do anything fun with my partner and friends…  and the list goes on.

Putting all my focus on those pains (I usually find it easier to focus on avoiding a painful to gain pleasure than to simply focus on pleasure) I got up the courage to go and ask my boss for what I wanted.

Had I not known exactly how to personally ‘brainwash’ myself in that critical moment to take action, I may not have done anything and I would still be in the office.

Telecommuting for me has been a life changing event and this simple idea contributed to making it possible.

The 6 human needs

According to the course, there are 6 human needs and that in order to feel fulfillment in life, all of these needs must be met.

These needs are the need for certainty (comfort), the need for uncertainty (excitement and variety), the need for significance (personal identity), the need for connection and love (belonging), the need for growth (achievement and success) and the need for contribution (making the world a better place).

By my definition, fulfillment is a feeling of oneness and contentment with ones life.

Taking sometime to think about times when I felt fulfilled in my own life, it became clear to me that the above needs are indeed fairly accurate.

This helped provide me with a blueprint of sorts in order to find fulfillment in my daily life.

Some people would like to believe that fulfillment is something that just happens and you can’t control it. For me though, I believe that understanding the rules to finding fulfillment significantly improves your chances of finding it.

For example, a time when I really felt fulfilled was when I was a youth leader back when I was in school and college.

During that time I felt fulfilled because I had this feeling of certainty that what I was doing was good. This met my need for certainty and contribution. Through speaking and playing music, I felt I had something unique to offer the youth community and this met my need for significance.

I also made many good friends through my work as a youth leader and this met my needs for connection and love.

The work was also very interesting and challenging which met my need for excitement and variety.

Understanding what to look for in order to achieve fulfillment in my daily life helps me take real steps to move away from activities I don’t find fulfilling ( working 9-to-5 for example) and to take steps towards doing things that I do find fulfilling (constantly learning and growing, spending time with friends and family).

Use Next Action Lists Along with To-Do Lists

Knowing how to 80/20 my activities and understanding how pain and pleasure worked wasn’t nearly enough.

I still had a tendency to get overwhelmed with to-do items and would always carry this fear that no matter what I did, I could never complete certain to-do items.

This led to stress, uncertainty and ultimately procrastination.

Understanding that I needed to find a way to overcome this ‘pain’ of frustration, I sought to find an answer.

My search led me to David Allen’s book Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress Free Productivity.

His book introduced me to the idea of using next action lists instead of just simple to-do lists.

The reason he recommends having a next actions list is to allow you to know exactly what you need to do in order to complete an item on your to-do list.

An example of this would be instead of simply writing “Cook Dinner” on my to-do list, I would write the following action items under it:

1. Go to supermarket and buy beef roast and marinate sauce
2. Go home and put beef roast in bowl with marinate sauce
3. Put bowl in fridge and leave for 2 hours
4. At 6pm, preheat oven to 200 degrees
5. Place beef on a tray and place tray in oven
6. Set timer for 1 hour
7. Begin setting table at 6:50pm
8. Take roast out of oven when timer goes off
9. Place roast on table
10. Dinner is served

Each of the listed action items needs to an actual action that is clear and easy to understand.

The reason why you want to create to-do lists along with associated next actions is because having a clear start to finish procedure on how to complete a to-do item prevents you from constantly worrying about it.

If you want to understand what I mean, try this simple exercise.

1. Think of a to-do item that has been on your mind for some time but you have been procrastinating on for whatever reason.
2. Next, list down all the next actions required in order to tick off that to-do item as complete.

Once you’ve written it all down, you’ll probably find that you feel more relaxed if you were stressed. The reason for this is because you are no longer wondering what it is you need to do in order to complete that item on your to-do list.

Also, since it’s all listed down on paper, you now have a reference outside your head to remind you of what you need to do whenever you feel unsure and start wondering about that to-do item.

If you have been procrastinating on it, what you will tend to find is that there is at least one action item on your list that leads to some form of pain.

For example, if lets say you’ve been procrastinating to call the plumber to fix the toilet, you might find that one of the action items on your list is “clear toilet of crap before plumber arrives”.

I don’t know about you, but clearing out crap is not high up there on things I enjoy doing that lead to fulfillment.

Listing out action items allows you to do three things to help you overcome procrastination:

1. It gets you absolutely clear on all the necessary actions to complete your to-do items
2. It reduces your stress associated with the to-do item. You just need to refer to your next actions list whenever you feel yourself worrying about it.
3. It helps you identify and isolate pain related action items that may be causing you to procrastinate. This then allows you to deal with the main issues that are holding you back from taking action.

Summary

Using these 4 simple ideas, I have been able to overcome procrastination and manage problems that I have struggled with my entire life.

Going through Anthony Robbin’s Personal Power course helped me understand in a fundamental way how my body and nervous system are hardwired so that I can better understand how to achieve results that are both physically and emotionally pleasurable and fulfilling.

This has since allowed me to focus my actions primarily on doing activities that will lead to fulfillment.

Using the 80/20 rule, I’ve managed to trim my daily activities to the most mission critical activities.

By reducing the number of to-do’s and keeping the action items short for each to-do item short, I reduce my chances of procrastinating.

Having the action list’s in themselves also gives me a reliable reference that allows me to track my to-do items and their associated actions so I don’t have to constantly worry about what I need to do.

There will be occasions when creating a short list of action items will be impossible. There will also be occasions when having a list of action items that don’t lead to some form of pain will be impossible to avoid as well (for example, cleaning up vomit and poop with your bare hands).

During moments like these, you will need to reassess the pain and pleasure you associate with that particular situation and try to come up with enough pleasurable reasons to get yourself to take action.

If you’ve ever done something like catching a cockroach with your bare hands to impress a girl when you’d normally scream like a girl if you were alone, you understand what I mean.

In the context of escaping the office, you need to understand that its more about mentality than methodology.

There are plenty of ways to escape the office.

You just need to find a way to either overcome the mental barriers that are holding you back (learn to associate more pleasure with escaping the 9-to-5 or learn to associate more pain with staying in the 9-to-5) or to find a way to work around them (telecommute to reduce fear of income uncertainty while you develop other income streams).

I found that ultimately, the belief that helped me escape the office was the belief that if I didn’t do it, I would be throwing my life away.

Everyones reason will be different, however that was the reason that was strong enough to drive me to take action because I associate alot of pain with regret.

I didn’t want to look back on my life and realize that I had spent the best years of my youth in an office stuck in a job I didn’t find fulfilling when I knew for sure that there was a better way to live that would allow me to pursue and ultimately find my true passions in life.

Related posts:

1. How to Overcome Procrastination Part 2
2. How To Overcome Procrastination Part 3
3. How to Overcome Procrastination Part 1

In this post I’m going to talk about what losing weight can teach us about succeeding at online business.

When it comes to online business and losing weight, most people would agree that there is more than one way to approach either one.

For instance, my method for losing weight would be to exercise daily, eat less fat and generally cut down on the sugary drinks. I wouldn’t alter what I eat too much, and this has worked for me.

My partner on the other hand might opt to stick with a more regimented diet plan like Kate Morgan or Jenny Craig and exercising maybe once a week. This has also shown results and works for her.

There is more than one way for a person to lose weight and in the same way, there is more than one way to succeed at online business.

The problem in both cases though, is that people are always looking for the quick fix and usually don’t have the discipline to stick to the basic principles that lead to success.

Here are some principles that help me succeed at most things and that I believe will work for you as well.

Get A Strong Understanding Of The Basics

For weight loss, the basic steps are:

• Reduce your fat intake
• Reduce your sugar intake
• Exercise at least 3 times a week for 20 minutes

For online business, the basic steps are:

• Start a website
• Produce good, relevant content for your target audience
• Attract traffic
• Sell them a product they want

Once you are very clear on the basic things that you need to do in order to succeed, it makes it easier for you to stay focused.

While each listed step can have different methods to reach them, the important thing to remember is that the goal is to achieve that step.

For instance, where it says exercise 3 times a week for 20 minutes, you can opt to cycle, run, swim, play basketball etc.

For online business, you can attract traffic in multiple ways. Through Search Engine Optimization to get top ranking in search engines; social media sites like Twitter and Facebook; word of mouth through friends or your business network etc.

Each method might produce results better or worst than others, however they all produce results provided you stick to it and work at it consistently.

Choose a Plan and Stick To It

The reason why I used to fail a lot was because I lacked the ability to choose one path and stick with it.

I didn’t have the patience to wait for results and I was constantly looking for a quick fix.

Doing 30 push ups today and then looking in the mirror the next expecting to look more muscular is an impairing mindset not limited to people who want to lose weight.

Many people (myself included at one stage) tend to invest lots of money in internet marketing courses and then get frustrated when they haven’t made money within that week.

Almost every marketing course and weight loss course out there works to some degree.

All it takes is some patience and determination to stay the course until you see results.

Define Clearly What Success Looks Like

You can’t hit a target if you don’t know what you’re aiming for. In the same way, you need to clearly define what it is you want to achieve so you can determine if you are moving closer or further from your target.

For instance, your weight loss goal might be to have reduced by 2 dress sizes within 2 months.

Your online business goals on the other hand might be to consistently generate $3000 a month.

If you don’t know what your idea of success is you’ll never be able to feel like you’re making any progress.

Get a Mentor or Someone to Stop You From Giving Up

When you don’t start seeing results immediately, it gets very easy to lose patience and give up. This is particularly true when you’ve never achieved success in that particular area, whether it be losing weight or online business.

This is why its good to have a mentor or someone who will help push you to ensure you stay the course.

Mentors are able to see success on your behalf, and having gone the path you are trying to take, they are able to give you advice that will help you fast track your efforts.

Taking this advice, recently me and my partner got ourselves a personal trainer.

At first I wasn’t too keen, as I always felt like I knew how to train myself and didn’t need a trainer. The problem was that I wasn’t committed to training regularly.

Eventually though, I realized that this might be the best way to ensure that the both of us got into the gym each week (at least once) and did a proper workout.

After having the personal trainer for some time, I can say that it’s really starting to pay off and that it has really helped us to build momentum in getting to the gym more often and exercising more regularly.

The point is that when you have someone who has achieved what you want to achieve and they are there to push you and make sure you stay accountable, you chances of success go way way up.

Summary

In my opinion, people tend not to succeed at losing weight and online business for the following reasons.

Firstly, they never get a strong grasp of the basic steps they need to take to succeed. Understanding the basics well serves to form a foundation upon which you reference all future action. For example, understanding that the goal is to drive traffic to your site will help you get less hung up if you’re only using social media like facebook and twitter but totally ignoring SEO.

Secondly, they never choose one plan and stick to it. Most weight loss plans and internet marketing courses are built around the basic principles. As such, all of them are designed to work to a better or lesser degree, provided the instructions are followed consistently.

Thirdly, they never clearly define their idea of success. If I want to refuel my car, then success for me would be defined as getting to the petrol station and refueling my car. If I wanted to wash my clothes, then success for me would be to put my cloths in the wash and then hang them out to dry later. If I wanted to lose weight, then success for me might be to be able to fit into my size 27 pants in three months. Knowing where your target is is the first step to hitting it.

Finally, they don’t get a mentor or someone to push them and keep them accountable. If left to me, I might not train intensely every week for 45 minutes. However because I have a personal trainer who pushes me and keeps me accountable, I remain dedicated to my schedule. Overtime though, I’ve found that it becomes easier for me to get off my butt and head out on my own without my trainer. Having the trainer around also keeps me from falling back into lazy habits.

All in all, succeeding in online business or losing weight  is not complicated, however it can be difficult when above four steps are not followed.

Don’t get hung up when you don’t see results immediately. Get advice from people who have achieved what you want to achieve, choose a path and have the patience to stay the course and I can guarantee that you will always succeed in anything you choose to do.

Understand the basics <–> Stick to one plan <–> Clearly define your idea of success <–> Get a mentor or someone to push you if all else fails

Related posts:

1. Why Teleworking Is A Faster Way To Work From Home Than Online Business
2. Why I replaced the word online business with online service
3. What babies can teach us about never giving up and celebrating minor successes

Forcing The ‘Just Do It’ habit: The Calendar

In the previous post, we talked about scheduling projects and tasks in a calender so that we know what to do next. Here are some things I discovered as I made the Calendar part of my daily habit.

The Calendar is probably the most important part in my effort of getting everything organized. This is where my To-Do list “flushes” to and each task gets an assigned time where it is actioned! This is where we will focus most of our creativity and energy each day, ie: It is important to have a good Calendar. For that reason, get a Calendar that is portable, easy to be ‘writen onto’ and easy to ‘refer to’.

I personally use the phone calendar on my lovely E71. It is linked directly to the Microsoft Exchange which means my calendar is backed up onto the internet every 15 minutes. There are some people who still prefers pen and paper which is totally up to you.

Discipline Is Overrated: It Is Easier Than You Think.

There are also a few rules I made for myself with The Calendar:

The tasks are prioritized here and the more important time critical tasks are put in first.

Anything that is not done yet must be rescheduled according to priority. When you action a task, ask yourself the question: what’s next? If there is a next action, put it into a To-Do list or directly schedule the actionable task into the Calender. IF there is no next action, then the project is done!

When scheduling, there are 3 possibilities: Do, Delegate and Schedule taks.

Do: If the task only takes a few minutes to complete and is actionable instantly, do it! Instead of using the time to schedule it, doing it will make more sense.

Delegate: If it is something that other people are more suitable for, put a time into the Calender to contact this person to Delegate. Then put another task onto the Calender to check up on the progress.

Example: “ 01/09/2009-Clean Backyard-See if Yasuo can find out the price of a Garderner”
“03/09/2009-Clean Backyard- Check with Yasuo if he has found price”

Schedule action: Put in a reasonable and practical time and duration for the action in the Calender. Example: “Clean Backyard-Call garderner” or “Clean Backyard-Cut grass and weed 2 hours”.

Don’t fit impossible amount of work into one day of your Calender. Include in the Calender quality time for yourself, your family and your friends. These are the things that will keep you happy and sane.

Conclusion: Get Focused

It is important to understand that there is only one of us. There is no need for you to actually feel guilty about not being able to do 10 things at once! In fact the stress will get in the way of what is important: Getting 1 thing done at a time.

Removing this guilt and stress will greatly contribute to your anti-procrastination movement.

Related posts:

1. How to Overcome Procrastination Part 1
2. How to Overcome Procrastination Part 2
3. Overcome Procrastination With These 4 Simple Ideas

Procrastinations Best Friend: Stress

“I am too stressed”……“I am too busy”……..“There are too many things to do”

These are phrases that pop up way too many times in a common everyday conversation.  To a certain extent, it is okay to be stressed.  Healthy stress is what drives people to improve.

But, for many of us; at the end of a busy and hectic day, nothing seems to be done!  And the worst thing is the unhealthy stress accumulates in our mind until it hits “burnout mode” and leads on to “breakdown mode”. Either that or we just give up and decide to do less. And hence procrastination grows stronger and stronger.

Procrastination Buster: An Effective To-Do-List

I agree that we live busy and complex lives but that does not mean that we have to be forced into a corner and bashed with an overflowing inboxes. One of the most direct way to eliminate this stress and procrastination is tame a busy life. You might just find that this post will maximize your efficiency and instantly drain away those anxious thoughts.

The rest of the post will try and help create an effective to-do-list. To be frank, it is not that different from the conventional organizers and is quite easy. But the littlle details makes a world of difference for task management.

Path to a Procrastination Free World: Planning a To-Do-List that Works

The pitfall to a normal to-do list is: it gets filled up really quickly. And when we look at an astronomical to-do list, we freak out and often choose to ignore it.  I am sure anyone can come up with unlimited ways to overcome this. The key is to think ahead when planning a to-do-list and find one that you know will work for you.

The one way that works for me is to “flush” the to-do list into my Calender (read How to Overcome Procrastination Part 3). By flushing and scheduling it into a time on our Calender, we know that these things will be done.  This will also instantly let us to know what we need to do on a day by day basis. And now instead of wasting 60% of your brain cells worrying about stuff you can’t do, you can put all your effort and “heart” into the next thing on today’s scheduled Calender.

Key to Winning this War: A Weapon with Quality

Now there are a few small rules I give myself and might help you when using a to-do-list:

All tasks and projects: big, small, important, unimportant, professional or personal will go into this list. Don’t worry about prioritizing just yet. It will sort itself out later (to be explained in How to Overcome Procrastination Part 3).

Sometimes we procrastinate because we see these projects as something really complex and just becomes too much of a hassle to do. But if we break it down into small actions, it will be easier for us to start moving.  Thus, have an actual practical task written next to the project. For example if you were going to do some housekeeping for the backyard:

Don’t write “Backyard”. It sounds too far fetched and difficult to even start.

Write something like: “ Backyard–Mow the Lawn” or “Backyard–Buy a lawn mower”.

The to-do-list must be cleared at least once a day. When you get a hang of it, all tasks are to be cleared into the schedule immediately if possible; which means the best case scenario is having a full productive calender but a to-do-list that is empty most of the time.

Conclusion

Now, lets see what is next on my calender…….

Related posts:

1. How To Overcome Procrastination Part 3
2. How to Overcome Procrastination Part 1
3. Overcome Procrastination With These 4 Simple Ideas

The Cause of Procrastination

I was on an 8 hour drive into the mountains for a holiday/work trip today and  my brain cells were  juggling and making desicions for 3 work projects and a couple of personal home and fitness projects. Then I realized that there were times where I am extremely productive and can easily get all these things done in no time. But it also reminded me of times were I am equally UNproductive. And it seems that these UNproductive times caused alot of stress to the people around me and to myself.

Well, instead of just brushing that thought out, I decided to reflect, track down and pin-point the reasons why I do that. The easy question to ask is: How do I feel on days where I get nothing done for a prolonged period of time?

The answer is:

One of the biggest bad habits that I have is LOSING FOCUS. And most of the time, it is because I am  worrying about too many other unrelated things while I am trying to get one thing done. I would be standing in the middle of the kitchen, wanting to clean out the stove but have cleaning the toilets and landscaping my backyard in mind. I would then end up spending 50% of that timeslot standing still doing nothing but wonder if there is a ninja technique to temporarily multiply myself.

Then I came across the idea of prioritizing and saw good examples from the many successful people around me. And I found that prioritizing is not done on a paper or calender but is more of a state of mind.

First Things First: Give Unproductive guilt and stress the flick!

It is important to understand that there is only one of you. There is no need for you to actually feel guilty about not being able to do 10 things at once! If you are always stressed, it will only get in the way of what is important: Getting 1 thing done at a time. This stress will greatly contribute to procrastination by muddling up your mind and make you lose track of making progress.

Second Things Second: Do something about it right away!

So the best way to remain focus is to prioritize on the more important tasks. But most people can’t keep a clear mind while the other stuff that are equally important is floating at the back of their mind. The way to work around your brain to stop it from worrying is to schedule the other stufff so that you can genuinely not worry about them.

Take Action

For the next week, think of one simple thing that you have been putting off for weeks and go do it. This could organizing the magazines that have been piling up next to your bed, throwing out some old clothes or simply giving the dining table a quick wipe with the cloth.

Think of just ONE thing that is simple and that you have been putting off for more than a week and do it. Don’t stop until the task is complete and once you’re done, you should feel your stress levels come down by a notch.

Every unfinished task that we hold in our mind is a thought that takes up our attention. The more of these unfinished tasks we complete, the less our mind feels like it needs to remember and the more relaxed you will feel as a result.

Related posts:

1. How To Overcome Procrastination Part 3
2. How to Overcome Procrastination Part 2
3. Overcome Procrastination With These 4 Simple Ideas