3 Tactics To Beat Procrastination

Why is it that certain things never make it off your to-do list, while others get done in a nanosecond?

Jonathan and I explore the psychology behind procrastination and boil it down into three tactics (numbers 1, 3 and 5 below) you can start using right now:

How to attach rewards to your truly essential (but exceedingly distasteful) tasks to make them more likely to get done.

The role of knowing—and accepting—the consequences of delaying action.

Keeping the integrity of your list and why that powers your self-esteem and confidence.

The tricks we use to convince ourselves that procrastination is working for us—and how to reprogram them.

Discovering your danger zone—those things you genuinely can’t tolerate doing—and designing work-arounds so you can enjoy your life.

Quotables

“If stuff keeps staying on the (to do) list, it creates an anti-gravitational pull…the feeling of a death spiral.”—JS

“You want to keep the integrity of your list—if you’re not tending to it, all of a sudden nothing on the list is important.”—RM

“Get the stuff you’re never going to do off the list.”—JS

“The way we end relationships is a really good indicator of how we begin the next one.”—RM

“There’s a tendency to pour all of your time into the things (on your list) that you’re good at.”—JS

“Sometimes we just don’t have clarity—we put the thing on our list but we haven’t bought into the idea that this needs to get done.”—RM

“I know what my danger zone areas are, so I just make sure they’re covered.”—JS

“If you’re the kind of person that likes to have a lot of balls in the air (and you want an excuse to procrastinate), you throw another ball in the air.”—RM