5 strategies to make procrastination impossible

Over the past 6 months, I've been procrastinating on building a new lead magnet.

• I'll do it later

• I don't have enough credibility

• It's not perfect

None of it was true.

Little did I know: these were excuses to *NOT* indulge in the hard work.

It wasn't easy. Neither was it fun.

It was resistance.

Which is why my brain came up with these excuses. These excuses started to build up in my daily habits.

• Workout: I'll do it later

• Walk: I'll do it later

• Reading: I'll do it later

I knew I needed to do something about it.

After scouring the internet, I found tons of hacks and solutions. 

But, IMHO, you don't need to overcomplicate it.

These are the only 5 habits you need to kill procrastination & crush your goals like a boss:

1) Create daily habits surrounding those goals

For example: Say you want to write a #1 NYT bestselling book.

• Is it going to happen overnight?

• Are you going to write a 20,000 word book following random bursts of motivation?

• Are you sure what you write is going to be a bestseller?

• What if it sucks?

There are many parables here.

The best thing you can do to avoid this is to create a set of daily habits that push you towards your goals.

But, you aren't going to always follow through with them. 

Life's going to get in the way. What are you going to do then?

2) Have a small viable input for your goals

An input so small a toddler could do it.

Let's continue with the above example.

To write a book, you need to write at least 1000 words a day for a long time. 

But what if you can't hit that target?

Simply write 100 words a day. Showing up is much better than quitting.

Writing 100 words is better than writing none.

Think about it: What's the least you need to do daily to move the needle in direction of your goals?

3) Have artificial deadlines

Newsflash:

It's not your priority if it doesn't have an end goal and an end date.

Vague goals such as:

• I will write everyday

• I want to be a YouTuber

• I want to start a business

These aren't your goals .You're leaning a bit too much into the ongoing trends.

Unless you set a concrete deadline to a goal.

• I will write 500 words a day everyday for the next 30 days

• I will make 2 videos a week every week for the next 6 months

• I will work an hour everyday towards building my business for the next 12 months.

Deadlines create a sense of urgency.Use that urgency to fuel your goals.

4) Kill toxic temptations

There are two types of temptations:

• Long term temptations

• Short term temptations

Long-term temptations include shiny objects. 

You're deviating from your goals far too often chasing the next shiny object. This leads nowhere and you're farther away from your goals than ever.

Short-term temptations include things that give you cheap dopamine hits.

• Social media

• Your phone

• Netflix

• News

To avoid both of these: you need to design your environment.

Optimize your environment in a way that pushes you towards your goals.

• If you want to read everyday, keep books on your desk

• If you want to journal everyday, keep a pen and paper handy by your bedside

• If you want to write everyday, follow people who motivate you to write everyday

5) Single-tasking

Focus on ONE thing at a time.

• One problem

• One task

• One goal

Scattered focus will lead you nowhere.

Avoid multi-tasking.

To sum up:

To recap:

• What is procrastination?

• The 5 habits you can use to kill procrastination

That's it from my side.

• What are you procrastinating on?

• How do you plan to overcome it?

Reply with your responses.

Until next time.

Cheers.