How do you actually sit down and start working?

It may seem like a stupid question, but it's not.

It's never been easier to not work when you're supposed to.

4 steps to follow 👇 1.
Mental state check

Do you feel okay?

A bad mental state can derail us before we even start.

Rate on a scale of 1 to 10 how alert you feel right now.

5 or less?
Perhaps take a break first, reset, and then sit down to work.

6 or higher?
Good enough, don't wait for 10.

How to never get overwhelmed:

1.
Always focus on what you can finish today

You probably can't get everything done at once, today.

So, what's the part that you can actually complete today?
Focus on that, not the total amount of work.

What can you get done today? 2.
Start early to find out how long it'll take

"I still have time" is a dangerous thing to say to yourself.

Why?
Because you probably don't know how long the work will take you.

We often underestimate our work → stress + low quality work delivered right before a deadline.

There superficial and deeper reasons why we get distracted.

The superficial is a simple habit. You see your phone, you reach for it, you scroll. Same with opening a new browser tab.

The way to deal with these is to break the pattern:
remove the app, put your phone out of sight. The deeper reasons are the real reason why we get distracted, however, are unpleasant feelings or emotions.

Too tired to do work? Let's scroll.
Too stressed? Let's scroll.
Bored? Let's scroll.

Discomfort → escape.

You need to find a better way to deal with these triggers.

There's a big difference in human productivity and computer productivity.

Computers work 24/7/365 (366). They don't tire. They don't need to rest. They have no desire to meet up with other computers and talk about weather or sports.

Humans tire. We want to have fun sometimes. Don't try to beat a robot and be productive all the time.

Take breaks. Go away from your phone or laptop. Take a walk.

Don't stress about being productive while sitting at a computer for hours, that's not how humans work best.

Your mind is probably over-stimulated.

The second you aren't engaged, you reach for the phone or open a new browser tab. Any new notifications? Messages? Emails? Likes?...

New, new, new - constant stimulation. It's an addiction. And then you want to work, and there is no stimulation, just work.

This is not good.

Instead, become purposefully under-stimulated.

Put your phone in a different room. Turn off your internet. Go to a cafe that doesn't have wi-fi.

Get bored.

4 visual reminders to start 2022 strong:

1. Imperfect action > perfect inaction

Perfect actions only exist in imagination. Reality is messy.

Don't wait for perfect conditions:
* The perfect mental state
* The perfect timing
* The perfect way to start

Start imperfectly. 2. Slip-ups happen, bounce back

We decide to change. We start strong, do something hard.

But then, life happens. We forget to do something or get too busy. That's okay.

Expect it. If you skip a day, it's usually no big deal. Bounce back. Having a perfect streak rarely matters.

Here's a thing that confuses our brains:
mixing work and entertainment in the same place.

This is especially critical when working from home.

You're staring at a screen, should you work, watch Netflix, or shop?

It's ambiguous and that's not helpful. It used to be clear:
You get to the factory, you work.
You get to your field, you work.

It's not so clear now.

So it's up to everyone of us to make it clearer. To differentiate between "Go time!" and "Chill time".

Separate business from leisure.

It's never been easier to get confused about whether you're supposed to work or whether you can browse.

This confuses our brain.
"Should I work now? Or should I watch Netflix?"

Because it's so easy to do the latter, we get side-tracked. In the past, it used to be clear.

When you entered the factory, the shop, or the office, the change of environment told your brain:
Hey, it's time for work now.

If we spend 24/7 in the same house, there is not change of environment. No clarity.

"I want to stop getting distracted."

Ok.

First, getting distracted serves a function: it relieves discomfort.

You feel stressed, overwhelmed, or bored, that's why you open a new tab or grab your phone. Just recognize that.

There are 2 ways to control that impulse. 1.
Sit with it.

Feeling stressed? Breath deeply and do nothing.
Overwhelmed? You guessed it, breathe deeply, do nothing.
Bored? Same.

If you do nothing for a minute or 2, the urge to get side-tracked will often pass. Then you can redirect your attention back to work.

Here are 3 frequent mistakes that people who procrastinate make:

Mistake #1: Falling off the wagon = the end

You start to meditate. You meditate for a couple days and then you slip - you don't meditate one day.

What do you the next day?

What often happens is that people stop. The streak is broken. The end. This is a fragile approach.

In reality, even if you skip meditation 2 days out of 7, you still meditated 5 days which is 5 more than before.

1. Understand that slip-ups happen, accept that.
2. After you slip, focus on resuming the next day.

Break any complicated project into stages.

Example #1: creating a 20 slide presentation.

Stage #1:
Create a document outline - write down everything about the topic.

Stage #2:
Create 20 rough slides - no images, just main ideas (headlines + bullet points). Stage #3:
Rehearse - go through the presentation and see where you stumble.

Stage #4:
Add images and polish it up - finalize each slide.

If you break it down this way, it won't be overwhelming, and you'll be able to make progress. It'll be clear what to focus on at each stage.

The 7 essential principles for overcoming procrastination:

Break these and you'll end up procrastinating.

1.
Make yourself feel good enough.

If you feel like sh*t, you won't focus well. Sufficient sleep, coffee/tea, good music - all of these help you. The goal is to feel 5+/10 2.
Block out distractions.

The modern digital environment is not set up to help you focus. Not at all.

Every one of us needs to come up with our own set of rules that allow us to not fall victim to easy distractions. Without rules, you'll end up scrolling for hours every day.

How to do important but non-urgent things:

1. Decide whether the thing is a priority or not.

Is it making you feel bad every time you think about it?
Is it on your mind all the time?
Is it truly important?

If you answered yes to any of the above, then it's time to take action. 2. Something > nothing.
If you haven't written a word in a week, or answered a single email in a month, or published a single photo, go small.

Start with 1 sentence. 1 email. 1 photo.

Even 5 minutes of effort today counts (and don't promise yourself you'll do 4 hours tomorrow).

Procrastination erodes self-esteem. It's one of its worst side-effects.

You promise yourself you'll get something done:
"I'll wake up early and work."
And then you don't.

Next time, you even avoid making a promise.

How to not fall into this trap?

Start keeping your promises. What kinds of promises?

* When you start working
* What you’ll be working on
* How long you'll work on it

Start this process now, but take it gradually.

It's better to say: "I'll start at 9AM and work for 30 minutes" and do just that, than make a grand promise and fail.

How to become motivated with feedback loops 👇

A single positive feedback loop can be the difference between feeling awful and guilty about having done no work, and being on top of the world and feeling motivated.

Let's get into some examples. First a bit of simple theory.

Every time you do something that feels good, your brain registers it.

We want to repeat behaviors that make us feel good.

Those behaviors can be good for us (exercise) or bad (excessive social media scrolling).

How to make the most out of your day 👇

Our alertness (energy) goes up and down throughout the day.

If you understand these waves and use them well, you'll get things done.

If you don't understand them, you'll waste whole days and won't create anything to show for it. First off, levels of alertness differ from person to person.

Some people have most energy right after they wake up. Others have most energy mid-morning.

In general, you want to match your workload to your level of alertness.

How to be more productive without forcing yourself👇

Imagine you could work more and be wildly productive, and you wouldn’t need to force yourself to do it.

There are people who sit down and focus without forcing themselves to do work.

Here's how you can do that: The first hurdle is a negative attitude to "work."

Most people see work as an annoyance that keeps them from doing whatever they really want to do. It's something they "have to do."

They also think that having nothing to do is the ideal state they’d like to be in forever.

4 mistakes that lead to procrastination:

1. Thinking you have to start perfectly.
If you think every step of the way has to be perfect, you won't take many steps. Often 0.

Start imperfectly, badly, sloppily.

You need to create something to edit, refine, and improve later. 2. Undervaluing your own efforts.
Say you make progress today. Later you think to yourself:
"I did just that, I wanted to do much more."
"I'm not even halfway done."
...

This is how you kill motivation.
Instead, focus on the fact that you're making progress.
"Got started, good."

We were asked:
How to stick with 1 thing, day after day, week after week?

Books, businesses, building brawn... they all take time. You won't make it overnight.

How to stick with the process?

Here are some mistakes and tips: Mistake #1: not tracking progress visually.

When we mow a lawn, there's clear visual feedback - grass neatly trimmed.

When we exercise 1x, 2x, 7x... we probably won't see a change.

That's demotivating.

Without a clear measure of progress, you'll get demotivated.

How to Hack Your Brain and Be More Productive

Writing a thesis, creating a comprehensive report, putting together a website,...

The are all tasks that take more than one session of inspired work.

They can go on and on and on... We're not naturally good at working on a thing forever so it's easy to not start or get demotivated because the finish line is out of sight

Fortunately, we can hack our brain. And it's really simple.

We can use what Neil Fiore calls the Grandma's rule:

First work, then reward.