[Day 2/4] 3 tactics to actually following through

Reader,

Today, I want to give you 3 tactics I’ve used to overcome procrastination, anxiety, and laziness, and my own human nature — indolent, pleasure-seeking, mostly-lacking-willpower guy.

I know, I know. I’m a huge catch.

Below, you’ll find the 3 tactics. Notice I’m NOT giving you apps or productivity tools that will supposedly fix all your problems. Be honest, if those worked, you would have already used them!

ANTI-LAZINESS TACTIC #1: If it’s not on your calendar, it doesn’t exist
My friend asked me how I manage my to-do list every day. I pulled up my calendar and showed him exactly how I run my life. If it’s not on my calendar, it doesn’t exist.

Look at this one:

This is a random to-do that I would normally put in the back of my head … and it would never get done. Instead, I added it to my calendar so it always gets done. Advanced tip: You can set up weekly, monthly, and quarterly “to-dos” for things like reviewing your systems, planning an annual negotiation, or even checking in on your relationship.

ANTI-LAZINESS TACTIC #2: Take an Honesty Bath
So many of us start our day off with a lie:

• “Ugh, I’m tired … I’ll go to the gym after work”
• “Ok, for real, I’m not going to eat junk food tonight” (said while getting dressed to go out, knowing you’ll be drinking 6 vodka tonics and passing by that pizza place. You’re DEFINITELY going to eat junk food at some point. But you deny it)
• “I’m going to wake up early tomorrow” (said while surfing the web and watching TV at 9pm … only to be doing the same thing 5 hours later)

This is where I take an Honesty Bath. There's nothing more relaxing than sinking into a bubble bath, putting on some candles and Richard Marx, and melting the day’s stresses away.

Uh … what I mean is, I get BRUTALLY HONEST about myself. This means I look back at the last month and say, “What did I claim I was going to do? And what did I really do?”

And then, I classify everything into three buckets:

• Delete
• Defer
• Do it

Example: If I claim I’m going to wake up every day at 7am, but every morning, I just slap the snooze button until it’s 8am … I’m not going to wake up at 7am! DELETE!

If I claim I’m going to make my bed every morning, but I have a huge project at work and I haven’t made it in the last 3 weeks, I’m not going to make my bed while the crazy project is happening at work. DEFER!

This takes a lot of fortitude since you have to be ruthlessly honest about your strengths and weaknesses, and your past behavior is the best predictor of future behavior. If you find yourself using the word “just” — “Ugh, I’ll just start next week” or “I’ll just try harder this week” — you’ve already lost.

The best part? Once you make the decision, you can live GUILT FREE and use your energy to commit to things you’ll actually do.

ANTI-LAZINESS TACTIC #3: Say “no” using this exact script
I used to have an inbox full of things I wanted to say no to, but I didn’t want to disappoint people. I also told myself I didn’t want to be rude, but truthfully, I didn’t know how to turn people down politely.

We ALL have this — invitations, obligations, things we don’t really want to do. And usually, we either (1) say yes, then regret it later, or (2) ignore it, hoping it will go away, until our ignoring it actually becomes rude.

In truth, wouldn’t you rather have someone be honest and say, “I wish I could help, but this isn’t the right fit” quickly … rather than dragging it on and giving you false hope?

Exactly. So why don’t you do it?

To remove all barriers, here’s a script you can use to politely say no:

Hi NAME,

Thanks for this invitation. I’m flattered! Unfortunately, I’ve got my priorities set for the year and this just doesn’t fit in. Again, thanks for thinking of me.

-YOUR NAME

Send that “No Script” to one person today. You’ll be amazed how it feels to clear out the cobwebs of obligations and start off fresh.

* * *

These are some of the tactics you can use to conquer laziness and procrastination. But they barely scratch the surface of the full arsenal of tools I use.

Which one will you test first?

P.S. If you want to see the full system I use — including the deeper, psychological strategies — check out Finisher’s Formula.

Remember, people who take action tend to do it quickly … while others wait around.