Hey,<\/p>\n
The subject line for this email is a bit misleading, because I
\nactually think procrastination isn’t that important.<\/p>\n
We’re all going to procrastinate. Your goal should be to make
\nprocrastination irrelevant. If procrastination isn’t a necessary
\npsychological component of how you work, then you can get a lot
\nmore done without the stress.<\/p>\n
What do I mean by that, “necessary psychological component”?<\/p>\n
Well I’d like to argue that most people procrastinate have a strong,
\nunconscious reason for procrastinating. If you remove that
\nunderlying driver, you get rid of a lot of procrastinating.<\/p>\n
—<\/p>\n
Why You Procrastinate<\/p>\n
As I spoke about briefly in the video yesterday, most students
\nprocrastinate because that’s part of their SYSTEM for working. They
\nmay not realize it yet, but procrastination is built into the
\nsystem they use for getting work done.<\/p>\n
The reason many students procrastinate is that it forms a brake
\nagainst overworking. That is, when they start to feel overwhelmed
\nby the task ahead of them, the body naturally brakes their momentum
\nto save energy.<\/p>\n
Eventually guilt and pressure override this internal brake, but it
\noperates nonetheless.<\/p>\n
Think of it like a car that tries to conserve fuel by putting its
\nbrakes on all the time. Eventually you might be able to push the
\naccelerator hard enough to snap out of it, but in the meantime you
\nspin your wheels.<\/p>\n
—<\/p>\n
How to Make Procrastination Irrelevant<\/p>\n
You can cut out a lot of procrastination simply by regaining control
\nover your own internal brakes.<\/p>\n
The reason most people have this internal, emotional braking system
\nis that they don’t develop an external, rational braking system.<\/p>\n
Most students feel it is their duty to be working as much as
\npossible. Any breaks or procrastination are decided upon
\nemotionally–i.e. when you’re too tired to work more.<\/p>\n
The problem is that when you rely on this highly emotional braking
\nprocess, you don’t control it. Sometimes it saves you from burnout,
\nother times it causes you to waste hours before starting work that
\nurgently needs to be done.<\/p>\n
—<\/p>\n
Gaining Control of Your Brakes<\/p>\n
The best way I know to gain control over your brakes is to have a
\nproductivity system that doesn’t just tell you what to work on, it
\ntells you when to *stop*.<\/p>\n
Unfortunately, most productivity systems don’t do that. To-do lists
\nare infinite, GTD obsesses you with next actions, and schedules are
\nbetter, but they can fail if you don’t actually finish your work in
\nthe designated time period.<\/p>\n
One of the reasons I highly recommend Weekly\/Daily Goals is that it
\nprovides such a braking device. Once you finish your daily goals,
\nyou aren’t allowed to work anymore.<\/p>\n
I cut a huge amount of procrastination out of my schedule when
\nswitching to the system because I didn’t have to rely on my emotions
\nto tell me when to stop working.<\/p>\n
It the difference between sprinting a 400 meter race and being told
\nto sprint until you get tired. Not only are you more efficient in
\nthe first situation, you don’t feel as exhausted afterwards.<\/p>\n
—<\/p>\n
Creating a System to Reduce Procrastination<\/p>\n
First, if you haven’t already watch the second video module click\\
\nbelow. It’s only 5 minutes, but if you don’t have time, there’s also
\na PDF transcript:<\/p>\n
http:\/\/bit.ly\/hVKIkg<\/p>\n
Second, get your Weekly\/Daily Goals system set up. This doesn’t need
\nto be complicated. All you need to do is:<\/p>\n
1. Write out a list of daily goals for tomorrow
\n2. Write out a list of weekly goals for this week
\n3. Each night, write a new daily goals list
\n4. Each Sunday, write out a new weekly goals list<\/p>\n
—<\/p>\n
Permanently Cutting Procrastination from Your Life<\/p>\n
One of my realizations in making Learning on Steroids is that MOST
\npeople don’t follow through on advice.<\/p>\n
You can get someone to completely agree with you on what the best
\ncourse of action is, tell them exactly how to accomplish it and give
\nthe best written explanation… and still nothing.<\/p>\n
Some people will start with an idea, but give up shortly after.<\/p>\n
What matters isn’t just having great ideas (although that counts)
\nit’s IMPLEMENTING those ideas. Actually taking action and making the
\nideas a *permanent* part of your life.<\/p>\n
—<\/p>\n
That’s how Learning on Steroids can help. Not only are there dozens
\nof new tactics and in-depth strategies I haven’t covered in this
\nbootcamp, but there’s a system for IMPLEMENTING the advice to make
\nit stick.<\/p>\n
Each week I send out new ass-kicking emails designed to give you
\none more way you can solidify the tactics in your life. The weekly
\nformat makes sure you don’t get started with the ideas and forget.<\/p>\n
Next, when we start the program on Monday, I will run group
\nchallenges in the forums. So not only do you get access to coaching
\nand exclusive content, but you get to work with hundreds of other
\npeople on the same types of problems.<\/p>\n
—<\/p>\n
Learning on Steroids will be reopening in just two days, but because
\nthe program will begin on Monday, I can only hold open registration
\nfor 72 hours and for a maximum of 500 students.<\/p>\n
The price is student-friendly, and there’s a 60-day money-back
\nguarantee, so I take on 100% of the risk if you don’t like it.<\/p>\n
I know that some of you are still on the fence about Learning on
\nSteroids. Here’s my request for you: hit REPLY and tell me the #1
\nthing holding you back from joining on Thursday.<\/p>\n
I’m not into giving the hard sell, but I do want to make my program
\nand all the free content I give away even more valuable for you.<\/p>\n
If you have read this far and still aren’t sure, please hit REPLY
\nand give me the #1 reason holding you back.<\/p>\n
—<\/p>\n
Stay tuned, tomorrow is the last day of the bootcamp, and I’ll be
\noffering more advice for learning faster and becoming insanely
\nproductive.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Hey, The subject line for this email is a bit misleading, because I actually think procrastination isn’t that important. We’re all going to procrastinate. Your goal should be to make procrastination irrelevant. If procrastination isn’t a necessary psychological component of how you work, then you can get a lot more done without the stress.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/members\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/619"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/members\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/members\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/members\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/members\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=619"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/members\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/619\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":620,"href":"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/members\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/619\/revisions\/620"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/members\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=619"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/members\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=619"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/members\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=619"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}