Is What You're Doing Really Helping You?

[welshmin]

I recently took some advice from Dan Pena (the 50 billion dollar man). Take him with a huge grain of salt, but the guy has some serious chops.

Like many others in our modern age of distractions, I get easily distracted. I procrastinate, I open up facebook by habit, and reddit and the fastlane forum. I procrastinate so hard and so often that it is an actual HABIT.

Breaking that habit has become a priority now, things are moving forward and getting serious. I am able to see now that time invested becomes money received. And so every minute that I am NOT working on my project is almost literally dollars wasted. So it has better be for a really good reason.

To break these nasty habits, i've got my usual notepad beside me and i've drawn a line down the middle in the top corner. Like a pro's and con's list, ya feel me?

On the left I tally each time I do something productive. On the right I tally each time I do something unproductive.

And every time I open an internet tab that will lead to a procrastinating website, I draw a short line on the right-hand column. A tally keeping track of every time I open up a time waster. I feel so bad putting another tick there rather than the left hand side that I will usually close what I was about to do before the page has even loaded.

Seeing a visible reminder of every time I have done something unproductive is very motivating for me. Because as I build that habit, i've seen, each day, the number of productive ticks go up, and unproductive ticks go down. I can MEASURE that I am making progress.

Keep score and remember you're better than you were yesterday. Even by an extra tick on the left side, and one less on the right, it's still progress.

 

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[Yoda]

Keep score and remember you're better than you were yesterday.

When you make the tally, you also need to instill an additional item. Make it a dollar donated to charity, 5 push-ups, scrub the toilet... make it hurt.

You don't just want to make yourself feel bad... you want to shock the system and break the habit.

On the flip side, every time you complete something on the positive side, give yourself some kind of immediate reward.

You don't just want to feel good... you want to make positive actions a habit.

 

[welshmin]

When you make the tally, you also need to instill an additional item. Make it a dollar donated to charity, 5 push-ups, scrub the toilet... make it hurt.

You don't just want to make yourself feel bad... you want to shock the system and break the habit.

On the flip side, every time you complete something on the positive side, give yourself some kind of immediate reward.

You don't just want to feel good... you want to make positive actions a habit.

You make a good point, I will incorporate 5 pushups for each negative tally. But I an hesitant to put a reward in place for each good tick. This is something I end up putting perhaps a dozen or more points on the board per day, it would have to be a small reward.

 

[Yoda]

This is something I end up putting perhaps a dozen or more points on the board per day, it would have to be a small reward.

Then group them. Every 5 gets you a mini-reward.

Don't ever hesitate to reward yourself for taking action. Simply make sure the reward is just.

 

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[welshmin]

Then group them. Every 5 gets you a mini-reward.

Don't ever hesitate to reward yourself for taking action. Simply make sure the reward is just.

Excellent idea, thank you!

 

[blueoceanblues]

Focus on the few, not the many - Dan Pena

 

[Alxander]

I just gamed for an hour AND listened to 1 Step of the 67 steps from Tai Lopez lol.
You can be a little creative with it, as long as you are either executing or consuming knowledge it's fine

 

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[TheNextTrump]

Like many others in our modern age of distractions, I get easily distracted. I procrastinate, I open up facebook by habit, and reddit and the fastlane forum. I procrastinate so hard and so often that it is an actual HABIT.

Glad to know I'm not alone here..and I dig the approach of trying to master it.

Distractions and procrastination have literally beat me down time after time.
(truly feel its the last piece of the puzzle I need to master before the real fastlane progress starts gaining long term traction)

I use to waste so much time on FB, and still do to this day. But I've built it as more of a tool for networking / sales rather than social.

My news feed is filled with business, motivation, success pages. Entrepreneurs, self made guys, how to pages, and many pages that relate to the business I'm attacking.

I've knocked out about 90% of the random straggler friends that I don't even acknowledge in public to the core people.

Family, close friends, and strictly NETWORK / people who are either like minded or have some sort of benefit of keeping in touch down the line.

I also held onto about 15 different weird a$$ people I grew up with that are ALL chasing a dream. A few are chasing small time business, but most are trying to become crazy shit. Body builders, rappers, movie stars, porn stars, etc. 2 are even chasing for President down the line haha!

Were all SOOO different, yet still have such intense common grounds as far as pursuing something relevant in life its a great source of motivation seeing the same age / generation making moves.

Sorry to drag on so much there, but the point is FB is now a tool in my arsenal on a daily basis to generate income and also market for future income.

Negative to a positive.

To break these nasty habits, i've got my usual notepad beside me and i've drawn a line down the middle in the top corner. Like a pro's and con's list, ya feel me?

I FEEL YA haha.

As stated I still need to master procrastination so take this with a grain of salt but I've made major progress on productivity using 3 yellow tear away note pads.

NOTEPAD 1:
I list everything I need to do (tomorrow) the night before.
Usually about 20 tasks.

I wake up and scan the list, making any adjustments needed and organize for time / importance then attack.

While I'm knocking out items on NOTEPAD 1

I update the results / next tasks in line on NOTEPAD 2
I also list anything that comes up through out the day, on NOTEPAD 2 prior to finishing NOTEPAD 1.

NOTEPAD 3 is for next day, next week , and long term tasks / projects.
This is updated everyday and adjusted accordingly.

I also color code with Red Green and Blue Pilot Pens - Why Pilot? Buy a pack, the finer the better.

Not sure if this will all make sense, but if you can take away from it, it's surely made a tremendous impact on my productivity.

I average 2 completed lists a day with about a 90% completion rate of things that are strictly building towards my business, future, and knowledge base.


---Sorry for the rambling, just a very relevant topic to my day to day.

Thanks for starting this thread, cheers !

 

[SteveO]

When you are totally into what you are doing, all this other stuff fades to the sidelines...

 

[KeepGoin]

When you are totally into what you are doing, all this other stuff fades to the sidelines...

Were you just always that way SteveO?

I wonder if older generations that didn't grow up with computers have more focus. I find myself agreeing with the OP, and even if I'm engulfed by something eventually I just quit. It's been a bad day.

 

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[Yoda]

@SteveO said it best. When you get involved in something completely, none of this stuff matters. Read Flow.

Fixing micro habits is short term. You can't tally yourself like this forever.

The grandest solution is to be so enthralled by your work and your grind, you literally don't even have a place in your brain for anything else. This is really where the phrase, "Do what you love and you'll never work a day in your life" phrase came from. It's not that humans love work, but when we are:

• Interested
• Enthusiastic
• Enthralled
• Captivated

Then you suddenly realize Facebook/Twitter/etc. are absolutely useless during work hours... unless they're for work!

When you discover how valuable time is, and you act like it, your life will blow up.

 

[TonyStark]

When you're really impassioned about something, everything else fades away like @SteveO said. I don't do an important task, if I can't fully dedicate myself to it. Everything else is just procrastination, and I'm fine with it. I just know that when I step up to the plate, I'm 100% there. I think that's the key to success: focus.

Many people, unfortunately, when they get to their jobs are unfocused. They procrastinate. I would hate to spend my life half-enthused about my work. I want full curiousity going all of the time. Yet, a lot of people think that their problem is that they lack "focus", but that's not true. As MJ says, it is because their roads do not converge with their dreams. Instead, they diverge.

And that's why people lack focus. I'm sure if their $10/hr job lead them to millions, they would be a lot more "focused" on their work, and not need the crazy amount of pills they're prescribed.

 

[Nomangee]

@SteveO said it best. When you get involved in something completely, none of this stuff matters. Read Flow.

Fixing micro habits is short term. You can't tally yourself like this forever.

The grandest solution is to be so enthralled by your work and your grind, you literally don't even have a place in your brain for anything else. This is really where the phrase, "Do what you love and you'll never work a day in your life" phrase came from. It's not that humans love work, but when we are:

• Interested
• Enthusiastic
• Enthralled
• Captivated

Then you suddenly realize Facebook/Twitter/etc. are absolutely useless during work hours... unless they're for work!

When you discover how valuable time is, and you act like it, your life will blow up.

This is also a well made article about this topic by our fellow fastlaner @snowbank
Don’t Cap Flow State: Extreme Hyperfocus

 

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[SteveO]

I wonder if older generations that didn't grow up with computers have more focus. I find myself agreeing with the OP, and even if I'm engulfed by something eventually I just quit. It's been a bad day.

I have my share of tasks that get set aside when there is little care about the task. We all can get easily distracted if we don't have the motivation to keep moving forward. Perhaps the problem is that you don't want it bad enough.

 

[MAU]

I have my share of tasks that get set aside when there is little care about the task. We all can get easily distracted if we don't have the motivation to keep moving forward. Perhaps the problem is that you don't want it bad enough.

Agreed Unfortunately, procrastination has been around a lot longer than computers, Netflix or the internet. I agree with previous poster, the problem is usually not enough time, motivation, etc. it is the fact that the person deep down does not really want to do the task and does not see the fruit that will come from it being done.

 

[MAU]

I have my share of tasks that get set aside when there is little care about the task. We all can get easily distracted if we don't have the motivation to keep moving forward. Perhaps the problem is that you don't want it bad enough.

Agreed Unfortunately, procrastination has been around a lot longer than computers, Netflix or the internet. I agree with previous poster, the problem is usually not enough time, motivation, etc. it is the fact that the person deep down does not really want to do the task and does not see the fruit that will come from it being done.

 

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