My System to Overcome Procrastination in 5 Days.

I want to tell you about my system for overcoming procrastination, it's based in, it is in my book, it's called After You Don't Show Up, and in the book I talk about this system, it's called the incredible method, so the incredible method, it's a play on words, which is incredible, how to get into credibility, right, the book has this idea that it's not It's not about motivation. Or discipline, even. It's about credibility with ourselves. So what happens with procrastination and chronic procrastination is very often making commitments to ourselves, or at least telling ourselves we should commit, we should commit, we should do this, and then noticing that we're not following through on it. It's kind of the definition of procrastination, really. So I've noticed, which led me to write the book, that the... The strategy, the solution that is put forth for most people around this problem is that you focus on how you can make yourself show up, so how you can change, maybe even manipulate your emotions to improve them so that you're more likely to show up, or you make a better plan that will make it more likely that you show up, or you get more motivated to make it more likely that you show up. But you see, the reason I've written the book is that I'm extremely skeptical of that approach. Primarily because I tried it for years myself and found that it never worked. But having talked with so many people about this issue of procrastination, I found that it really isn't working, right? This focus on what you do before the task, trying to make it more appealing, right? Make it seem easier. Some of that's useful, but it doesn't really address the primary problem, which is when we're stuck in this pattern of procrastination for years and years, I should do that, I'm going to do that, and then not doing it. it undermines our self-credibility. We get to the point where we feel, well, firstly, we judge ourselves as being untrustworthy and whatnot. But effectively, we just stop believing ourselves. We lose credibility. So you might say, well, okay, surely the solution then would be to mean it harder. Just acknowledge to yourself that you have lost credibility and you need to dedicate yourself in a more serious way. But you see, that's the same thing. But we've been trying harder. It's not about that. But here's the good news, right? And this is what the book is about. It's completely counterintuitive. It's all about what happens after you break a promise to yourself. That's where you can become more credible to yourself. So the book asks you to do this for five days. And I'll explain what this incredible method is, right? But effectively, at the end of the five days, and usually it takes maybe three days, Your credibility around decision-making comes back like this. You realize, ah, okay, something has changed here fundamentally about my credibility. So what the book identifies the problem in our productivity, this cycle of promising and not showing up, right? So you might say, okay, I'm going to do it at 11. 11 o'clock rolls around and you're having all these emotions and you're like, look, I'm not feeling good. I'm going to do it at 11.30. Not 11, 30, 12. Okay, not 12, but one. So you look back in the day and there's been like nine broken promises. I think at my worst, I made like 12 broken promises, maybe more, right, on any given day, trying to recommit harder. So our first goal is to reduce that, okay? We start to look at, now, yes, we make a promise to do something. We don't have any big elaborate plan. We just wake up, okay, here's the task. Here's the thing I want to make progress on. Make a commitment to when I'm going to do it. And the thing is, Let's say you say 11 o'clock, if at 11 o'clock you don't do it, the protocol in the book, this is where the incredible, now you do the method, right? The method is you don't do anything. You're asked, the only thing you're asked to do is make no further commitments or promises to do that task that day, right? That's the method. You step away from it. Now, why on earth would that be helpful? And it is helpful. If you do it for two, three, four, five days, I'd ask you to do it for a maximum of five days. If nothing changes for you within five days, I'd be very, very surprised. Okay, so this becomes your modus operandi for five days. I commit to do the task. If I'm not there doing it, I don't show up. My protocol is I step away from it at that point. Notice the first thing that's changed now. You no longer have eight broken promises or commitments. You have one. first of all what that's doing is it's it's you're no longer reinforcing this guilt all the time okay second thing it's doing is that you are no longer scrambling to salvage the day okay you made a commitment to it i didn't do it and i'm letting it go the scrambling has stopped Now, there may be feelings if you don't do it, right? There may be feelings of disappointment and frustration. That's okay. You're allowed to feel frustrated and disappointed. But what you're asked to do is commit to no longer recommitting to it after you don't do it. The third thing that's happening in this method, this incredible method, is that when you step away from it, okay, look, I didn't do it when I said I would. Now, the rest of the day, it's off the table. The rest of the day, well, there's a few things happening. The first is, Space opens up when you're no longer trying to renegotiate and repromise and recommit and salvage. Space opens up where it's like a genuine curiosity arises now. I wonder why I didn't do that thing. Because I had said I would, right? I wonder why I didn't. See, the problem is we think we already know why we didn't do the thing. What's actually required is a much deeper reflection on. That's very interesting. It's very important, actually. I said I was going to do something and I didn't. Now, we think we didn't do it because we're lazy, immature, not responsible people, not organized enough, need a better plan. That's not true. There is almost always a very, very human reason for the fact that we didn't show up and a reason that if you're not scrambling, you will find it and you'll be able to change your strategy and it'll improve your chances of showing up and becoming more consistent in the future. Most often, the reason you didn't show up is that you were overwhelmed by something. the task, right? Stop, pause, reflect. Now I'm thinking, maybe I was overwhelmed. Maybe tomorrow I could consider breaking that down into smaller pieces. Another thing could be, yeah, you felt it had to be perfect, right? Now, if you're carrying this perfection, perfectionistic, perfectionist sort of mentality around the task, oh, I'll do it at 11. No, well, I'll do it at 12. I'll do it at You see, you're not actually addressing the problem. You just think it's about doing the thing. When there's a major problem you're carrying of, I'm a perfectionist, and that's going to make any attempts to do this difficult. If I pause and stop and don't recommit to doing it, it might emerge in that reflective space of, I've got a bit of an issue with perfectionism, don't I? Right, okay, let's work on that maybe before we try and do anything else here, right? So overwhelm, perfectionism, maybe doing it for the expectations of other people. These sorts of things, right? Doing it because you feel you're unworthy and if you do it, you're going to be accepted. These types of deeper things come in. But mainly the big one is overwhelm. So if you can do this, right? You see, the reason people have a sort of adverse reaction to the incredible method when they hear it, it's not presenting the solution as go, do. It's commit yes and then reflect when you don't. But the good news is, and here's a selling point on it, you don't have to do this for like a month to see results. If you can do this method for like maximum, the only thing I would ask you to do is commit to doing it for five days. If you are not way more consistent and clear about what you're doing and understanding your procrastination issue in a much deeper level, after five days, I would be absolutely amazed. It's that effective. Right now, the thing about the commitment to doing it for five days, which is, again, yes, make a choice to do it. And if you don't do it, you leave it for the rest of the day. Commit to that for five days. You have to go into it with an attitude of, look, I have been inconsistent here for a long time. I've been doing this thing. I'm feeling guilty and procrastinating. I'm willing to try something for five days that could, in theory, result in me not doing anything for five days on this project or thing that I'm procrastinating on. OK, now I think it'll happen. Usually it happens around three days. Where the person gets this change, I have yet to see it after five days where the person doesn't get some sort of aha moment with this. So the solution to procrastination is not doing more. It's not coming up with a bigger plan. It's sitting and trying to understand what just happened. But in order to do that, you have to be willing to no longer try and rescue or salvage the day. You let the day go. Another way of saying that, let the day go. Give the day to deep reflection. To deep honesty, to looking into the real reasons why you didn't do it in the first place. And it's not those self-judgments. Lazy, not good enough. That's all. That's the first thing that comes up, right? Once you give yourself space, it's okay. Lazy, not good enough. That's all there. And then it realizes, yeah, but why didn't I really do it? I mean, that's not going to help. It's overwhelmed. Perfectionism again. These types of things reveal themselves. Once you see that, that can change your strategy, that can change your approach. Okay, I'm going to commit to less something, but I'll make it smaller. I'll make it easier. I'll give myself permission to not do it perfectly. These types of strategies you're carrying into the next day. Now you've got a real chance when you're using this protocol, this incredible method, you've got a real chance now of becoming consistent. consistently engaging in whatever it is that you want to do because consistency is not a command you issue yourself be consistent to be consistent in something requires reflection it requires understanding right you have to learn how to be consistent and you do that through mistakes through not being consistent so each time you're not consistent instead of saying well I need to try harder if you have a protocol of reflect what happened why did the consistency chain break there Now you're learning how, and that's teaching you what is required in your life to be more consistent moving forward. So if you're interested, check out the book, it's called The Incredible, sorry, it's the method in the book. The book is called After You Don't Show Up, How One Counterintuitive Rule Ends Procrastination. And I mean that one rule can end your procrastination problem if you can commit five days to trying the method that's in the book. So the link for it is below. If you try the book, I love nothing more than getting feedback from people. If you're already trying it or in the middle of trying it, leave comments below, any questions or things you're working through on it, let me know as well. So that's below, that resource is there, and I hope that's useful. I'll talk with you guys soon. Bye-bye.