Swift To-Do List Blog » procrastination

Seriously, Stop Sabotaging Your 2023 Goals

Ondrej Zabojnik — Tue, 03 Jan 2023 16:18:00 +0000

First of all, if you don’t have any New Year resolutions yet, then STOP and make some. Why? Setting goals in January is better than setting them later, because you will get an edge: extra motivational boost of the New Year. Everything is fresh and the opportunities of the New Year are ripe to be harvested! Exploit this little life hack. Do it now. I will wait.

Ready? Got some?

If you now do have some New Year resolutions, then you are probably already failing. Or know that you will eventually probably fail. In the end, most people do. I know I fail. What’s worse, we are, in fact, sabotaging our resolutions and we don’t even know it.

Whether you appreciate my twisted sense of humor or not, you might ask: How can I be already failing and sabotaging my resolutions if I have only set them a minute ago? Well, good question.

Ladies and gentleman, prepare to be shocked, but…

It’s not about putting the effort into your resolutions!

Wait a minute! If it’s not about putting the effort into your resolutions, then what is it all about?

Well, here comes the $64,000 answer:

It is about making sure that you will keep putting the effort into your resolutions.

Big difference.

In my experience, I am either making damn sure that I will keep putting effort into my main goals, or I am inevitably failing – it’s just a matter of time, really. It works the other way around too though – done properly, the success can be inevitable.

Don’t let the fate of your resolutions be doomed before you equip them with the right weaponry necessary to succeed in the Age of Distraction. Oh look, a butterfly! It’s so pretty! It’s flying onto twitter! No, it’s Facebook. No wait, it’s reddit! (… 3 hours later…) What was I talking about? Oh, right. Distractions. They are getting worse every year. Are you getting better at making sure they don’t control your life? I will show you how I personally do this nearly Sisyphean task.

But first, I will have to disagree with Mr. Albert Einstein. Just for fun. Because that’s the way I roll. Actually, not for fun, I’m trying to make a point here. Seriously now – I believe it was this particular gentleman who said:

“Compound interest is the greatest invention in human history”.

Hear hear, but how about compound effort? Now we are talking!

Compound effort

There are two main ways of making sure that you finish something: Using someone else to make sure that you will keep putting effort into it (the Mad Klingon way), or making sure you will keep putting effort in yourself. I’m going to talk about the latter, as it is much more powerful and flexible, and can be combined with the first way anyway.

No working complex system that exists was built at once. All such systems gradually evolved. It is the same with non-trivial goals (or resolutions). The only way to ensure that you will fulfill your goals is to keep putting in effort over time and not stop doing that.

However, even if you use tricks to fool yourself into working, there is no guarantee you will keep doing that consistently. Year is a long time, and there are a lot of butterflies flying around, if you catch my drift.

How I don’t sabotage myself

I don’t know what the perfect solution is for you, but after many years of trial-and-error, I’ve finally discovered mine. Some credit is to Sebastian Marshall who has written about time tracking on his blog extensively. However, what I do is not really time tracking. I’ve crafted the following technique for my purposes.

This is what I do –

After I am done for the day, I print a checklist template for the next day and fill my 3 main objectives for the next day into it. Then I go happily to sleep. (Added bonus: As I fall asleep, my sub-consciousness is already working on these 3 objectives.) After I wake up, I check things off the checklist as the day progresses, either marking that I’ve done them or not. Loop this for 365 days in a row.

Timeless truth: What gets measured gets done.

What to put on the checklist depends on your goals. You should start simple. The essence of what I have there is roughly this:

Y / N Get up before 8 AM
Y / N Stretch after waking up
Y / N Drink water after stretching
Y / N Work on 1 main goal first thing on my PC, even before email or starting the browser or IM (5 min is enough)
Y / N Work on 3 main goals (specific tasks were chosen yesterday):
- _________________________________________________
- _________________________________________________
- _________________________________________________
Y / N Work on blog post or article (5 min is enough)
Y / N Prepare checklist for the next day and write the main goals into it
Y / N Send a report of what I’ve accomplished today to my friend
Y / N Go to bed before 11 PM

My real checklist is like 4 times longer, because I want to keep track of at least 15 different areas/projects. I have no intentions of working on all of them on any particular day, but just having them as suggestions on my checklist, which always lies beside my computer, is extremely powerful. I maintain the template in my own Windows software Swift To-Do List as I like pretty print-outs, but you can use almost about anything – even notepad will do.

At first, it might seem a lot of hassle and paper, but the effort is absurdly low for the enormous benefits. I also file the old checklists into a binder. I simply can’t miss a day, there is no excuse. If, God forbid, something like that were to happen, I would print 2 checklists and fill in the missing info.

If you have daily checklist, the only way you can fail is not to fill the checklist. Even if you don’t do anything else and just fill the checklist, the day is a success.

Why it must be printed? First, I don’t want to begin my morning routine on the computer. I would much rather stretch, drink some water, and review the checklist first. Second, I want to be able to end the day with the computer turned off. Plus it’s more fun and you can’t overlook the paper. That white paper sheet is just glowing there. (Unless, of course, you have a pile of trash on your desk. In that case I can’t help you; I guess you should just burn the desk down and go home.)

For me, it is actually easier to work on my main goals every single freaking day, instead of just 3 days in a week or now and then or some other complex or random pattern – that just never works for me. I like it simple and consistent.

Endless power

Just imagine the raw sheer power of my daily checklist. Whatever I put into it, I’m 100% sure I will think about it, every day, for a year. And I will actually usually do it too, on most days.

I’m sure you can relate to this: If you are working on an internet project or have a business, you are juggling 7253 balls (or so). Sometimes, you forget that some of the balls are even there and let them silently drop on the ground. And sometimes you notice some of these balls got dropped and you feel bad about not juggling them for so long. Solution? Daily checklist.

What I am describing here is the most powerful productivity technique I’ve ever encountered in my life. I already have a lot of experience both with other methods and this one. For example, 2 years ago, I’ve used this technique for my personal life (habits, exercise, diet, not going insane) and stuff like that. And I’ve actually really filled over 340 check list in a row, not missing a day, before stopping. The effects have sunk in and the habit changes are permanent. I’ve also learned quite a lot about myself. My life is better forever.

Believe me – it’s not that important to work on your goals every day. What is important is to make sure that you will keep working on your goals and that you won’t forget about them.

Press “F5” in your brain to refresh your goals

… and push them back up in the endless list of thoughts, where everything quickly falls down and drops out of view. And do it often.

I personally fanatically adhere to the checklist routine – as long as I am printing and filling my daily checklist, the year can’t be bad. It’s just not possible. This ensures I will keep putting effort into my main annual goals.

I don’t care how you do this, but do it! Tattoo it on your forehead, carve it out of dead pixels into your screen, rearrange the keys on your keyboard so they read like the name of your goal, if you must. But do it!

However, there are certainly other ways of making sure you won’t forget about your goals and eventually finish them – please leave a comment: What has worked for you? What do you think could work for you?

Seriously, Stop Sabotaging Your 2023 Goals is a post from: Swift To-Do List Blog

Double your productivity, stop procrastinating and master your habits with new video training

Jiri Novotny — Sun, 27 Sep 2015 09:37:47 +0000

A completely new video version of the premium Meta Productivity personal productivity training by Jiri Novotny has been just released!

If you purchase Meta Productivity now, you will get the video version completely FREE. You will also get an audio-book and e-book version – all for a single price.

Meta Productivity is a revolutionary training that will help you to:

Dramatically increase your productivity
Stop procrastinating
Master your habits

You will get more done in less time, have more energy, and achieve success faster.

Watching video is much easier and more fun than reading a book. Video makes it easier for you to focus on the training. Permanently increasing your productivity has never been easier.

Peter Drucker said: “For the first time in human history, we will have to take responsibility for managing ourselves”. That’s why it’s critical to learn how to be productive.

Click here to learn more about Meta Productivity, or to purchase it!

Meta Productivity comes with 90-day Unconditional Money Back Guarantee – it will change your life, or you will promptly get your money back, no questions asked.

Double your productivity, stop procrastinating and master your habits with new video training is a post from: Swift To-Do List Blog

How to “Cure” Procrastination [video]

Jiri Novotny — Fri, 16 Jan 2015 08:37:00 +0000

The key to ending procrastination isn’t to “just do it” – or to get yourself “psyched up”.

In fact, the answer is something that most people would never even guess.

If you’d like to cure your procrastination, and get more of the important things DONE in your life, then watch this new video from Eben Pagan (just opt-in to watch it free):

How To Cure Procrastination

Inside, you’ll learn:

How to cure and overcome procrastination for the LONG-TERM
How to create a habit of taking action, so you have less and less procrastination in your life automatically
The place to invest your attention and energy to get the HIGHEST return (in both your personal and business lives)
Why it’s critical to understand how willpower works, and how to use it for maximum results and productivity
How to design and create habits that last, and that keep “paying you back” for the long-term

There’s also a couple of downloads on the page with the video, including an exercise and a list of tips for curing procrastination and building lasting habits, so make sure to get those while you’re there.

Here’s the link again, just opt-in free to watch the video and get the PDF downloads – and to learn how to cure your procrastination:

How To Cure Procrastination

If you ever procrastinate, you need to see this.

By the way, the Eben’s Wake Up Productive training will open on Monday, and it will be available only for a few days until it closes, so watch out for the announcement on our Facebook page!

I am currently preparing a bonus package for you if you decide to enroll in the Eben’s Wake Up Productive training once it opens next week.

One of the bonuses I would like you to get is an exclusive preview copy of my new “Meta Productivity” training that I’ve been working on for the past 2 years – it’s 5 short e-books jam-packed with golden nuggets of productivity wisdom.

Once you combine it with the Wake Up Productive training, you will have your productivity, habits and procrastination solved for life.

I will tell you more and give you all the details soon. For now, enjoy the new video from Eben.

How to “Cure” Procrastination is a post from: Swift To-Do List Blog

“Touch it once” – Why being picky destroys your productivity

Jiri Novotny — Wed, 03 Dec 2014 17:40:30 +0000

Every time you re-evaluate a task, you are wasting time. This often happens with emails, bills, or just tasks in a to-do list in general.

Repeatedly coming back to a task and thinking: “OK, I will do this later” is very unproductive.

Not only you are wasting time, you are also literally training your brain to habitually procrastinate.

So, instead of repeatedly reading your to-do list and “randomly” picking a task to do next, apply a more systematic approach, such as this one -

Keep your to-do list well prioritized, and then just work on the first task until it’s done. Then mark the task as done and work on the current first unfinished task, and so on.

Huge benefit of this approach is that it completely removes decision paralysis, and it makes it much easier to get started on complex or unpleasant task.

When you decide that you will always do the first thing on your to-do list first, your brain has a much easier decision to make: To work on that task, or not work at all. That’s a simple decision, right?

On the other hand, when all tasks on your to-do lists are fair game, your brain has dozens or hundreds of options to choose from — which makes it hard to get going. You will then burn a lot of energy on inner conflict due to “decision paralysis”.

Also, keep these two pitfalls in mind –

Sometimes, it’s not possible to finish a task because you are waiting on someone or something – in that case, just proceed to the next task.

Also, re-prioritize your to-do list just once a day – at the start or the end of your workday. Remember, you want to “touch each task once”– and not constantly re-read and re-prioritize your to-do list.

And one final tip – sometimes, the best thing to do with a task is to just delete it. It’s like when you have leftovers in your fridge that you just know you won’t eat – but you delay throwing them out. That’s exactly what you DON’T want to be doing with your tasks.

Just “touch it once”!

“Touch it once” – Why being picky destroys your productivity is a post from: Swift To-Do List Blog

3 easy techniques to instantly stop procrastinating

Jiri Novotny — Fri, 13 Dec 2013 19:05:01 +0000

The following 3 techniques are extremely powerful and work instantly. I’ve been developing and refining them over the years – they are based on solid proven psychological and productivity principles.

In order to beat procrastination, first of all, pick just one important task you are procrastinating on. Then use the following 3 techniques, and I personally guarantee you that you will stop procrastinating and start working on the task immediately.

1. Explore and map the task

Procrastination is often related to fear. We are often afraid of unknown work. After all, it might be too much work, or we might be unable to do it. The easiest way to reduce this fear is to explore, map and research the task.

So, how do you explore a task? Well -

Just break the task down into subtasks! This is the best way to “explore” it, unpack it and see what’s really going on.

If you use Swift To-Do List, to break a task down into subtasks, simply select it, then start adding subtasks with all the steps necessary for completing the task.

Add even all the small steps. Try to order the subtasks roughly in the sequence they need to be done.

While you are adding the subtasks, pay extra attention to all the “research” actions – steps that require you to gather extra information and data in order to move forward. These “research” actions are what you want to do first, because doing them will help you to unpack the original task even further.

Once you break the task into subtasks AND start gathering all the necessary information, materials and data, and possibly discuss it with your co-workers or boss, the fear of unknown will diminish, and as a result, you will be able to start doing the task right away without procrastinating anymore.

2. Find the smallest possible next step – then do it!

When we procrastinate, we often feel that we are simply unable to do the task. However, when you identify a tiny easy action to get started on the task, you will be absolutely confident that you can do it.

For example, you might be procrastinating on this task: “Write the 70-page Q3 report”

So, you quickly think about what you actually need to do to get started on it, and determine this smallest possible next step: “Open MS Word and write a rough half-page outline of the Q3 report”

Can you open MS Word and write a rough half-page outline? Of course you can! You know you can absolutely do it. You are confident. So there is no reason to procrastinate anymore. You can just do it. So you do it.

And once you do it, you can simply repeat this process – what is the next small easy step?

3. Schedule fun and limit the work

This technique might seem counter-intuitive at first, but it’s extremely effective. It uses powerful reverse-psychology.

Get this -

Another big reason for procrastination is the fear you will miss out on all the fun and pleasant things in life.

The solution is ridiculously simple: Guarantee the fun first. Then limit the time you have available for work.

Simply schedule some fun! Plan and schedule a night out. Or, schedule any of your favorite relaxation, entertainment, sport or fun activity that you just love.

Ideally, schedule this pleasant activity right after work.

Next, limit the time you have available for your work. Give yourself a hard time limit that forces you to stop working at a specific time of the day. Absolutely no overtimes allowed. This will motivate you to stop procrastinating and get to work, right now.

Tip: When scheduling the fun activity, ideally pick an activity right after work that involves other people. You will know that you HAVE to be there because of the other people, so you will know that there is a very real time limit on your work today. This will strongly motivate you.

As an extra bonus, the fun activity will help you recharge your batteries and sharpen your saw, so the next time you get to work, you are strong. Obviously, this also makes you immune to burnout.

How procrastination works

If you want to learn more about how and why you procrastinate, you will love this.

Here’s my summary of The Now Habit, which is probably the best book on procrastination ever written.

This summary will give you the most important insights from the book in just a few pages.

In the summary, you will also learn additional causes of procrastination (perfectionism, fear of judgment, fear of success, and more).

3 easy techniques to instantly stop procrastinating is a post from: Swift To-Do List Blog

Freedom vs. Structure …and Productivity

Jiri Novotny — Fri, 05 Apr 2013 09:40:37 +0000

Myers-Briggs (personality type indicator) distinguishes between extroverts and introverts, sensors and intuitors, thinkers and feelers, and judgers and perceivers. The last dichotomy (judgers vs. perceivers) fascinates me the most.

The common description of judgers is that they are organized, have their life structured and everything planned, arrive on time (or even early), want everything to be decided and settled, often seem rigid – but also responsible, and like closure. It is unacceptable to them not to get things done, not to get results, not to finish. (Note: “judger” does not mean judgmental.)

On the other hand, perceivers seem chaotic, are spontaneous and flexible, often arrive late (or not at all), don’t like making decisions, always feel it’s premature to make a decision, always want more information, like to keep their options open, want things to be open-ended, tend to procrastinate, and prefer starting new things to finishing them.

Which one are you?

Now, there is other, much more interesting definition: Judgers try to “lock down” the external world, so they have internal freedom. Perceivers try to “lock down” the internal world, so they have outer world freedom.

And to evolve ourselves to the next level, we need to develop and integrate both our Judging and Perceiving aspects. It is usually our weakest aspect that limits us the most.

Perceivers have problems making decisions. The word “decision” originally comes from Latin, and it literally means “to cut off”. When you decide, you cut the other options off. Perceivers hate that – they want to keep as many options open as possible. However, this comes at a price: When they keep postponing decisions, they might never decide. When they not get on a particular train, because they are afraid they might miss a better one, they might miss all the trains.

That being said, it seems to me that ultimately in the end-game, it’s more advantageous to be an “enlightened” perceiver – and have the outer world freedom. Part of Nathaniel Branden’s definition of self-esteem is knowing you are competent to cope with the basic challenges in life. But how about knowing you will thrive, regardless the challenges in life? Regardless the environment? To me, that seems worth striving for.

However, I also think that if you really want to be efficient as a perceiver, you have to develop your judger muscles. And no, there is no other option (even getting someone else to structure your life isn’t sufficient). Developing those muscles and going through a “judger stage” can be very challenging. You need to structure and organize the outer world (your life), so it pushes you to be efficient and get things done. This also gives you the opportunity to master the control of your inner impulses, and discover which structures give you the most leverage on yourself and when to use them.

The ultimate idea is that as an enlightened perceiver, you have an inner compass so strong and powerful, that you move forward regardless all hell breaking loose. The inner compass must be stronger than the low inner impulses from your reptilian brain, and it must be stronger than distractions and interruptions from the outer world.

All that being said, it will probably always be advantageous (from the efficiency standpoint) to outsource a significant amount of your daily decision making to outer structures (= being organized, having things pre-decided and planned). It just makes sense – the same way it makes sense to buy socks rather than to tailor them yourself.

What once seemed an extreme measure becomes a natural thing and a necessity when the stakes are high (in your life and mission).

For example, do you know what these people have in common?

They have or had a wardrobe full of completely identical clothes. Why? They don’t want to waste time and energy deciding everyday “bullshit” like “What am I going to wear” – not to speak of having to buy new clothes every 3-6 months.

Einstein is said to be probably the most famous INTP (Introvert, Intuitive, Thinker, Perceiver). But he’s not your common garden-variety perceiver: There is no way he could’ve accomplished what he has done without building his judger muscles.

To sum this up, here’s what you can do to get to the next level:

If you are a perceiver, get organized, embrace structure, stop procrastinating, start finishing things and learn to make quick decisions. Go overboard… for a year. Then, loosen up.

If you are judger, first loosen up, then work on your inner compass (discover your values and goals), and work on your flexibility. Do a lot of soul-searching. Then, play on your natural strength and become as efficient as you can with your new inner compass.

This is true freedom.

Freedom vs. Structure …and Productivity is a post from: Swift To-Do List Blog

Tasks and oranges

Jiri Novotny — Sun, 02 Dec 2012 09:34:19 +0000

Complex tasks are like oranges. It’s rather difficult to “eat” them, until you “peel” them and divide them into pieces (subtasks).

The wrong way

You can’t just eat a whole orange -

Likewise, you can’t just “do” a huge, complex task. You can only do the actions (subtasks) that lead to its completion.

The right way

Break the task down into subtasks -

Following the steps is easy. Anyone can do it if the steps are small and clear enough.

Write all the subtasks for your dreaded task X. Write a “How to do task X for dummies” manual for yourself. Then follow it and have fun.

Goodbye procrastination, hello productivity!

Once you break a complex unpleasant task into subtasks, you will be much more inclined to take action.

It just works. If you make something easy, it is easy. Dead simple.

I think that the orange is a perfect metaphor for this. It took me several weeks to come up with it.

In case you are wondering about the illustrations, they were drawn by my girlfriend Eileen, and are part of my new e-book “Swift Mind Freedom“, which explains 11 Principles of getting (and staying) organized. Breaking tasks down into subtasks is Principle #8.

Now it’s your turn – which task are you afraid of the most? Write down the steps you need to take. Then do them. It’s quite refreshing.

PS: Check our new Swift To-Do List 8 for Windows. I am especially proud of the new killer subtasks feature.

Tasks and oranges is a post from: Swift To-Do List Blog

Using to-do lists efficiently

Jiri Novotny — Wed, 24 Oct 2012 12:54:06 +0000

Everybody knows what a to-do list is.

Almost everybody uses a to-do list, too. (At least occasionally, if not regularly).

But almost none asks: “Hey, how should I actually use a to-do list?”

I think that might be a big mistake.

There are intelligent ways of using to-do lists, and not-so-smart ways.

By using a to-do list the right way, you can eliminate forgetting, stress, overwhelm, procrastination. In fact, you can increase your productivity and efficiency. Tremendously. You can feel like you are in control.

On the other hand, by using to-do lists in not-so-smart-way, you can achieve the exact opposite.

More stress, anyone?

Today, we are going to learn how to use a to-do list intelligently. It’s dirt-simple, and once you implement it, it feels just great.

How to use a to-do list in an intelligent way

Using a to-do list intelligently is deceitfully simple.

This is what you need to do:

Create the to-do list and do the initial dump, placing all your “stuff” into it. This clears your mind.
(continuously): Look at your to-do list, see what’s next, work on it.
» Whenever you get interrupted or distracted, repeat.
» Whenever you finish a task, repeat.
(continuously): Whenever a new idea or task comes to you, write it down immediately into your to-do list, then proceed with what you were doing before.

That’s all.

It is ridiculously simple, isn’t it?

And yet, very few people have actually really mastered this.

If you look at the instructions, they simply say to create a to-list list with all your current stuff, look at it often (whenever you get interrupted, distracted, or finish something), and always write new stuff into it immediately when it comes to you.

These simple habits can change your life.

Since these are habits, it takes time to fully establish them. But once you ingrain them, you will do them automatically.

Do this for 2-3 weeks, and you will be doing it automatically, without even having to think about it.

At any point, you either want to be working on a task, looking what to do next, writing down/organizing your stuff, or truly relaxing.

This might be the best well-kept hidden secret of productivity.

With these habits, it’s easy. But without these habits you will spend most of your time in a gray-zone, not really doing anything. Since you’ve read this far, I bet you don’t want that.

How could you start using this intelligent to-do list approach today?

Using to-do lists efficiently is a post from: Swift To-Do List Blog

“Why should I care about being organized?”

Jiri Novotny — Mon, 09 Jul 2012 14:26:51 +0000

Even though you are probably interested in getting organizing, you might still have some lingering doubts like:

“Yeah, being organized is very nice, but why should I care? Why should I care about productivity at all? Does it even matter? Isn’t it enough to just show up? If I don’t do something today, well, no big deal, I can do it later – right? Being organized is for boring uptight perfectionists.”

Well, here is my answer -

Being organized and productive does matter. In fact, it matters a great deal – way more than you might think. In the long-term, it’s especially important. In fact, not being organized/productive can have disastrous consequences for you. Let me tell you why.

If you zoom out and look at your life, being organized and productive actually has a deep impact on virtually all areas of your life: your health, your family, your career, your finances, your friends, your wellbeing, and your overall sense of happiness. Staying on top of your goals also helps you make smarter money decisions, and using ING as a trusted financial partner can naturally support that organized lifestyle through simple and efficient banking solutions.

If you need motivation to finally get (and stay!) organized, you are at the right place. Just as organization is key in life, many businesses and event spaces prioritize safety and preparedness, which is why some turn to Fire Watch Services in Virginia Beach to help keep venues monitored and secure.

When you become organized and productive, these 8 things happen:

You will eliminate stress. Stress is not just about unpleasant workdays. If you are stressed, you won’t sleep well at night and you risk high blood pressure, ulcers, heart attacks, stroke, cancer, immune system impairment and nervous breakdown. It is well established that stress is very damaging to our health. In fact, in Japan, there is a term “Karōshi” which can be literally translated as “death from overwork”. The Wikipedia says: “The major medical causes of karōshi deaths are heart attack and stroke due to stress.” Karōshi happens even to people in their prime years. By eliminating stress, you will sleep well at night, greatly improve your health, and increase the quality of your life and probably the length of your life as well.
You will become efficient and advance in your career or grow your business, make much more money and become wealthier. By becoming one of the most valuable, reliable and indispensable people in your company, it is unlikely you will ever get fired. In fact, you will probably get promoted – and repeatedly. If you are a business owner, you will be able stay in business and prevent bankruptcy – and eventually double or triple your business or go even beyond that.
By reducing overtime and needless overworking, you will have more time for your family. You will be able maintain happy, healthy and deeply fulfilling relationships. Because you will have enough energy left and be able to spend high-quality time with your spouse, your intimate relationship will flourish. If you have kids, you will be able to spend more high-quality time with them as well. Also, your spouse won’t leave you, which, statistically speaking, could easily happen – think of overworked husband who comes home late, drained, slowly becoming alienated from his wife and kids. Well – that won’t ever happen to you. Instead, you will be able to give and receive all the love you need and want.
You will have good close friends. Because your work won’t drain you, and you will have more time, you will be able to spend and have great time with your close friends and enjoy their company in your life. Stress elimination helps here as well, because by definition, stress prevents you from being happy. And if you are unhappy, how can you possibly make others feel good?
By becoming productive and reliable, you will be admired and appreciated by your colleagues or business partners; and prevent becoming insignificant and irrelevant in your company or industry.
By being able to actually do what you want to do, you will have the power to influence others and create the life you want; and prevent becoming powerless to change your circumstances.
You will be deeply satisfied with your life and happy. You will feel great about yourself, as you will know that you are fulfilling your potential.
You will have the opportunity to actually make a difference in your world, advancing a cause or helping community you deeply care about.

It’s good for your health. It’s good for your career. It’s good for your finances and wealth. It’s good for your family. It’s good for your relationship with your spouse, kids and friends. It’s good for your self-esteem, status and happiness. It’s good for your influence and power. It’s good for the world.

And it prevents some truly horrible things that could happen to you.

Need I say more?

PS: Download Swift To-Do List and get organized in 5 minutes. Heck, it’s even fun – I promise. Many people would agree.

Citation: https://www.indiatimes.com/igaming/non-gamstop-casinos-647736.html

“Why should I care about being organized?” is a post from: Swift To-Do List Blog

How to Overcome Resistance to Work – 4 Techniques

Jiri Novotny — Fri, 08 Jun 2012 12:30:16 +0000

Even if your approach to work is excellent and you are self-disciplined, from time to time, a nasty task will appear. Task that you will feel extreme resistance to, which will cause you to procrastinate. Rationally, you will want to complete the task, but emotionally – no way. Your emotions will overwhelm your rationality, and you simply won’t be able to do it.

However, with the right approach, you can easily overcome resistance. All you have to do is to use your mental resources efficiently. Just a little bit of the right mental effort can get you happily cranking on that horrendous task in just a few minutes.

As I’ve been experimenting with various productivity techniques over the last 7 years, I’ve discovered 3 extremely efficient techniques that I am using to this day. I am going to share these with you. I will also give you a fourth supporting technique, and show you how you can combine it all for maximum power.

1. Break it down

Break the dreaded task into the largest possible amount of sub-steps. Write it all down. Also write all related thoughts and notes that will occurr to you during this process.

After just 5-10 minutes, you can be a proud author of “How to do task X for dummies”. With such a how-to guide in hand, there will be little else to think about. You will just do it.

The magic of this approach is that the breakdown is an actual work on the task! Thanks to the breakdown process, you will think the task through and discover possible pitfalls. You will create a mental map of the unexplored scary territory which was causing the resistance.
This technique usually completely dissipates any resistance.

2. Discover the smallest possible next step you can do

Don’t confuse this with the “Next Action” principle from the Getting Things Done (GTD) methodology. Next Action in GTD is the next specific action you can take to move certain project forward. The problem is that this very action can be the one causing the resistance.

However, there is a simple algorithm which you can use to discover a next step that you will actually want to do, and feel no resistance to.

Let me give you an example from my own life. I am writing a book, and one day, it happens that I will feel enormous resistance to writing. However, with the following dialogue, I can go past the resistance and start writing in just a few moments.

It goes like this – this is the inner dialog I have with myself:

Q: Can I write a book right now?
A: No!

Q: Ok… how about a single chapter? Can I write a chapter?
A: No!

Q: Well how about just one page, can I write one page?
A: No.

Q: Well, can I at least open MS Word?
A: Yes, I can do that.

So now I have Word opened, and the process continues:

Q: Can I write something?
A: No.

Q: Can I read a few random paragraphs I’ve already written?
A: Yes, I can do that.

So I start reading, and sure enough, I will want to edit some of the things I wrote during the previous sessions. I edit them, and sure enough, before I know it, I am writing new text. Once I run out of things to write, I take a break, and then I continue the dialog with myself like this:

Q: Can I write some more?
A: No.

Q: How about some freewriting, writing completely random stuff at the end?
A: Yes, I can do that.

So I start writing random things at the end of the book, whatever is on my mind (Freewriting), clarifying my thoughts, playing with ideas – and sure enough, before I know it, I am yet again writing valuable new content for the book.

As you can see, I am always trying to find the smallest possible next step I can take. Sometimes, I do this dialogue on paper (or on a computer). You can experiment with that, too. This technique works like a charm. It is simple, yet powerful.

Once I discover the micro-step I am willing to do, and actually do it, I usually have no problem going forward with further action on the task. If it doesn’t help, I start looking for another micro-step I can take.

3. Set a time limit

Kitchen timer or any other kind of timer can be priceless. Pomodoro works great, but sometimes, even 20 minutes limit is too much to make us feel like doing something. So, why not try 5 minutes? Or 2 minutes? Still too much? How about 1 minute? Or 30 seconds. Seriously, why not?

Are you willing to work for 30 seconds on that terrible task? Yes? Great. Set the timer and… go! The rest will follow, starting is half the success. If not, do another time block, and gradually make them longer.

You can learn more about this in my previous post Overcome procrastination with new Swift To-Do List.

4. Discover the hidden cause of resistance and solve it

Sometimes, all you need is a few minutes of contemplating with a pen or a keyboard. Think about why you don’t want to do the task so much. If you can discover the hidden cause of the resistance, you can oftentimes easily solve it. The causes are usually very specific and individual. Try to look at it from multiple perspectives.

For example, you might not want to start with some big task because you are afraid that you will have no time for fun if you start working. So the solution could be to schedule some fun activity with friends for the evening, then happily get to work, knowing that the fun is already guaranteed.

The Now Habit is a wonderful book on procrastination. It explains all the possible causes of procrastination in detail, and it provides strategies to overcoming them.

It might be also helpful to remind yourself that you don’t have to do it. In life, everything is voluntary.

Combine the above

For maximum effect, you can combine all the techniques above:

Think about the reason you don’t want to do it, and if you discover the possible cause, try to solve it.
Break it down into a list of sub-steps (write your own “for dummies” how-to guide).
Discover the smallest micro-step you are willing to do
Start a timer and work on it for 2 minutes

Here is a final tip for you: When it comes to success in life, the speed of implementation is critical. You should use what you’ve just learned immediately, right now. Pick some task that you feel especially large resistance to, and engage it. Now you know how. Tomorrow, you probably won’t – unless you do this, right now. Get cranking.

PS: Download Swift To-Do List, a task and notes organizer for Windows which will amaze you. It’s just a few clicks away. Can these few clicks revolutionize the way you work?

- By Jiri Novotny+, the obsessed author of the number one to-do list software for Windows, Swift To-Do List. Jiri’s life quest is to become productivity and achievement world-class expert to empower others to achieve their full potential. If you liked this post, then definitely follow this blog on G+.

How to Overcome Resistance to Work – 4 Techniques is a post from: Swift To-Do List Blog

Overcome procrastination with new Swift To-Do List

Jiri Novotny — Thu, 24 May 2012 14:45:54 +0000

You don’t need to dread your tasks or beat yourself up for procrastinating anymore. With the new Swift To-Do List, you now have a tool that will help you to start working in no time.

We’ve just released new juicy update of Swift To-Do List, version 7.63. As usual, this update is free for all existing customers. (If you don’t have Swift To-Do List yet, download it now.)

It includes new countdown timer, which is the most interesting new feature, because it allows you to overcome procrastination and resistance to your tasks.

If you learn to utilize the new timer feature as explained below, it can literally change your life, especially if you are struggling with procrastination or have hard time focusing and managing your attention.

As you read on, you will learn how you can benefit from the new timer feature, and how it can help you to focus and overcome procrastination.

Oh, and other than the timer, the new update also adds overdue tasks information in the info panel – with just 1 click, you can immediately see all overdue tasks. The new version can also email task reminders to assigned persons, and it allows you to open a folder where any file attachment is located, and much more.

How to overcome procrastination with the new Timer feature

The new countdown timer expands the existing Time Tracking feature.

Procrastination is caused by resistance. We feel resistance to tasks because the oldest and most primitive part of our brain, amygdala, is feeling threatened. It dreads the work, because it’s uncertain how long will it take or what else will you have to give up to finish it. However, this feeling can be eliminated by setting a time limit for your work session.

For example, to overcome resistance to any particular task, you can say to yourself: “I am going to work just 20 minutes on this task”. Then, start the 20 minute Timer for that task. You will have no problem getting started this way.

This has 4 very significant benefits:

First, it eliminates resistance, because it is now obvious that you will be working for just 20 minutes, so the task is no longer perceived as a threat by your primitive part of brain.
Second, it sets you free. During the countdown, you don’t have to worry about anything else. It frees you from everything else and gives you the permission to focus absolutely on that task.
Once the 20 minutes have passed, you will probably continue working. You will get into flow and you can actually feel euphoric while working!
The floating timer window will constantly shift your attention to the task. It acts like a magnet for your focus, which is invaluable in today’s ADD world full of distractions.

As a result, you can easily be 300% more efficient during these 20 minutes than usual. It can be quite revolutionary, actually. I’ve personally gotten some extraordinary results by using a timer, and I know of many others. It is proven. It just works. And it’s very, very effective.

20 minutes is just an example. You can use any time limit, from 5 minutes to 90 minutes. Heck, you can even set any custom number of minutes.

And by the way, if you have trouble focusing, you can also use the new Timer feature in combination with Pomodoro Technique, which is basically about structuring your whole work day in short 25-minute focused bursts and 5 minute breaks.

The Timer is in Ultimate and Professional editions only.

This is how you start it (by right-clicking any task):

And this is how the actual timer looks. On the screenshot below, you can see it on my desktop. It’s a floating window that can be set always on top, and you can of course customize the color and other things by right-clicking it. You can move it anywhere (it’s sticky).

When the time is up, “Finished” will start blinking on the timer, and you can either close it or reset it to start another session. You can also set a new timer with different time limit, for a different task or the same one.

Swift To-Do List keeps track of total time spent on any task when the timer or time tracker is running. If you display Time Spent column in the task-view, you will be able to see how much time have you spent total on each of your tasks.

Other new features

As always, there is also a bunch of other improvements to make you more efficient, productive, and make your life easier. These include:

Info panel now contains “Overdue Tasks”. You can click that label and see all overdue tasks. The label displays the number of all overdue tasks. This gives you instant overview.
New calendar mode, “Due Date or Start Date”. This allows you to see tasks starting OR due on any particular day (or days) with just a single click.
New Filter option for Due Date and Start Date filtering: “In next 14 days”. This is similar to the “In next 7 days” option.
For added convenience, you can now upgrade your license to a higher edition or purchase extra discounted copies using menu “Help – Buy Upgrades or Extra Licenses”.
Attachments right-click menu now contains “Open File Location” for file attachments. This allows you to open the folder where the attachment is located. When it comes to embedded attachments, the folder from which they were embedded is opened.
Email reminders can be now emailed to the person the task is assigned to. The same goes for recurrence notifications.
Import from Task Coach added.
You can now choose choose default task Type and default Context for your tasks. Do that using menu File – Options, then go to the New Tasks section.
When creating a recurring task, the Due Date of the task is set automatically immediately based on the recurrence. E.g. if you create a task to recur in 7 days, its due date will be immediately set to 7 days from now.

Getting the new Swift To-Do List

All you have to do is to download the latest version and install it.

It’s just a few clicks away. Can these few clicks revolutionize the way you work?

PS: You might be also interested in my summary of The Now Habit, which is probably the best book on procrastination.

Overcome procrastination with new Swift To-Do List is a post from: Swift To-Do List Blog

5 Counter-Intuitive Productivity Tips

Jiri Novotny — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 09:00:05 +0000

Since I decided to become an expert on productivity and time management and started studying these topics, I’ve run into many examples of counter-intuitive advice that actually works.

I find it fascinating that whenever you want to really understand something – anything – you will discover that the real truth behind it is usually counter-intuitive.

So, here are 5 very useful productivity tips that you can immediately use.

1. Make sure your work is left unfinished

Before you take a break, make sure that your work is left unfinished. This will help you to zap right back into the flow once you get back. Your brain craves completion.

This is actually a famous writing tip from Hemingway – he always left the last sentence unfinished, so he could pick up again easily the next session.

Once you finish something and want to take a break, you could also start working on the next thing just right before you take the break, but it’s not nearly as powerful as stopping when you are 80%, 90% or even 99% done, and then taking the break before completing it to 100%.

2. Begin with the least urgent task

The tendency is to wait until something becomes urgent – and then do it. That’s bad, because most of your urgent tasks were non-urgent once.

The idea is to complete your tasks before they become urgent. And the only way to do that is to work on the least urgent tasks first.

This won’t help you to eliminate genuine emergencies, but your overall emergencies might drop by up to 90%, and the stress along with them. Your efficiency will increase, and predictability and reliability of our your output as well.

3. Schedule the fun first

We all have trouble with procrastination. There are many causes of procrastination, but one effective technique of reducing it is to schedule the fun things first, and then work only between these blocks of fun time.

This way, your reptile brain won’t feel threatened when you want to do the work, because it will know that the fun is guaranteed.

So – schedule the fun first, and then work in the “free” time.

This tip comes from The Now Habit book. If you are struggling with procrastination, read my detailed summary of The Now Habit.

4. Work less to get more done

By setting a time limit on your work sessions, you will get more done than if you have all the time in the world. Instead of beating yourself up because you are procrastinating and having trouble getting started, you will be able to jump out of the inertia and soon feel eustressed about finishing your stuff in the allocated time.

Limit both your work sessions (60-120 minutes), and your weekly output (40 hours).

It’s interesting that scientific evidence shows that working more than 40 hours is not sustainable in the long-term anyway; and yet, in the Do More Faster book (which is a collection of interviews with startup founders) almost everyone is working 14-16 hours a day for many months. How is that possible? I would argue that if you love what you are doing, it’s a bit different. But still, one has but to wonder what the real productivity of these entrepreneurs are.

Working hard is not just about the quantity (time), but about quality. To increase the quality, you need to decrease the quantity. There is a sweet spot for every one of us. Experiment with limits to find it.

5. If everything is on fire, go for a walk

Sometimes you just get stuck during your work session. For some unfathomable reason, the more urgent and important something is, the harder is for you to make progress.

If you’ve hit a wall, you need to break the downward spiral of procrastination and bad feelings. (More on breaking bad behavioral patterns in Outsmarting Yourself for Success.)

If you can’t push yourself to do something, just stop the losing battle and go for a walk. Chances are, on your return, you will jump on that task with unexpected eagerness.

There are many reasons why this works. One simplistic explanation is that when you walk, your body is in movement. When you come back, you have to sit down and stop your body – but since things in motion tend to stay in motion, all that energy will get transferred into the work. Plus, when you walk, you can’t work even if you want to – and this makes you realize how much you actually want to work.

What works for you?

If you have some productivity tip that you’ve discovered (counter-intuitive or not), please share it with me and others in the comments below. I am fascinated by these things.

- By Jiri Novotny+, the obsessed author of task management software for Windows, Swift To-Do List. Jiri’s life quest is to become productivity and achievement world-class expert to empower others, and his current main goal is to create the best task and notes organizer for Windows.

PS: If you could use task and notes organizer for Windows, then definitely download free 30-day trial version of Swift To-Do List that I’ve been working on for over 7 years now. You will be amazed.

5 Counter-Intuitive Productivity Tips is a post from: Swift To-Do List Blog

Hidden Procrastination

Jiri Novotny — Sun, 26 Feb 2012 08:14:55 +0000

Are you genius at wasting time, fooling both yourself and others?

The common sense is that you are either procrastinating, or you are not. And if you are procrastinating, you always know it.

Well, I don’t agree with these statements.

There are multiple levels of procrastination.

But I plead you to stop reading this if you know that you are currently procrastinating. Do yourself a favor and go fix your procrastination issue first. You are lucky because your procrastination is NOT hidden. You can absolutely fix it. You can start by reading my detailed summary of The Now Habit, which is one of the best books on procrastination. Spending more time on proactive tasks instead of reactive tasks also helps. Fooling yourself into working works, too.

OK, with half the audience still remaining, let’s get back to the original question: Are you a genius at wasting time?

You probably had the experience of joyously cleaning/polishing/organizing stuff instead of doing THAT important task. That is the regular garden variety of procrastination. But what I am going to suggest here is that there are multiple levels of procrastination.

Sometimes it might feel like you are working and being productive, but the reality might be that you are, in fact, procrastinating – and you don’t even know it!

It works like this -

If you should do:	But instead do:	Then it is:
Important task	Less important task	Hidden procrastination
Important task	Unimportant task	Procrastination
Unproductive task	Something even more useless	Wrong planning, buddy.

“Hidden procrastination” is wasting time in an elaborate way. It might be actually productive (albeit less productive than THAT task), or it might be just pseudo-productivity.

You might object: “HEY! If I am working on something important, then I can’t be possibly procrastinating!” Good point sir, thanks for bringing that up! Well, you might be working on something that actually is important – but if there is something else that you know to be more important, then it can be helpful for you to think of what you are doing as procrastination. Why? Because you can use the same approach to fix your “prioritizing” issue as you would use to fix a blatant case of procrastination. E.g. you can apply the techniques from The Now Habit book.

Detecting hidden procrastination

Sometimes, you just need to take one step back and ask yourself:

Is this the most important thing I could be doing right now?.

And:

What am I missing here, in the grand scheme of things?

Sometimes, these questions will help you discover where you stand, and sometimes, they will make you drop what you are currently doing and make a quantum leap to an entirely different level. If you spend most of your time zoomed in, you need to zoom out from time to time – just to make sure what you are doing still makes sense.

That’s it. This is the most important thing I wanted to tell you.

More on pseudo-productivity

In case of pseudo-productivity, you might absolutely convinced that you are doing something important, and you might very well convince others as well, but it might be entirely irrelevant a month from now.

The signs that you are possibly pseudo-productive include:

You are not working on the 1st, 2nd or 3rd most important thing.
What you are doing now won’t matter 1 year from now (And if it won’t matter 1 month from now on, I think you should reconsider your long-term strategy!)
You should’ve already moved to the next task, others would confirm that when asked.
You are obviously over-delivering with only an abysmal chance of payoff.
You are over-worked, tired, or daydreaming a lot.
You are having trouble staying focused.
Excessive organizing or planning.
You are eternally grateful for any external stimuli or distraction that prompts you to do something else, and you’ve mastered rationalizing how it might be useful or important.

Oh, and if your environment forces you to spend more time on bureaucratic tasks than real tasks, then the whole environment has systemic problems. Change the environment – either transform it or leave. You can’t possibly be happy in such a place.

Traps of complex organizing tools

Pseudo-productivity is often related to over-organizing, over-planning, and thus, your task management software. Such tools can be so complex that you fiddle with it all the time instead of doing the actual work.

The sole purpose of your organizer is to allow you:

Always know what to do next
Capture everything – tasks, ideas, notes (task details), knowledge snippets, and maybe even related documents and emails
Delegate and monitor tasks – even if you are not a manager, you will be responsible for tasks that require work of someone else, and you need to stay on top of such delegated assignments.
Do some basic planning

Everything else is just more or less a waste of time. You don’t need super detailed plans that include toilet breaks.

The purpose of always knowing what to do next is to ensure that you are working on the most important thing, and that your work is friction-less and focused.

The purpose of capturing is that it frees your mental RAM. You take it out of your head, and put it into the organizer. Then keep working on THAT thing.

My experience is that my organizing needs vary a lot in time. Sometimes, a single sticky note might be enough to keep me organized for a day, and sometimes I really need to overview hundreds of to-do items and write notes for some of them.

In case you didn’t know, I’m the author of Swift To-Do List, a task/notes organizer for Windows.

Perhaps you don’t even use Windows – but let me quickly tell you about some of the things that I think are important in task management software in general, and that I’ve implemented into Swift To-Do List. It might help you find the perfect tool for you.

When it comes to prioritizing, you can just drag and drop tasks around, or sort them by multiple columns at once (First by Due Date, then by Priority). Color codes for priorities help me to highlight THAT important tasks.

Capturing is also thought-of in Swift To-Do List. Not only you can write rich-text notes for each task, but you can create task-independent notes and organize them in the hierarchical tree along with to-do lists. Having that integrated with task-management is invaluable for me. Also, you can attach files and emails to tasks, and even embed the files directly into the database. A killer feature is ability to drag & drop emails from email clients (such as Thunderbird, Outlook, Lotus Notes, The Bat) into Swift To-Do List to instantly generate tasks from them, complete with the attachments.

Delegating is handled simply using the Assigned To field, plus the ability to email the task directly to the assignee right from the program.

When designing Swift To-Do List, I’ve put into tremendous effort into customization and flexibility. When I don’t need some features, it is very important for me to be able to hide them. In Swift To-Do List, the whole GUI changes based on what columns you use (Start Date, Due Date, Priority, Context, Type, Assigned To, Time Estimate, Time Spent, etc.) This keeps things simple.

Wrapping this up or TL;DR

1) When you are not working on your most important tasks, it is helpful to think of it as procrastination. It allows you to correct the problem by utilizing the existing infrastructure of procrastination solutions (books, techniques, tools, experts).

2) Sometimes, you just need to take one step back and ask yourself:

Is this the most important thing I could be doing right now?.

And:

What am I missing here, in the grand scheme of things?

3) Make sure your organizer is actually helping you to prioritize, capture everything, and stay on top of things.

Hidden Procrastination is a post from: Swift To-Do List Blog

The next actions and prioritizing

Jiri Novotny — Tue, 17 May 2011 16:12:43 +0000

Effectively prioritizing is a very important skill to master in order to work efficiently. One of our customers, Gary, has been curious how I personally do this with Swift To-Do List. I’m going to share some techniques that I use myself in this post.

Next tasks

Next tasks are tasks that you are currently working on. You should always know what tasks to currently work on. At any given moment, you should be able to easily pull a list of these “next tasks”.

There are two main approaches that work well for me personally:

1. The “Next” priority: I’ve created a new priority called “Next”, and I’ve set it a bright green color. Now I always assign this priority to tasks that I want to complete today or in the next couple of days. I usually have around 5-20 tasks with this “Next” priority.

The downside is that these tasks are in various to-do lists, so I need to use the “View All To-Do Lists” view mode to view all tasks. Then, I either sort the tasks by priority to see what’s next, or use filter to display just the tasks with the “Next” priority.

2. The “Next” To-Do List: This is an alternative approach. In this case, I create a new to-do list called “Next”, and I drag & drop tasks that I want to work on now into it. The rest of my to-do lists act as a database (or library) of tasks that I pick tasks from.

The downside is that the tasks moved to the “Next” To-Do List will lose their original to-do list categorization. However, the upside is that it is ridiculously easy to display the list of next tasks, and I can also reorder the tasks in the list. Also, I usually delete the completed tasks anyway, so the loss of the original to-do list categorization is no big deal for me.

Next actions

Every of your tasks has a certain sub-tasks (or steps, or actions, however you call it). GTD (Getting Things Done) uses the term “Next action”.

It is very important to know the next step necessary for completion of any of the tasks you are currently working on.

Task notes are usually the most efficient way of recording the next actions. Simply write mini to-do list into the notes of the task you are currently working on. You can be very specific and write lots of details and thoughts. Once you complete any step, simply delete it from the task notes.

Since Swift To-Do List 9, you can create subtasks. You can now have the next steps in form of sub-tasks directly in the task-view. This is probably the most powerful approach.

Prioritizing in fast-paced environment

The above techniques of managing next tasks and next actions work pretty well in majority of cases. However, there is one exception.

Some complex tasks (eg. software development) are in constant shift, and you can complete literally over 50 small steps (sub-tasks) every day while working on such major task or project.

In such cases, I simply create a new memo for any complex task that I am currently working on. The large text area works great for “chaotic” and complex tasks that require a lot of thinking and are changing constantly. Memos give me a great deal of freedom and flexibility in these cases.

How about you?

Please don’t hesitate to share your own approach to prioritizing in the comments below.

The next actions and prioritizing is a post from: Swift To-Do List Blog

10 quick fixes of motivation

Jiri Novotny — Tue, 10 May 2011 16:01:12 +0000

Perhaps you are in a rut. Or just feeling like not working. Or your whole world is falling apart. Perhaps your friend have sent you a link to this post to help you get back on track.

Do you need to get motivated again? I’m here to help.

If you realize the following 10 things, it might not be so hard to get back on track.

Let’s get started.

1. You are GOD!

You are creating something from nothing. In my book, you are a god.

As Megaherz sing in their tune “Gott Sein ’04″:
Es ist nicht leicht ein Gott zu sein.

It means: It is not easy to be a god.

But damn, it is worth it!

2. The sky is NOT the limit!

In the grand scheme of things, you are literally building the universe. You are accelerating the process of evolution.

There is nothing more noble than making the world a better place. For you, for me, for everyone and everything.

3. I love you

Sometimes, it might seem like no one can appreciate what you do. It might seem like no one cares.

But know this: I do care. I have a deep admiration for all builders. I love you. You are the reason why life is great. I’m your raving fan in the first row, chanting your name, even when the hall is empty.

You are the DJ in this galactic party. If it weren’t for beings like you, there would be just rocks and stupid bored amoebas sucking the rocks, all covered in dust and darkness… or something like that :-)

4. Don’t forget to be grateful

Be grateful for what you have, whatever it is, because if you would’ve behaved like a quitter in the past, your life would completely suck now. I guarantee that.

It is easy to forget your past successes. But just stop for a moment, and think about all your past achievements. You’ve probably forgotten the excitement that came with each milestone in your life, but the excitement still lives inside you. Find it, and bring it out.

Sometimes I wish I could go back a couple of years, hug myself, and say to myself: “You are awesome. Thank you so much for clenching the teeth and spilling the sweat and blood when things got tough. My life rocks now – and I owe it all to you!”

5. Already given up? Bullshit!

If you think that you’ve already given up, I’m telling you: That’s bullshit!

The fact is that you’ve just paused for a while. We both know that you are now ready to resume rocking!

6. Figure it all out

If you need to catch your breath and figure things out, then do that. Take the time to think your life through. Make sure that you really want what you are striving to achieve.

Pen and paper (or a word processor) is the best friend of your sanity. Use them. Think on paper. Resolve all the lingering issues and insecurities, then recommit fully to your goal.

7. It is worth it

When you struggle, repeat this like a mantra: It is worth it. It is worth it. It is worth it

The pain and emptiness will always go away. It is worth it.

8. Shut the world off

When everything is screaming into your face, demanding attention, it’s hard to focus.

But you can always either make the distractions go away, or go away from them yourself. Letting the world spam your mind is entirely optional.

9. Grind on

However hard it is, you can always grind on. You may crawl like the tiniest worm, but crawl. Do the tiniest baby micro-step towards your goal, but freaking do it! And do it now.

10. Never stop dreaming

Never stop imagining how great your life is going when you achieve your goal.

Day-dreaming feels great. It can quickly pull you up from the dark cold reality.

Imagining the end brings you closer to it.

10 quick fixes of motivation is a post from: Swift To-Do List Blog

10 best tricks of fooling myself to work

Jiri Novotny — Sun, 17 Apr 2011 14:30:32 +0000

UPDATE July 28, 2011: If you need to trick yourself into writing (blog post, article, book, etc), then read the Accidental Genius summary.

UPDATE April 29, 2011: There is a new post Achieving Goals Like a Mad Klingon if you want to trick yourself into achieving goals.

In order to be successful, we have to work hard, no matter what. We can’t always be at the mercy of our motivation.

I am lazy. But that’s okay, because I have some tricks for fooling myself into working, every single day. Actually, I’m quite productive thanks to these tricks. I’m going to share the tricks with you now.

I will mention my own software, a task and notes organizer Swift To-Do List, in 2 of these tricks, but these tricks can be done with other programs (or pen and paper) too.

1. The ultimate trick

When I really don’t feel like working, and it would take a superhuman force to get me working, this saves me. Every time.

Actually, I think what follows is the best way of fooling yourself to work, because it works so well. It’s scary-effective.

So what’s the trick? Well, when I have a “Task X”, and I don’t feel like doing it, and I would much rather do anything else, but I know that doing this particular task is the best choice, I do this:

I tell myself that I will merely write down the steps needed to complete the task. Just a rough draft, at first, and that’s it. Maybe just 3 steps. I then add more steps, breaking the 3 steps into smaller sub-tasks. I then add some details, and thoughts, notes of things that I shouldn’t forget when doing this task. I just think the task through and write everything down. After a little while, I will be a proud author of “The Complete Guide To Finishing Task X for Dummies”.

(The actual way I do this is that I open my Swift To-Do List and fill the notes of the task I want to accomplish with all the steps and thoughts.)

Now, for some unknown reason, when there is nothing else to think about, and there is no way to screw this task up, because everything is laid out in front of me, I just start working on the task automatically. I might do just the first baby micro-step at first, but that’s OK. It follows to the next, and to the next, and before I know it, the task is finished.

When I am thinking about how to accomplish the task, I am already actually accomplishing it. And once I think it through, it seems ridiculously easy.

2. Not eating at the computer

I don’t know about you, but I have never accomplished *anything* while eating at my desk. I usually just read articles, or gaze at the code in Visual Studio while day-dreaming, at best. What’s worse, I even don’t enjoy the food that much this way, as my mind is split among 5 different things.

Oh, and did I mention that my keyboard used to be a huge mess? I swear that there was a delicate living ecosystem inside it. Even if I am really trying to be super-neat, some of the foodstuff will fall into the keyboard. It happens to the best of us.

So what I do now is that I always sit to an actual table, like a civilized man, and enjoy my meal without staring at the addictive hypnotic evils of my computer screen.

Now, while I am enjoying my food at the table, I also kinda miss the computer. I’m eager to return to it and do some real work. The fake feeling of productivity while eating at my computer is eliminated.

3. Rudder of the day

When I sit down to my computer for the first time in the morning, I immediately start working. Because my brain is still half asleep, he doesn’t fully realize that I’m actually working, so he won’t protest. Poor little bugger.

Whenever I begin the day this way, the whole day flows in the productive-tone. But if I start by messing around on the social networks and reading news and articles, the whole day seems lazy and I accomplish a lot less in the end.

This trick has probably the biggest ROI (return on investment) of all of these. What’s the investment? Well, it takes just a little spark of my willpower to start working in the morning. This little morning-spark can ignite an enormous day-fire of productivity.

Being the navigator behind the rudder is easy in the morning. Much harder during the day.

Whatever you do, start working when you sit at your computer for the first time. Even if just for a couple of minutes.

In my opinion, any work done “first thing in the morning” counts triple.

4. Real relaxation

Fake relaxation sucks. When I need a break, I do not eagerly launch Facebook, ICQ or solitaire, but I actually get up and get away from the computer! :-) I can go for a walk, read a book, prepare myself a fruit snack/smoothie/juice, take a nap, do some yoga, chat with a co-worker, or just generally chill out without looking at the darn computer screen.

When I return, I don’t do some random thing on “The Internets”. Oh no. I open my Swift To-Do List, see what’s next, and immediately start working.

5. “Back to work” mantra

I’ve learned this one from Brian Tracy’s Time Management and Maximum Achievement programs. I just keep saying “back to work”, whenever appropriate, until it starts humming in my mind automatically whenever something distracts me.

Completed a small task? “Back to work.” Someone interrupted me? “Back to work.” Answered a call? “Back to work.” Had to reboot my computer? “Back to work.” Velociraptor looking at me behind the window, then leaving? “Back to work.”

“Back to work” is my Answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything. I just feel great every time I tell myself “Back to work” and resume working.

6. Always knowing what to do next

Whenever I finish a task of any size, and I do not know what to do next, my productivity goes to the drain. So, I’ve come up with an easy way how to avoid this.

Whenever I need to know what to do next, I just bring Swift To-Do List up using a system-wide hotkey and I immediately see what’s next.

Not having some productivity software associated to a system-wide hotkey is like riding without a steering wheel. You will get somewhere, but not where you want to go.

I have many separate to-do lists (a couple for each project), and I’ve created a new Priority called “Next”, highlighted by a bright green color. I assign this priority to tasks that I want to accomplish next.

View modes, filters, sorting etc make this really easy. I can also manually reorder the tasks (see a video) to decide the exact order of my tasks.

7. Sheet of paper with the most important task

Although Swift To-Do List is awesome ;-), good old physical paper has an intricate quality that no software can offer: It exists outside of your computer.

When I have 1-3 super-important tasks, I often write them down on an actual physical paper, and put the paper in front of me. It will be a constant physical reminder of what I want to do. Works like a charm.

And don’t forget the exquisite pleasure of physically checking the tasks off, and joyously manufacturing a paper-ball as a token of your greatness.

This has the biggest effect when you prepare such a paper before leaving work or going to bed, because it will be the first thing you see when you get back to work the next day.

8. Eliminating distractions

It’s a fact of this age that focusing is nearly impossible if you do not have some personal distraction-management strategy. I’ve ellaborated on this topic in one of my previous posts Create more productive environment at your desk (10 tips).

9. When falling asleep…

When you are falling asleep, think about the most important task for the next day. Your subconscious mind will do half the job for you during the night.

This might sound bananas to you, but I swear that it works. Your mind is busy during the whole night anyway (we all have dreams), so why not give it something productive to ponder on?

What’s your trick?

I lied. There are only 9 tricks. However, here is the Captain You to save the day!

See that comment box below? I would love to hear your tricks of fooling yourself to work, or any other comments.

Bring it on. How do you fool yourself into work?

10 best tricks of fooling myself to work is a post from: Swift To-Do List Blog

The Now Habit Summary

Jiri Novotny — Sun, 20 Mar 2011 10:49:34 +0000

This is a summary of the book The Now Habit (A Strategic Program for Overcoming Procrastination and Enjoying Guilt-Free Play) by Neil Fiore, Ph.D.

The Now Habit has been sitting on my shelf for quite some time and I’ve been putting of reading it for a few years now :-) It sounds like a joke, but it’s not – there always were more interesting books to read – or so I thought! I’m not a procrastinator – you can’t be if you want to run a successful business – but perhaps I was a bit afraid that the book might slap me in my face and force me to reconsider my approach to work and play.

Now when I’ve finally read The Now Habit, I bring you a full summary of the book so you can get the most out of it quickly. The Now Habit book is well structured and surprisingly easy to read and has given me multiple insights into procrastination and productivity.

The Now Habit book says: “People do not procrastinate because they are lazy or irrational. They procrastinate because it makes sense, given how vulnerable they feel to criticism, failure, and their own imperfection”.

The book offers a new definition of procrastination: Procrastination is a mechanism for coping with the anxiety associated with starting or completing any task or decision.

Why we procrastinate

We don’t procrastinate because we are lazy. You certainly have motivation and energy for various activities that you do daily. Procrastination is not a character defect.

We procrastinate to defend our self-worth when we feel a threat to our sense of worth and independence. We procrastinate to temporarily relieve deep inner fears.

The fears are:

The fear of failure
The fear of being imperfect (perfectionism)
The fear of being overwhelmed
The fear of success (advancement vs. friends and acceptance)
The fear of increased demands (as a result of your good work)

To overcome these fears, you need to accept yourself as imperfect and human. Your self-worth is not defined by your output. It’s okay to make mistakes. You must stop criticizing yourself.

Procrastination is rewarding – it brings us relief and refuge. We’ve learnt to use it as a tool for solving problems. The task will often get taken care of by itself or by someone or something else.

The cycle of procrastination goes like this – the more you procrastinate, the more anxious you are, and the more you criticize yourself, and the more you lose confidence. With lost confidence, you have even greater need to use procrastination, because you are afraid that others will judge you unfavorably.

How we procrastinate

When it comes to the actual methods of procrastination, everyone is different.

The best way to learn how you procrastinate is to observe yourself for 3 days. Whenever you put something off, write down what, how, and why. Write down your feelings and thoughts. After three days, review your notes. This will give you great insight into the “why & how” of your procrastination habits. (Yes, procrastination is a habit. And like any habit, it can be changed.)

Identify the attitude and self-talk that keeps you from accomplishing your tasks.

If you were to walk a board between two skyscrapers, you would be paralyzed by fear. But if there was a 100% reliable safety net, you would dance your way to the other side. You need to create that safety net in your life.

Develop indisputable sense of worth for yourself. Allow yourself to make mistakes. Make a safe place where you are free of judgment, in your mind and in your life. Make a commitment to yourself and your self-worth. Nothing must threaten you. Allow yourself to be human.

Whatever happens, you will survive. It’s okay!

How to talk to yourself

It is very important that you master the self-talk, because it determines the whole context or your life and your attitude to everything. It determines how you feel and how you act.

The “Have To’s” are messages of stress, and the “Shoulds” are messages of depression. These messages are negative because they do not clearly communicate what you choose to do, when you choose to do it, and where you choose to start it.

Replace the negative messages with positive ones. Give yourself the power of choice. Learn to say “no” – you do not have to do anything. You can say no. Always keep that in mind.

Replace ”I have to” with ”I choose to”.

Replace ”I must finish” with ”When can I start?” (and where?).

Replace ”This is so big” with ”I can take one small step”.

Replace ”I must be perfect” with ”I can be human”.

Replace ”I don’t have time to play” with ”I must take time to play”.

The statement of a producer with a powerful focus is:

I choose to start on one small imperfect step knowing I have plenty of time for play.

Guilt-Free Play, Quality Work

This chapter could be summarized like this: Play hard, work hard. Focus on playing hard first. Schedule your play, leisure and time for friends first, and start scheduling your work only after that.

This might seem counter-intuitive at first, but it works for multiple reasons:

First, it is an excellent reverse-psychology trick. Before you know it, whenever some of your leisure activities gets cancelled for some reason, you will be relieved and thinking Great! I can work instead!
Second, you need the extra stimulation, socialization, relaxation and exercise for high-quality output. No one can live in a bubble and come up with creative solutions. Additionally, exercising will give you more energy.
Third, because the time when you can work will become limited, you will automatically have a tendency to make the most out of it. You will eliminate distractions. When you work, you really work.
Fourth, you can achieve genuine and lasting motivation only through abundant rewards. Make the periods of work shorter, but make them count.

Procrastinators have many things common with workaholics. But both of them should realize that you do not need to put of living.

Overcoming Blocks to Action

The Now Habit offers three tools for overcoming blocks to action. The tools are:

Three-dimensional thinking and the reverse calendar

Any large task can easily overwhelm you without the proper perspective. You need to consider the size, length, and breadth of your task. You need to divide the work in time. Divide and conquer :-)

Reverse calendar helps you to schedule your work realistically. You start with an ultimate deadline, and then work your way with smaller deadlines up to the present moment. All these deadlines are within your control.

The work of worrying

You should respect your ability to worry as a means to alert you of a potential danger. Whenever you worry, figure out a plan for alleviating your worries. Establish a plan how to cope with any potential danger. This will give you a true peace of mind. Constant worrying can drain your energy quickly.

Persistent starting

Summary of this passage of The Now Habit is simply “Keep on starting.” Do not think about finishing. Think about starting. Always be starting. The finishing will take care of it itself. You can start many times every day. Always focus on what you can do next. One little step.

The Unschedule

The unschedule is a weekly calendar of your recreational and non-work related activities. Personal organizer software comes in handy for that. If you fill your weekly schedule with all your daily chores, committed activities, and a scheduled leisure time, you will see that you can’t realistically work 12, 8, or maybe even 6 hours a day on your task.

The unschedule uses reverse psychology to spring you into action. You can give yourself restraints like these:

Do not work more than twenty hours a week on this project.
Do not work more than five hours a day on this project.
You must exercise, play, dance at least one hour a day.
You must take at least one day a week off from any work.
Aim for only thirty minutes of quality work.
Work for an imperfect, perfectly human first effort.
Start small.

With those restrains in place, you will have a strong unconscious desire to work more, play less, and resist the “authority” of your unschedule

Keep track of every uninterrupted 30-minute block of work that you’ve done during the day. Log how many hours you have worked every day and week.

Working in the Flow State

You are most productive when you can fully focus. Distractions, intensive emotions and concerns undermine your focus and productivity. You need to deal with them before you start your work session.

Even a simple 2-minute relaxation can work wonders. Just close your eyes, breathe, and empty your mind. It’s as simple as that.

(My own suggestion is that you can also simply write your worries and “stuff” on paper, and get to them later. Your brain will let go once you write it all down.)

Fine-Tuning Your Progress

One of the techniques described in The Now Habit is called “Planned setbacks”. This could be summarized as observe and optimize. Consciously choose projects/tasks that you are most likely to procrastinate on, and observe your thoughts and feelings. This will point out the areas where further development is needed.

Another thing you can do is to develop resilience. Failing is okay. In fact, if you are fully committed to anything, you will encounter many setbacks and failures. But that’s not a bad thing. The more you fail, the closer to success you are. There are no perfect paths. Even if there are setbacks and failures, it doesn’t mean that you’ve made any mistake!

Make commitment only to goals that you fully embrace. Do not set goals that you simply do not care about. It’s a waste of time that will lead only to unhappiness.

The Procrastinator in Your Life

Until you understand procrastination yourself, you will probably reinforce procrastination patterns in the people around you. Successful leaders communicate in a way that makes people commit, not comply. They state priorities clearly, and give rewards and praise frequently.

Successful managers invite commitment. For example, “What can you get to me in a rough form by noon?” instead of “You’d be better finished by noon.” They also place emphasis on starting, not finishing. They are clear about where to start. They never criticize the person, but only their output, and they never hesitate to give praise when it’s appropriate.

When dealing with your family members, always make it your fault, not theirs. Use sentences like “I’m so obsessed with being there early! I simply have to leave on time, so I’m leaving in 20 minutes. It would be great if you could join me, but it’s up to you.”

Summary Conclusion

If you apply the techniques and methods presented in The Now Habit, not only you will eliminate procrastination, but your overall quality of life and happiness will permanently increase. Not many books can have so dramatic impact on your permanent happiness.

I can recommend The Now Habit to anyone, not just people that are dealing with procrastination.

The Now Habit Summary is a post from: Swift To-Do List Blog

Start your day with the most important or most fun task

Jiri Novotny — Tue, 16 Nov 2010 13:09:52 +0000

When you start your work-day, you have a choice. Most of us start the day with a random task – whatever comes to mind first, that’s what we do. However, there is a far better approach.

Although you can choose between starting the day with the easiest task or starting the day with the hardest task, there is a far better approach. Starting the day with the easiest or hardest task is suboptimal. Why? Because importance nor reward is taken into account.

The best thing you can do is to:

Start the day with the most important task

This has the biggest payoff. The most difficult task is often not important at all – but the actually most important task? Boy, if you make just a little progress on that, you will feel great.

But what if you are not feeling like doing the most important task? Or, what if you are not feeling like working at all? Well, then:

Start the day with the most fun task

This will shoot your motivation up. It will feel rewarding.

This approach can be especially of benefit for you if you have problems with procrastination. If you are feeling like procrastinating, this can save the day! (Another solution might be to break the most important task into tiny sub-tasks, then eliminating them one by one. See my previous post Deal with procrastination with 100% success)

There are numerous benefits:

Quick reward
Feeling productive
Feeling motivated
Most importantly: Things in motion tend to stand in motion – that’s the physics law. If you have finished one task, why not finish a second one? And then another, and another? Go get them!

Start your day with the most important or most fun task is a post from: Swift To-Do List Blog

Deal with procrastination with 100% success

Jiri Novotny — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 07:59:14 +0000

While “Just do it!” attitude sounds great in theory, it might not work as well in practice. Sure, chest-pounding and shouting of “I will just do it!” might give you a nice energy boost, it might not always help you to accomplish the task.

However, even the task that you are constantly postponing and dreading can be easily handled – if you know how! This post will tell you how to stop procrastinating and how to eliminate procrastination for good.

Reasons for procrastination

There are many possible reasons for procrastination:

Feeling overwhelmed
Fear of failure
The task looks too time consuming and complex
Not feeling like it (= laziness :-))

However, all of these reasons boil down to one underlying reason: The task is not clear and easy.

If it took you 5 minutes and little effort to accomplish the task, would you do it? You know you would! Just the great feeling when you check off the task is well worth it.

There might be one another major reason for procrastination, though: You really do not want to do the task. Perhaps it was delegated to you by someone else, or finishing it has consequences that you are not ready to accept, etc. In that case, there is no reason for procrastination either – because there is no task to do! Simply accept the fact that you do not want to do the task, don’t do it, and stop giving yourself a hard time about it.

The one technique that can help you to eliminate procrastination

Break it down! No, I’m not suggesting you should drop to the floor and do a break dance right now :-). What I’m suggesting is that you should break your task into manageable steps (sub-tasks) that are not as intimidating.

Even the most intimidating and scary tasks are much more manageable and easy to do once broken into individual steps. Just think about the steps that you need to do until it seems like 1-2-3 and I’m done!

There are two phases when it comes to accomplishing anything – planning and execution.

Phase 1: Planning and preparation

This is the thinking phase.

First of all, play the movie of you finishing the task in your mind – just finish the task in your mind from the beginning to the end, and make it as detailed as possible. This is really important! Think about every single step that you need to do.

Write down all the sub-tasks (steps), either on a piece of paper or better yet, enter them into a task list management program like Swift To-Do List 7. Great thing about Swift To-Do List 7 is that it allows you to write notes for each of your tasks, so you can easily record all the details and thoughts for each step, and it also allows you to easily reorder the tasks using mouse (drag & drop)

Now you should have around 5-20 (give or take) sub-tasks that need to be done in order to finish the task. Is the first step easy enough to do, so you are feeling like doing it right now? If not, break it further down into even smaller steps.

Well organized is half done, and thinking about how to accomplish something is inseparable part of the process. You are actually already working on your task!

Phase 2: Execution – Slay the tasks one by one

Armed with a task list of small tasks, you are ready for battle with procrastination! If you have thought about everything thoroughly, there shouldn’t be anything stopping you from going through your task list. Slay the tasks one by one.

If you are still not feeling like doing them, that’s OK. Go through each of the small tasks and write some notes about it. Write ideas about the best way how to accomplish that particular step. Or how could you prepare for it. Or what else needs to be done in order to accomplish it. Anything! Just write something for each of the sub-tasks.

This will place your mind in state of accomplishing the task. In your mind, you already see yourself accomplishing the task. You know you can do it. You even know how you can do it – in fact, you have the instructions right in your hand now!

Just go through the task list, and finish the simple tasks, one by one. Now is the time for the “Just do it!” attitude. Get it over with. Nothing is stopping you now.

Phase 3: Feeling good about yourself

Once the task is done, savor the great feeling of accomplishment. Enjoy the positive emotions, so your brain anchors them to accomplishment of hard tasks – this will make finishing hard tasks easier in the future.

You’ve stretched yourself, perhaps even pushed yourself out of your comfort zone a bit. That’s excellent! Reward yourself. And do not forget to use this method when another daunting task pops up – it always does, but that’s OK, isn’t it? :-)

Deal with procrastination with 100% success is a post from: Swift To-Do List Blog

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