I recently took some advice from Dan Pena (the 50 billion dollar man). Take him with a huge grain of salt, but the guy has some serious chops.
Like many others in our modern age of distractions, I get easily distracted. I procrastinate, I open up facebook by habit, and reddit and the fastlane forum. I procrastinate so hard and so often that it is an actual HABIT.
Breaking that habit has become a priority now, things are moving forward and getting serious. I am able to see now that time invested becomes money received. And so every minute that I am NOT working on my project is almost literally dollars wasted. So it has better be for a really good reason.
To break these nasty habits, i've got my usual notepad beside me and i've drawn a line down the middle in the top corner. Like a pro's and con's list, ya feel me?
On the left I tally each time I do something productive. On the right I tally each time I do something unproductive.
And every time I open an internet tab that will lead to a procrastinating website, I draw a short line on the right-hand column. A tally keeping track of every time I open up a time waster. I feel so bad putting another tick there rather than the left hand side that I will usually close what I was about to do before the page has even loaded.
Seeing a visible reminder of every time I have done something unproductive is very motivating for me. Because as I build that habit, i've seen, each day, the number of productive ticks go up, and unproductive ticks go down. I can MEASURE that I am making progress.
Keep score and remember you're better than you were yesterday. Even by an extra tick on the left side, and one less on the right, it's still progress.
Like many others in our modern age of distractions, I get easily distracted. I procrastinate, I open up facebook by habit, and reddit and the fastlane forum. I procrastinate so hard and so often that it is an actual HABIT.
Breaking that habit has become a priority now, things are moving forward and getting serious. I am able to see now that time invested becomes money received. And so every minute that I am NOT working on my project is almost literally dollars wasted. So it has better be for a really good reason.
To break these nasty habits, i've got my usual notepad beside me and i've drawn a line down the middle in the top corner. Like a pro's and con's list, ya feel me?
On the left I tally each time I do something productive. On the right I tally each time I do something unproductive.
And every time I open an internet tab that will lead to a procrastinating website, I draw a short line on the right-hand column. A tally keeping track of every time I open up a time waster. I feel so bad putting another tick there rather than the left hand side that I will usually close what I was about to do before the page has even loaded.
Seeing a visible reminder of every time I have done something unproductive is very motivating for me. Because as I build that habit, i've seen, each day, the number of productive ticks go up, and unproductive ticks go down. I can MEASURE that I am making progress.
Keep score and remember you're better than you were yesterday. Even by an extra tick on the left side, and one less on the right, it's still progress.
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