Need A Procrastination Hack?

Here’s a trick to help you get more stuff done.

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What's up, everybody? This is Russell Brunson. Welcome back to the Marketing Secrets podcast. Today, I am streaming from you, from the top of Boise. Literally, I'm in the penthouse looking over Boise. And this is where I come when I am writing. And I don't know about you, but when I have big projects, sometimes my mind tries to do everything possible to make sure I don't do the thing. And so, I want to talk about that today, what I'm doing, some of my thoughts and some of my struggles. And hopefully it'll make you guys realize that you're probably just like me. All right. Hopefully this helps get you guys to get more stuff done. And with that said, we'll cue the theme song and then I'll be right back.

All right. So, the last time I was doing this, I was in this penthouse. I was writing the Traffic Secrets book, which is crazy. And I would come up here for multiple days at a time. I'd lock myself in here and I would just write like crazy. And right now, I'm finding myself under similar deadlines. I thought with this book, I was going to have one more time. So, those who already know, I'm writing book number four. This is my first personal development book ever. I'm really excited for it. It's everything I've learned in the last 20 years put into doodles. So, if you like my doodles, hopefully it'll help make all these things make more sense to you. So, I'm excited for it.

But I found, and I wonder if ... I think we're all this way. I definitely know I am. But when I have something I need to do, right? Even if it sounds cool at the time and I'm excited about it, my brain ... As I start doing the thing, my brain's Like, "Ah, this is painful. I wish we were watching TV. We should be eating candy. We should be doing something else." Right? And so, as I sit down to start typing, I get energy, excitement. I sit down and as soon as I start typing, my brain's freaking out, looking for anything possible.

Like, "Ah, there's a TV. Ah, there’s outside. A bird just flew by. Oh, your phone's ringing. Oh, you should turn on some music. Oh, you should check your email. What happens if Facebook, somebody dings you? What if someone texts you?" All the things, every possible distraction my brain starts screaming at me, like bloody murder, trying to get me to not do the one thing that I got to actually do. So, my first question is, do you guys feel that way ever? Do you have something you're like, "This is so important, I must do it." But you have some kind of pain associated with it in your mind. So, as you start getting closer and closer to actually doing the thing that you need to do, man, it's like everything possible around you starts flying around, trying to stop you from doing the thing.

If so, you are in good company because it happens to me too. And so, I'm going to share some things that have helped me. And again, I am so far from perfect. I'm in the middle of this right now. I literally recorded this podcast and my brain's like, "Oh, you should record a podcast. That'd be way less painful than actually writing." So, I'm literally being a bad example by doing this podcast, but hopefully it'll help get me back to work as well. So, a couple of things I found. When I have to get something done, if I'm in my ordinary situation, right? If I'm at my office or if I'm at my house, somewhere where I'm there a lot, I know what the distractions are, right?

I know that my wife's outside or my kids are outside. I know where the TVs are. I know ... It's so familiar, I know quickly every single distraction. I’m at the office. If I’m at the office, there's a million people I can talk to. There's always something I can do to not do my job, right? There's something exciting I can share with Dave, or I can go talk to Brent, or I can tell Melanie something. There's always something that I can do to distract me from doing the thing that I got to actually do. And so, because of that I'm in this space and I'm used to those interruptions, or I'm used to things.

And on top of that, people see me, like, "Oh, Russell's here. Let me ask him a quick question." Right? It pulls you and derails you off this thing. And so, a big part of it, for me, is I have to literally shift my environment. This is why I flew ... Not flew. I drove down to the penthouse, I'm here and I'm by myself. It's lonely. There's nobody else here. It's just me and my thoughts. And so, first off, it cuts off 10 levels of potential distractions. Okay? So, that's the first step.

The second step is, for me, I have to find rewards of things I want. Like, "I want to listen to this thing. I want to watch this show, or I want to eat this thing or whatever." And I have to have those things and I cannot give those to myself, right? These have to be the carrot to get me to actually do something, right? So for me, for example, is 11:00right now, I'm starving. I want to eat breakfast this morning and I said, "If I eat breakfast right now, then I'm going to feel really good. And I'm going to go ... I'll just ... " There's no carrot. So I was like, "Okay, I'm going to eat, but I can't eat until this chapter's done." And then my brain's like, "But the chapter, it could be really long," and all the things.

I'm like, "I know, but if you're hungry, you got to figure this out." And so, I was like, "Ah." And so, finally, I sat down ... And at least for me with writing, it takes a minute for me to get into flow state, right? Sometimes it takes 20, 30, 40, an hour for me to be able to get to the spot where I'm writing, right? I'm thinking, I'm analyzing, I'm trying to think about stuff, I'm researching. I'm trying to find stuff. And then I start writing and then I can get into the zone. And then it's like, "Okay, now I'm in the zone." So, then I start writing as fast as I can, right?

And I'll be like, "Okay. As soon as I get to the end of this, I get my reward. I get to go eat lunch or breakfast or whatever it is and I'm so excited." So, I'm writing, I'm writing. I'm going as fast as I can. And I'm in momentum now, right? So, that's the next thing, it's like tricking yourself with these carrots to get you into momentum, right? And then when you're in momentum ... I can't remember who it was, some writer that I was following said this, and it was really, really cool. He said that if you end your writing ... If you end at the end of a chapter, then it's this is ending point, right?

And then the problem's like, "Oh, I'm done." Then you go and you do your thing and you reward yourself. Then you come back and you're like, "Ah, how do I get back into this?" Right? Into the next chapter, the next project, the next video, whatever it is. And so, it's starting all over again. So what they recommended was when you get to the end of something, you don't stop, you start the next chapter, right? You write the first three or four paragraphs where there's still momentum, where things are happening. And then when you stop, it's like, "Oh, I know where I left off. I can pick up a lot faster than going through that whole exercise of spending 45 minutes to an hour trying to figure out what you're going to talk about and get your mindset back right. And getting into the spot." Right?

So, you're starting the next part of the process, the next part of the project and you get part of it done, so that brainstorming session you had was ... Happened while you're in momentum, it's going to be faster and then you can pick up faster when you come back from eating breakfast, or your activity, or whatever the thing is that you reward yourself with. So, that's kind of cool as well. So, those are some of the core things I'm working on right now. So, literally I just finished the chapter. I got the next intro written and now I'm like, "maybe I can come eat." And then I'm like, "I'm going to reward myself by doing a podcast real quick and eating."

And all these little things real quick, knowing though that I got to be back up in 20 minutes and I got to pick up where I left off and I got to do another two hour sprint to get to the next chapter, because I have my next reward after that. And then I've got one more tonight and then I'm done and I'm going to head back home and go be with the kids, which is the ultimate reward. So anyway, there's some tricks. Again, it's not a flawless system. It's not perfect. I'm still struggling, but they're some of the things that are helping me.

And so, I think for any of you guys who are like me, who have the ADD, like, "Squirrel, there's a squirrel over here. No, right here and over here." These are some tricks that will help you actually get your projects done. Change your environment, get away from your normal world, right? Some people will go to a Starbucks. They'll go to a library, or they go to the park bench. If that's what it takes, go there, right? Some people come in early in the day. They come out late at night, when everyone's asleep or whatever. Figure out what it is that you need to go to be able to do that is number one.

Number two, get yourself into momentum, right? As quick as you can. When you're in momentum, you're going to get more stuff done. And when you're in momentum, keep working through it, right? Oh, and give yourself treats, or prizes, or something at the end of a momentum session to make sure that you actually get to it. And then again, don't end on the end of a chapter or the end of the project. Start the next ones, so that way you're able to keep moving forward. So, there you go. Hope that helps. With that said, I'm going to pound my breakfast real quick and get back to work on this book so someday, hopefully you guys have a chance to read it. So, that's my goal. That's my plan. I appreciate you all for listening and we'll talk to you all again soon. Bye, everybody.

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