Do It Today

I started doing something else that’s important. I started this book. Just like that. I moved on to the next thing. Life doesn’t stop. And every single second, we’re getting closer to death.

“You cannot escape the responsibility of tomorrow by evading it today.”   - Abraham Lincoln

And if you want to climb the corporate ladder, you have to form alliances, be strategic, outperform your targets, and be great at what you do.

That means every time you’re not focused; you’re giving someone or something permission to enter your mind.

Thinking about past success and happiness stimulates the production of serotonin, a chemical nerve our cells produce. Serotonin is the key chemical that affects every part of your body. Serotonin plays a huge role in our bodily functions. But it also helps to reduce depression, increase libido, stabilize mood, control sleep, and regulate anxiety.

Serotonin also regulates delayed gratification. When your serotonin activity goes down, it can lead to a lack of focus on the long-term. You are less likely to act on your plans. When you lose focus, there’s a big chance that your serotonin activity is low. That’s why you are giving into short-term pleasures like going out, drinking, shopping, having sex, watching TV, or anything else that gives you short-term pleasure.

To improve your focus, boost your serotonin activity. Research shows that exercise can do that. But something else, that’s equally effective, and a lot easier is a simple mind-exercise. All you need to do is remember positive events that happened in the past.

“All you need to do [to increase serotonin levels] is remember positive events that have happened in your life. This simple act increases serotonin production in the anterior cingulate cortex, which is a region just behind the prefrontal cortex that controls attention.”

When you procrastinate, you might feel better on the short-term, but you will suffer in the long-term.

Procrastination is not innocent behavior. It’s a sign of poor self-regulation. Researchers even compare procrastination to alcohol and drug abuse. It’s serious.

Willpower Doesn’t Work. Systems Do.

What you really need is a system for doing work. A lot of people shy away from routines, systems and frameworks because they want to have “freedom.” I’m sorry to disappoint you: Freedom is your enemy. The fact is that, if you want to get things done, you need rules.

Not writing down your thoughts, ideas, tasks, etc, is stupid. Why? Because you’re wasting a lot of brain power when you rely on your memory. When you write everything down, you can use your brainpower for other things. Like solving problems. That’s actually useful and advances your career.

When you combine all your productivity rules, you have a system. Voila! And a system changes everything.

“At the end of each day, you should play back the tapes of your performance. The results should either applaud you or prod you.”

It’s simple: Close the day before you start a new day. Also, close every week before you start a new week. Similar for every month, and every year. Sounds simple, right? It’s one of those “simple” ideas that have a huge impact on your life.

Charles Duhigg talks about this exercise in his new book Smarter Faster Better. Duhigg writes about how the most productive people visualize their days with more specificity than the rest of us. I prefer to do this exercise in the evening because when I wake up in the morning, I still remember what I’ve visualized.

And it’s not your fault. Most technology taps into your lizard brain and locks you in — it turns you into a consumer. So don’t even think about resisting the internet or technology.

Can you imagine? You’re on your deathbed, and you’re saying this to your family: “I’m glad I watched so many FAIL compilations on YouTube.” Nope. You’ll probably look back and reflect on the time you spent with your family or friends. Or the memories you made when you were traveling. Or how much you enjoyed your work.

It’s like Ryan Holiday writes in an article about speed reading: “If you find yourself wanting to speed up the reading process on a particular book, you may want to ask yourself, “Is this book any good?” Life is too short to read books you don’t enjoy reading.”

find something that you are so passionate about that you don’t want to procrastinate for one second. We all know that time is finite, so why not behave accordingly? If you know that you have limited time on this planet, why waste it?

“We all sorely complain of the shortness of time, and yet have much more than we know what to do with. Our lives are either spent in doing nothing at all, or in doing nothing to the purpose, or in doing nothing that we ought to do. We are always complaining that our days are few, and acting as though there would be no end of them.” – Lucius Annaeus Seneca

best solution for procrastination is doing meaningful work.

Michel de Montaigne, the 16th-century philosopher, said it best: “My life has been full of terrible misfortunes most of which never happened.”

I’m not a spiritual person. I believe in coincidence and luck. I also don’t believe in some kind of spiritual energy that we can’t see. I’m a pretty skeptical person. But I’m also a pragmatist. I believe in what works. That’s why I never challenge religion or spirituality because it works for millions of people.

Socrates, one of the founders of Western Philosophy, warned us 2400 years ago: “Beware the barrenness of a busy life.”

“There is never a time when new distraction will not show up.”

There are always distractions. So you better train yourself to manage your attention. Not your time. Because that’s the biggest mistake people make. We falsely believe that we can manage time. But time can’t be managed. The only thing you control is your attention.

The difference maker is how you spend those 1440 minutes each day. To be honest, I think I still have much to improve about my effectiveness. No one reaches peak productivity. Nor is it important to be the most productive person in the world.

Michael Rosenbaum: “Learned resourcefulness refers to the behavioral repertoire necessary for both regressive self-control and reformative self-control. This repertoire includes self-regulating one’s emotional and cognitive responses during stressful situations, using problem-solving skills, and delaying immediate gratification for the sake of more meaningful rewards in the future.”

Otto von Bismarck put it best: “Fools learn from experience. I prefer to learn from the experience of others.”

As Dutch Renaissance man Erasmus once said: “When I have a little money, I buy books; and if I have any left, I buy food and clothes.”

Be assured, the money and time you spend on books are worth it. I can’t think of a better investment. Books are only a waste of money if you don’t read them. If you want to read more, you have to buy more books. Some people don’t get it. They spend $200 on new shoes, but they find it ridiculous to buy 20 books from Amazon.

Having an inventory of books keeps up the momentum. You also never have an excuse not to read.

I live by a different motto: Always Be Reading. I read a minimum of 1 hour per day on weekdays and even more during the weekend and holidays. Find a way to read around your schedule and your life situation.

Most people read 50 pages an hour. If you read 10 hours a week, you’ll read 26,000 pages a year. Let’s say the average book you read is 250 pages: In this scenario, you’ll read 104 books in a year.

pick out the books that are related to your profession or hobby. Read books about people that you admire. Don’t read a book just because it’s a best-seller or a classic if it has no meaning to you.

Voltaire said it best: “The further I advance in age, the more I find work necessary. It becomes in the long run the greatest of pleasures, and takes the place of the illusions of life.”

Dopamine is one of the body’s happy chemicals; it controls the “pleasure” systems of the brain and makes you feel joy. This joyous feeling is addictive and makes us seek out behaviors that stimulate dopamine. You can think about food, sex, drugs and the notifications you receive on your screen.

Leonard Mlodinow, a physicist, who also co-authored two books with Stephen Hawking, recently shared scientific research in his book Elastic about taking time off. He demonstrates that taking time off work improves our well-being: “Though some may consider “doing nothing” unproductive, a lack of downtime is bad for our well-being, because idle time allows our default network to make sense of what we’ve recently experienced or learned.”

Dale Carnegie, a self-help pioneer, and author of How to Stop Worrying and Start Living, said it best: “So, to prevent fatigue and worry, the first rule is: Rest often. Rest before you get tired.”

Start with the classics. Listen to Bob Dylan, Marvin Gaye, Whitney Houston. Watch movies by Alfred Hitchcock, Francis Ford Coppola. Read Ernest Hemingway, Harper Lee, Ralph Ellison. Go to the British Museum. Study Andy Warhol. Like millions of other people, you’ll be inspired by their work. And that will enrich your life.

Time Blocking is simply using your calendar to block time for your most important priorities. During that time, you only work on that one thing. And, you let your calendar lead the way. That way, you don’t have to think, “What should I do next?” But Time Blocking is more than just a productivity tool. It’s about self-awareness.

Computer science professor and author of Deep Work, Cal Newport, also uses time blocking. He says: “I take time blocking seriously, dedicating ten to twenty minutes every evening to building my schedule for the next day. During this planning process I consult my task lists and calendars, as well as my weekly and quarterly planning notes. My goal is to make sure progress is being made on the right things at the right pace for the relevant deadlines.”

It’s Steven Pressfield’s famous analogy, from his book The War Of Art, for getting work done. The amateur only works when inspiration strikes. The pro sits down every day and puts in steady work. The key is steady. Not irregular or extreme.

“People often say that motivation doesn’t last. Well, neither does bathing — that’s why we recommend it daily.”

It’s also called the Pomodoro technique. The reason this method works is also simple: Evolutionary biology. The human brain can’t focus on a single task for long periods. Our brains are meant to ensure our survival. To protect us from looming threats the brain is in a constant state of alertness. So focusing on one thing for a long time is hard for your brain.

Eleanor Roosevelt said it best: “If life were predictable it would cease to be life, and be without flavor.”

Know Your Direction. Not Your Destination.

Lastly, don’t try to be something you’re not. If you’re an introvert, don’t pretend that you can work in a boiler room. If you’re an extrovert, don’t pretend you can work in solitude. Stay close to yourself—there’s no point in pushing yourself so badly that your life becomes miserable.

Wallace D. Wattles, one of the first famed personal development authors, said it best: “You get rid of the thought of competition. You are to create, not to compete for what is already created. You do not have to take anything away from any one.”

There’s enough opportunity for everyone in the world. The problem is that most people don’t use the opportunities. If you want to have a specific career, go out there and create it. The same is true for your business. And don’t focus on limited resources, naysayers, or any other reason you should not do it. Adopt an abundance mindset.

Steven Pressfield, the author of The War of Art, said it best: “Long-term, we must begin to build our internal strengths. It isn’t just skills like computer technology. It’s the old-fashioned basics of self-reliance, self-motivation, self-reinforcement, self-discipline, self-command.”

Muhammad Ali once said that: “It’s the repetition of affirmations that leads to belief. And once that belief becomes a deep conviction, things begin to happen.”

Keller and Papasan put it well: “Success is sequential, not simultaneous.”