Do It Today: Overcome Procrastination, Improve Productivity, and Achieve More Meaningful Things

by Darius Foroux

Every second we invest in something is time that we can never get back.

I believe that we are our actions. And our actions reveal our character. That’s who we are.

The recipe for a good life is simple: Get clear on what you want and eliminate everything else from your life.

When you do the little things every day, they add up. And over time, they form big things like a strong body & mind, self-reliance, a large investment portfolio, and so forth. One thing that I’ve learned about compounding is that you can also compound hurtful things.

“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.

“What thing(s) should I eliminate to make my life so simple that it’s easy to focus?”

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.

Procrastination is not innocent behavior. It’s a sign of poor self-regulation.

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.

If you don’t measure your time, it’s tough to stop procrastination or improve your productivity. Because if you want to manage your time better, you have to know where it goes first.

How do you know your time? Keep an activity log.

You can’t be productive 24/7. And a big part of being productive is about getting rid of unproductive habits we all have.

For example, one of my personal rules is this: Never complain. Another one is: Read and exercise every day. And: Close the day every evening by setting your next day’s priorities.

Close the day before you start a new day. Also, close every week before you start a new week.

the Stoic philosopher Seneca once said: “To be everywhere is to be nowhere.”

well: Life is too short to do work you don’t enjoy. No matter how many productivity hacks you try, you won’t produce more if you’re not passionate about what you do.

“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

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

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.

If you’re a perfectionist, you’re just a procrastinator with a mask.

Research specifically shows that perfectionism is closely related to depression and low self-esteem.

“Perfectionists are their own devils.” —Jack Kirby

“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.” Learned resourcefulness is the skill that you need to stop sabotaging yourself.

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

research shows that working more hours general means less productivity. Why? Well, we often waste time if we have more of it.

“Very little is needed to make a happy life; it is all within yourself, in your way of thinking.”