Anti-Procrastination for Writers

The Writer’s Guide to Stop Procrastinating, Start Writing and Create a Daily Writing Ritual

Akash Karia

~

Based on the international-bestseller,

“Ready, Set – Procrastinate” by Akash Karia,

now EXPANDED AND UPDATED

exclusively for writers.

~

© All rights reserved.

Akash Karia

#1 Bestselling Author of

How to Write a Non-Fiction Kindle eBook in 15 Days:

Your Step-by-Step Guide to Writing a Non-Fiction eBook that Sells!

“It truly is the best time in history to be a writer. The are no longer any boundaries. You can work with whomever you want to, at your own speed, get paid monthly, write about anything you want, do very little marketing, and still reach readers.”

~ J.A.Konrath

“I have spent my days stringing and unstringing my instrument while the song I came to sing remains unsung.”

~ Rabindranath Tagore

Table of Contents

Chapter One

The Writer’s Guide to Stop Procrastinating, Start Writing and Create a Daily Writing Ritual!

Chapter Two

How to Use the Solar Flaring Technique to Avoid Procrastination

Chapter Three

How I Doubled My Writing Speed

Chapter Four

How to Avoid Procrastinator-Talk

Chapter Five

How to Increase Your Motivation Using These Two Words

Chapter Six

How to Create a Daily Writing Habit Using the Seinfeld Calendar

Chapter Seven

The Two Types of Writers Who Procrastinate

Chapter Eight

2 Small Techniques to Make Writing Fun – Even on Days You Don’t Want to Write

Chapter Nine

The Perfectionist’s Curse

Chapter Ten

How to Conveniently Stop “Forgetting” Your Writing

Chapter Eleven

Pareto’s Principle: How to Eliminate Disguised Procrastination

Chapter Twelve

Avoiding Procrastination by Eliminating Distractions

Chapter Thirteen

How to Triple Your Chances of Success with the “If-Then” Technique

Chapter Fourteen

Creating Accountability as a Writer

Chapter Fifteen

Pre-Commitment Devices: Why You Should Burn Your Ships

Chapter Sixteen

Using the Pomodoro Technique to Triple Your Productivity

Chapter Seventeen

Wrap Up

Chapter One

The Writer’s Guide to Stop Procrastinating, Start Writing and Create a Daily Writing Ritual!

“Procrastination is like leaving the headlights on in a parked car: it’s a slow drain on your mental battery. The longer the lights are on, the harder it is to get the engine started. By continually avoiding doing something you know you need to do, procrastination sucks the energy out of you.”

~ Pick the Brain

What is the best way to improve your productivity as a writer?

I recently read a book by Rachel Aaron titled 2k to 10k: Writing Faster, Writing Better, and Writing More of What You Love. One of the tips Rachel offered in her book for increasing your productivity as a writer is to minimize the number of days you do not write. If you can figure out a way to stop procrastinating and write every day, you will experience greater success as a writer.

Achieving success as a writer in today’s age (and especially in Amazon’s ecosystem) is very simple. It’s not easy, but it is very simple: write a great book, publish it and keep repeating the process. The more books you write, the more fans you will gain, the more books you will sell and the higher your income will be.

Just imagine, how many more books would you be able to write each year if you stopped procrastinating and created a daily writing habit? How would that impact your career? Your self-esteem? Your income?

Procrastination is not limited to writers. In an article in the New Yorker, James Surowiecki writes about the cost of procrastination:

Each year, Americans waste hundreds of millions of dollars because they don’t file their taxes on time. The Harvard economist David Laibson has shown that American workers have forgone huge amounts of money in matching 401(k) contributions because they never got around to signing up for a retirement plan. Seventy per cent of patients suffering from glaucoma risk blindness because they don’t use their eyedrops regularly.

Procrastination also inflicts major costs on businesses and governments. The recent crisis of the euro was exacerbated by the German government’s dithering, and the decline of the American auto industry, exemplified by the bankruptcy of G.M., was due in part to executives’ penchant for delaying tough decisions. – Via New Yorker

However, writers are more prone to procrastination than most. For example, consider this take from WhatCulture! on how some writers procrastinate:

You’re not a clean freak by any stretch of the imagination, and nor are you a slob, but when you’re attempting to write a novel you become convinced that nothing is clean or organized enough. You think of cleaning your surroundings as a metaphor for organizing your thoughts so as to produce cleaner and well-structured sentences. Or you at least pretend to – Via WhatCulture!

As a writer, you have no one to hold you accountable except for yourself. You don’t have anyone monitoring what how much work you get done during the day. And you don’t have fixed working hours, meaning that if you lack self-discipline, you can end up wasting your entire day. For example, according to an article on Readers Digest (www.rd.com):

The French novelist Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette used her French bulldog, Souci, to procrastinate writing. She would pluck fleas from Souci’s back and hunt for them in her fur until the grooming ritual prepared her to move on to other procrastination techniques like cuddling with Souci and swatting flies. Only then would Colette begin to work. – Via RD

In this book, I will show you how to avoid procrastination and create a daily writing ritual. I will reveal to you the same tools I used to write thirteen #1 best selling books in one year, while still maintaining my busy job as the chief commercial officer for a multimillion-dollar company.

Yes, these tools even work for people who are extremely busy, have families and have full-time jobs. The reason I know these tools work is because they are based on simple techniques that are backed by hundreds of hours of intensive scientific research as well as my experiences as a writer.

Using the anti-procrastination and productivity techniques in this book, I believe that you will not only be able to double your word count but also be able to create a consistent, daily writing habit. No more putting off writing your book till tomorrow!

It’s time to kick procrastination and laziness in the butt and start fulfilling your potential as a writer.

How Procrastination Got Me Deported out of a Country

For a long period of my life, I struggled with procrastination. I procrastinated so much in college that I ended up with rock-bottom grades. I procrastinated for two years before I finally wrote my first book. And I even procrastinated so long on renewing my tourist visa that I was deported out of Malaysia (seriously, if you’re traveling in Malaysia – or traveling anywhere, for that matter – make sure you extend your tourist visa if you plan on staying longer than the allowed entry period!). To put it in simple terms, I’m an expert at procrastinating!

What’s interesting about procrastinating is that you always find ways of justifying why things should be put off till “tomorrow.” When I was procrastinating on writing my first book, I always justified doing so by saying to myself things such as:

- “I don’t have enough energy today, so it’s best to leave my writing till tomorrow.”

- “I’m not in the mood for writing, so I’ll start writing tomorrow because I don’t want the quality of my writing to suffer.”

- “I don’t have enough time to write, so I’ll wait until I do.”

- “I’ll write tomorrow because I’m not feeling inspired today.”

When excuses do you make when you procrastinate?

If you want to learn how to stop dreaming and start doing; if you want to stop putting things off and start getting things done; if you want to stop procrastinating and develop a daily writing habit, then the tools you’ll discover in this book will serve as your roadmap to success.

How can I be so confident? Because these are the same tools that I’ve used to write 11 books while maintaining a full-time job as the chief commercial officer for a multimillion-dollar company. I’ve managed to overcome my laziness and make going to the gym a daily activity. And yes, whenever I travel, I now renew my tourist visa at least a week in advance!

Let’s get started...

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Chapter Two

How to Use the Solar Flaring Technique to Avoid Procrastination

“Runners get out every day and run. Writers make regular time to write, because it’s impossible to go on living without getting those ideas out of your head. And because we know it’s another muscle that has to be exercised a lot to get working well.”

~ Make a Living Writing

Are you having difficulty finding the motivation to sit down at your desk and work on your book? Perhaps, like Franz Kafka (author of Metamorphosis), you’re unable to get yourself to write:

In 1908, Kafka landed a position at the Workers’ Accident Insurance Institute in Prague, where he was fortunate to be on the coveted “single shift” system, which meant office hours from 8 or 9 in the morning until 2 or 3 in the afternoon. This was a distinct improvement over his previous job, which required long hours and frequent overtime. So how did Kafka use these newfound hours of freedom? First, lunch; then a four-hour-long nap; then 10 minutes of exercise; then a walk; then dinner with his family; and then, finally, at 10:30 or 11:30 at night, a few hours of writing—although much of this time was spent writing letters or diary entries. – via Slate

There are several reasons as to why writers procrastinate, but in my interviews with authors I have found that the reason many of them procrastinate is because they dread getting started. Why? Because the task of writing is a book is very intimidating. It requires a lot of research, plotting, outlining, writing and editing, and the very thought of doing all those things can be mentally draining.

How Newton’s First Law of Motion Applies to Procrastination

If you’ve studied high school physics, you’ve most likely heard of Newton’s first law of motion. I’m not going to challenge your memory by asking you to recall it, but here’s what it says: “An object at rest stays at rest unless acted upon by an external force. Similarly, an object in motion stays in motion unless acted upon by an external force.” (My high school physics did come in useful after all. My teacher would be so proud!).

So, what has Newton’s law got to do with procrastination? Great question. You see, Newton’s law can also be applied to procrastination. If you’re procrastinating on writing your book, you’re like an object at rest – not making any progress and very unlikely to do so in the future. From my vast experience in procrastination, I’ve found that when you say you’ll work on a project “tomorrow,” you’re also likely to put it off tomorrow.

However, if you get started on your book (even if it’s a small start), you become an object in motion, and you will continue being in motion and making progress on your project. People who start on a task or project are more likely to continue working on it – and will often work on it for a longer period of time than they planned to do.

The Puzzle Study (& Proof Researchers are Evil)

In one research study conducted by Greist-Bousquet and Schiffman (http://bit.ly/1e37d5W), the researchers gave the participants some puzzles to complete. Imagine that you’re one of the participants in this study. You’ve been given some “brain-buster” puzzles to complete, but here’s the catch: You haven’t been given enough time to complete them (researchers are evil!).

So, what happens when the researcher says that time’s up? Do you stop working on your puzzle and simply get up and leave? Or do you stay behind to finish off the puzzles even though you don’t have to?

It turns out that over 90% of the participants in the study went on to complete the puzzle anyway! What this shows is that people have a tendency to complete what they start. As Newton’s first law states, “An object in motion will continue staying in motion (unless acted upon by an external force).”

OK, now that you know getting started is the key to beating procrastination, how do you go about motivating yourself to get started? After all, procrastination means that you don’t want to get started, so how do you go from being “at rest” to being “in motion”?

Here’s where the solar flaring technique comes in...

The Solar Flaring Technique

“What’s the solar flaring technique?” you ask. First of all, isn’t that such a cool name for an anti-procrastination technique? I’m a sucker for great concepts with cool names! Unfortunately I wasn’t the one who coined the term. I came across the concept on a site called “Asian Efficiency” (http://www.asianefficiency.com/) and it’s a very simple but effective concept that can help you overcome procrastination.

In order to understand what the solar flaring technique is, you first need to understand what a solar flare is. A solar flare is a star explosion that starts off very small but then grows MASSIVE.

Source: NASA Goddard Photo and Video via Compfight (cc)

The solar flaring method (when applied to procrastination) is similar: It refers to starting off by working on a very small piece of the task you’ve been dreading. However, the momentum you gain from starting your task gives you a new burst of energy and allows you to go on to tackle more and more of the project.

Here’s an example: Over the past year, I’ve maintained a very busy lifestyle. I hold a position as the chief commercial officer for a multi-million dollar company, while also pursuing my passion of writing books. I work Mondays to Saturdays, and by the time I get back home from work, I’m usually exhausted. I want nothing more than to just lie down on my sofa and spend the next couple of hours watching countless episodes of The Big Bang Theory and How I Met Your Mother.

To combat this temptation, I use the solar flaring technique. I break the task of writing down into the ridiculously smallest first step I can take: write just one sentence. My goal is no longer to “write my book” – it is to tackle a small part of the task, which is to “write just one sentence.”

After that, I give myself permission to watch sitcoms if I want – and on some days, I do! However, on most days, I end up writing not just one sentence, but over a thousand words.

I’ve applied the solar flaring technique to virtually every area of my life – whenever I experience some kind of dread at getting started, I look for a ridiculously small first step that I know I can summon enough willpower to take. Writing my book becomes “write one sentence.” Going to the gym becomes “put on my gym gear.” Going to sleep early becomes “turn off the lights.”

Once I take the ridiculously small first step, I find that it becomes much easier to put one foot in front of another, and pretty soon I end up making more progress on the task than I’d imagined.

The Five-Minute Technique

Another great technique to help you get started on your task is called the “five-minute technique.” As the name of the technique implies, all you do here is commit yourself to working on your chosen task for just five minutes.

One of the reasons we procrastinate is because we dread spending hours working on a task we don’t like. The very thought of working on the task for a long period of time (e.g., doing the taxes, cleaning out the garage, preparing the annual company report) tires us out. It saps away our mental energy. Thus, we make excuses such as “I’ll do it tomorrow when I have more time” or “I’m too tired right now, so I’ll save it for tomorrow.” I’m ashamed to admit that these are both excuses I have made far too often.

Fortunately, there’s a solution. The five-minute technique helps decrease the perceived pain of working on the task. It’s painful to think about working on an unpleasant task for two hours, but it’s much easier to think about doing it for only five minutes.

Therefore, here’s what I want you to do: I want you to commit yourself to writing your book for just five minutes. This eliminates all excuses such as not having enough time or not having enough energy – after all, it’s only five minutes!

Next, get a countdown timer and set it to five minutes. Once the timer starts ticking, start writing. At the end of the five minutes, you’re free to let yourself off the hook and go do something else. Come back the next day and use the five-minute technique again. What this does is build the foundation for a daily writing habit. This habit will serve you very well in the long term.

However, what’s most likely to happen at the end of your five minutes is that you’ll continue working on the task for longer than you expected.

Why?

Because even though the task may have seemed intimidating and dreadful, once we get started on the task we realize that it’s not as bad as it seemed. That was the conclusion Timothy A. Pychyl, from Carleton University in Canada, came to after conducting a series of tests. In the test, the participants received random messages during the day over a period of two weeks. These messages asked the participants to report how they were feeling and whether or not they should have been working on anything else at that moment.

“I Wish I’d Started Earlier...”

Pychyl’s research revealed that before the participants engaged in the tasks they should have been doing, they saw these tasks as problematic and unpleasant. As a result, the participants put off doing the tasks for as long as they could. However, once the participants started working on the tasks, they reported that they found the tasks interesting or engaging and wished they had begun earlier. In other words, the tasks weren’t as bad as they had seemed.

Have you ever had the same experience – the experience that once you started writing, you realized that it was actually OK (or goodness, even interesting!) and that you wished you’d started earlier?

The Key to Avoiding Procrastination...

The key to beating procrastination and getting things done is to reduce the pain associated with the task. One way to do this is by using the solar flaring method, where you break the task down into the most ridiculously simple first step you can take, and then take that first step.

Alternatively, you can use the five-minute method to get started. Once you begin making progress, you’ll find that you’ll get into the flow of writing. You’ll begin to enjoy it and you’ll most likely make more progress than you’d initially expected.

In a Nutshell

- The key to avoiding procrastination is reducing the dread and pain associated with the task.

- Research reveals that once people get started working on a task, they have a tendency to want to complete it.

- Tasks that seem boring and intimidating before people start working on them are seen as engaging and interesting once people start doing them.

- The solar flaring technique involves breaking a task into a ridiculously small first step and then focusing on working on only that first step.

- The five-minute technique eliminates the dread associated with writing as well as the excuse that you don’t have any time.

- Use the solar flaring and/or the five-minute technique every day to make small amounts of progress and create a daily writing ritual.

Actionable Knowledge:

Application Exercise #1

“The scariest moment is always just before you start. After that, things can only get better.”

~ Stephen King, On Writing

1 – Solar Flaring Technique: Break the task of writing into the ridiculously smallest first step you can take (e.g., “write just one sentence,” “come up with a name with a villain for the book” or “edit just the first page of my book”).

2 – Five-Minute Technique: Sit down at your desk and commit yourself to writing for just five minutes. Grab a countdown timer and set it to five minutes. Once the timer starts counting down, write until the five minutes are up. Don’t worry about the quality of your writing, just write. If, after the five minutes are up, you’d like to continue writing, go ahead. If not, come back the next day and use the solar flaring technique or the five-minute technique (or a combination of both) to continue working on your book. This will help you build the foundations for a positive habit.

Chapter Three

How I Doubled My Writing Speed

“A blocked writer has the discipline to stay at the desk but cannot write. A procrastinator, on the other hand, cannot bring himself to sit down at the desk; yet if something forces him to sit down he may write quite fluently.”

~ Alice Flaherty, The Midnight Disease: The Drive To Write, Writer’s Block, and the Creative Brain

The solar flaring technique is an excellent method for helping you overcome procrastination when the root cause of procrastination is laziness. However, sometimes the reason for procrastination is not laziness: it’s not being clear about what you’re writing.

“Don’t Know What to Write Next”

Let’s say that you’re writing a nonfiction book on the Russian Revolution. You want to cover everything from the personal life stories of the major political figures in the revolution to the effects of the revolution on the Russian people and the economy. You’re excited about the topic, but every time you sit down at your desk, you’re unable to make meaningful progress. You might write a couple of paragraphs, but after that you’re stuck because you don’t know what to write next.

So, what do you do? You leave the project till such a time when you feel “inspired” again. A couple of days go by and you’re still waiting for inspiration to hit you.

“Don’t Know How to Move Forward”

Let’s take another example. Let’s say that you’re writing a rather complex book, akin to A Game of Thrones. You’re halfway through the book, but suddenly not feeling very motivated. You’re not sure how to move forward in terms of the plot, so you leave the book behind till you feel inspired again. A couple of days go by and you’re still waiting for inspiration to hit you.

Why Are You Procrastinating?

Have you ever encountered a similar situation? I have – plenty of times.

The reason for procrastination in both the above situations is not that you’re lazy, but the fact that you’re confused as a writer: you’re not clear about what you’re writing! In the first example, you don’t have the necessary research in place to write about the Russian Revolution, which leads to you getting stuck. No wonder you’re not feeling inspired – it’s because you lack the necessary information to continue writing.

In the second example, you’re not clear about the plot. You haven’t thought through how the story moves forward, so you don’t know what to write – hence, you procrastinate.

How I Doubled My Writing Speed and Halved My No-Writing Days

When I first started my journey as a writer, I would write without the use of outlines. I did not believe in outlining my book or planning what I would write. I would simply sit down at my computer and start writing. It was stream-of-consciousness writing, meaning I would write whatever came to mind.

However, the problem with this was that pretty soon I would get stuck. I wouldn’t know how to continue writing, usually because I was missing some important piece of information. Thus, I would end up on the Internet doing research. Sometimes, that didn’t end up well:

If you’re not careful, Internet research can lead you on a long and endless journey down the rabbit hole. If you think getting lost in your summer reading list is bad, internet research can take a writer to the shadowiest corners of the web – the hardest part is pulling yourself away when you’ve gone all the way to the heart of darkness. You started with the purest intentions. WHAT HAPPENED? – via WhatCulture

What allowed me to more than double my writing speed was to get all the information I needed before I started writing. I recommend you do the same: Before you start writing, gather all the necessary research, get clear about what you’re writing and know what it is that you want to say.

Before you start writing, spend at least five minutes outlining what it is that you want to write. Thus, when you start writing, you can focus on how to say something instead of also having to struggle with what to say. This simple tip can more than double your writing speed. Also, by planning what you will write before you write it, you increase your internal motivation to write, thus reducing the incidences of procrastination.

In a Nutshell

- A lot of writers get stuck and procrastinate because they’re unclear about what they want to write.

- Know what it is you want to say before you start writing. This allows you to focus on how to say it instead of having to also figure out what to say.

- Before any writing session, spend at least five minutes outlining what you want to write. Not only can this help you double your writing speed, it will also increase your motivation to write.

Actionable Knowledge:

Application Exercise #2

“Know the true value of time; snatch, seize, and enjoy every moment of it. No idleness, no laziness, no procrastination: never put off till tomorrow what you can do today.”

~ Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield

1 – If you’re stuck or procrastinating on book because you don’t know how to move forward with it, schedule some time to do some research, create an outline and get clarity on what you want to write:

2 – Sit down at your desk and spend at least five minutes creating a very rough outline of what you want to write during your writing session today:

Chapter Four

How to Avoid Procrastinator-Talk

“Watch your thoughts for they become words.

Watch your words for they become actions.

Watch your actions for they become habits.

Watch your habits for they become character.

Watch your character for it becomes your destiny.”

~ Unknown

As a writer, you’re already aware that your words hold a lot of power. You have the ability to capture people’s imaginations and transport them into a different world simply with your words. However, what many authors don’t know is that their words also hold a lot of power over themselves. They don’t realize that what they say to themselves dramatically affects their decisions and thus the quality of their life.

What Procrastinators Say when They Talk to Themselves

Think of a time that you were procrastinating on your writing. Now, try to remember what you said to yourself before you made the decision to put off working on your book till later. Most likely you were talking like a procrastinator, making excuses such as:

- “I don’t have enough time to write today, so I might as well do this tomorrow.”

- “Because I’m feeling tired today, it’s best if I save this till later.”

- “I work better under tight deadlines, so I’ll wait until the day before the deadline to get started.”

All of these are excuses are what I call “procrastinator talk.” On the surface, these excuses seem perfectly logical. They make sense! But that’s the scary thing about procrastination – it’s very easy to justify it, and unless we take control of it, we’ll always find ourselves completing tasks close to the deadline and experiencing the high stress associated with doing so.

From my study of successful people, I’ve found that successful people have a habit of getting things done NOW! They take action, even when they’re feeling tired or don’t have enough time or enough energy (after all, who has enough time or enough energy?). Why put off your writing till tomorrow when you can write today?

What Productive, Successful Writers Say when They Talk to Themselves

Instead of using procrastinator-talk, successful writers use Instead of using procrastinator talk, successful people use “productivity talk.” They say to themselves things such as:

- “Why put it off till tomorrow when it can be done today?”

- “Even though I’m feeling tired, I’ll make a little progress on this today so that I have less to do tomorrow.”

- “It’s better to do make some progress today rather than wait till tomorrow to get started.”

- “I’ll never have enough time or energy, so the best time to get started is now.”

- “Even though I’m feeling tired right now, once I start writing I’ll begin to enjoy it.”

- “Tomorrow I’ll wish I’d started today.”

How to Change Procrastinator Talk to Productivity-Talk

To change procrastinator talk to productivity talk, here’s a simple step-by-step system you can use (I’ve used this successfully to stop negative thinking as well as overcome procrastinator talk):

1 – Look at how much your procrastinator talk is costing you. How much stress are you experiencing as a result of procrastinating? How is it impacting your self-esteem? Your income? Your writing career?

2 – Imagine how your life would be if you stopped procrastinating. If you stopped procrastinating, how would it benefit your career as a writer? How many more books would you be able to write each year? How would that affect your lifestyle? Your happiness? Your outlook on life?

Note: The above two steps will cause you to become uncomfortable, which is exactly what is required if you want to make a change in your life. Comfort is the enemy of change. Being uncomfortable is what leads to action and to positive change.

3 – When you find yourself procrastinating, monitor your inner dialogue. What excuses (and yes, no matter how logical they seem, they are EXCUSES) are you giving yourself?

4 – Question your procrastinator talk. If you find yourself saying, “I don’t have enough time,” ask yourself, “Is this really true? Don’t I even have five minutes to work on my book?”

5 – Accept that you are using excuses to procrastinate. Realize that, no matter how logical the excuses seem to you, they are just excuses that are preventing you from writing.

6 – Replace procrastinator talk with productivity talk. When you find yourself saying things such as “It’s better to do this tomorrow when I have a bit more energy,” replace that with productivity talk (e.g., “It’s better to make a small amount of progress now than to make no progress at all”). Remember, tomorrow you’ll wish you’d started today!

7 – Take immediate action to justify your productivity talk. Once you make use of one of the productivity-talk statements, immediately take some form of action to justify it. Sit down at your desk and write for just five minutes. Doing this will begin to change your self-image. You will go from seeing yourself as someone who procrastinates to someone who gets things done!

8 – Keep repeating the above steps. Over time, your procrastinator talk will be replaced by productivity talk and you’ll find you have become a doer instead of just a dreamer.

In a Nutshell

- What you say to yourself affects how you see yourself as well as the decisions that you make.

- When you find yourself procrastinating, monitor your inner dialogue.

- Reject procrastinator talk by rejecting excuses for procrastination.

- Replace procrastinator talk with productivity talk.

- Take immediate action to justify your productivity talk.

Actionable Knowledge:

Application Exercise #3

“Procrastination is like a credit card: it’s a lot of fun until you get the bill.”

~ Christopher Parker

1 – What are some of the common excuses you use to justify procrastination? Write down your top three excuses below:

2 – Create some responses you can use to fight back against these procrastination statements (e.g., “Telling myself I don’t have enough time to work on my book means I’ll never get it done because I won’t ever have enough time!”). Write at least one response below:

3 – Create some productivity dialogues you can use to replace your procrastinator talk with productivity talk (e.g., “It’s better to make even five minutes of progress now than to wait till tomorrow to get started.”). Write at least one dialogue below:

4 – When you catch yourself procrastinating, fight back against your excuses and replace the procrastination talk with the productivity dialogues you have prepared.

Chapter Five

How to Increase Your Motivation Using These Two Words

“Procrastination is one of the most common and deadliest of diseases and its toll on success and happiness is heavy.”

~ Wayne Gretzky

Have you ever told yourself, “I’m going to work on my book tonight,” and then not done so? Do you find yourself breaking promises you make to yourself very often?

Why You Shouldn’t Tell Yourself You’re Going to Do Something

If you’re anything like me, you break promises to yourself a bit too often. But don’t feel too bad. It turns out that telling yourself you’re going to do something isn’t the best strategy for getting yourself to do it. Here’s an interesting piece of research that proves this (conducted by Dolores Albarracín at the University of Illinois):

“Albarracin’s team tested this kind of motivation in 50 study participants, encouraging them explicitly to either spend a minute wondering whether they would complete a task or telling themselves they would. The participants showed more success on an anagram task, rearranging set words to create different words, when they asked themselves whether they would complete it than when they told themselves they would.

Further experimentation had students in a seemingly unrelated task simply write two ostensibly unrelated sentences, either “I Will” or “Will I,” and then work on the same task. Participants did better when they wrote, “Will” followed by “I” even though they had no idea that the word writing related to the anagram task.” –via Eurekalert

Wow, isn’t that interesting? If you want to increase your odds of doing something, ask yourself whether you will do it instead of telling yourself that you will. For example, if I want to work on my book, I ask myself, “Will I work on my book tonight?” (as opposed to telling myself, “I will work on my book tonight,” which is what I previously used to do).

Sure, asking yourself whether you are going to work on your book feels strange at first, but it does build your intrinsic motivation to write. When I ask myself if I’m going to work on my book, I follow up with “Yes, I’ll go ahead and work on the book after I finish eating dinner.” Asking myself the question of whether I will write forces me to work through the scenario and mentally plan ahead for how and when I will write (which then increases my chances of doing so). Telling yourself you are going to do something doesn’t allow room for this kind of introspection.

Next time you want to increase your motivation to write, use the words “Will I” instead of “I will.” Of course, this simple technique will not transform you from chronic procrastinator to productivity master overnight, but it is a cool little tip that will (as indicated by the research) increase your chances of getting things done. For a tip that takes virtually no effort and relies on changing the order of two words, I think that’s a good deal!

In a Nutshell

- Telling yourself you will do something is not as powerful as asking yourself whether you will.

- To increase intrinsic motivation to write, use the words “Will I” instead of “I will.”

Actionable Knowledge:

Application Exercise #4

“Procrastination makes easy things hard, hard things harder.”

~ Mason Cooley

1 – What task would you like to get accomplished tonight? Instead of telling yourself you will get it accomplished, write it down as a question using the words “Will I?”

2 – If your answer to the above question is a “Yes,” notice how your mind goes through an examination process of how you will do it. Go ahead and write down the plan your brain comes up with (e.g., “Will I write my book tonight?” – “Yes, I will at 6 p.m. after I get out of work.”).

Chapter Six

How to Create a Daily Writing Habit Using the Seinfeld Calendar

“I write nearly every day. Some days I write for ten or eleven hours. Other days I might only write for three hours. It really depends on how fast the ideas are coming.”

~ J. K. Rowling

The Seinfeld calendar is a super-cool technique that will help you overcome procrastination and create a daily writing habit. Once you learn it, you’ll beat yourself over the head for not having used it sooner (plus, it’s so simple that you’ll wonder why you didn’t think of it!).

No Tool to Hold You Accountable

One of the reasons we procrastinate is because we don’t have any self-monitoring tool. We tell ourselves we’ll work on that project tomorrow, and three days go by and we’ve done nothing. A couple more days go by and the project moves to the back of our mind (it’s still there, but we don’t really pay any attention to it).

How a Calendar Can Motivate You to Start Writing

You tell yourself, “I’ll write my book tomorrow,” and then a couple of days go by without you having made any progress.

It’s easy to procrastinate frequently when you don’t have a tool to monitor how frequently you’ve been procrastinating. However, what if you had a tool that would allow you to monitor how often you’ve been putting off your writing? Would that increase your motivation to stop procrastinating and start writing? I’m betting it would!

This is where the Seinfeld calendar comes into play. The technique is named after Jerry Seinfeld, who is one of the most successful comedians of all time. Here’s my adapted version of how it works:

1 – Set a goal as to when you would like to complete your book. Setting a deadline (even if it is self-imposed) to complete your book will arouse in you a sense of urgency to start working on it.

2 – Grab a calendar and purchase a marker. Mark the day you plan to have completed the book with a big “X.” As you get closer to the deadline, this will serve as a visual reminder that will motivate you to work harder.

3 – Hang the calendar in a prominent place where you have no choice but to see it everyday (your bathroom and your bedroom are two great options).

4 – Set a daily writing goal. This could be a results-based goal such as “Write 2000 words” or it could be a time-based goal such as “Spend 30 minutes writing.”

Setting a daily goal will motivate you to work towards achieving it. According to the website Brain Pickings, “Jack London wrote 1,000 words a day every single day of his career and William Golding once declared at a party that he wrote 3,000 words daily, a number Norman Mailer and Arthur Conan Doyle shared. Stephen King does whatever it takes to reach his daily quota of 2,000 words.”

5 – Every day that you meet your goal, cross that appropriate day off on the calendar with a big fat X. Soon, you will begin to create a chain of X’s. Your job is to ensure that you do not break that chain.

As Jerry Seinfeld says, “You’ll like seeing that chain, especially when you get a few weeks under your belt. Your only job now is to not break the chain.”

While this technique is very simple, it has proven very useful for me. As a writer, it’s easy for me to procrastinate because I don’t have anyone watching over me. However, with the Seinfeld calendar, I have been able to track how many days I put off writing till “tomorrow.” Having this data in a place where I cannot miss it makes me uncomfortable with procrastinating and is usually enough to give me the burst of motivation I need to get off my butt and get started.

If you want to kick the procrastination habit and become a doer, then the Seinfeld calendar is a great tool to implement! Try it out and you’ll find that it will motivate you to stop putting things off and get things done!

In a Nutshell

- It’s easy to procrastinate when you don’t monitor how frequently you’ve been procrastinating.

- The Seinfeld calendar is a great way to keep yourself accountable for those days when you do procrastinate.

- Not only will the Seinfeld calendar make procrastinating uncomfortable, it will also motivate you as you begin to build up a chain of X’s on it.

Actionable Knowledge:

Application Exercise #5

“Procrastination is opportunity’s assassin.”

~ Victor Kiam

1 – Buy a calendar and hang it in a prominent place in your home.

2 – Set a daily writing goal (time-based or results-based).

3 – Whenever you meet your goal for the day, mark the day with a big X. Your job is to create an unbroken chain of X’s.

Chapter Seven

The Two Types of Writers Who Procrastinate

“A famous quote most writers can relate to is Dorothy Parker’s: “I hate writing, but love having written.” This quote might mean different things to different people, but to me it speaks to one thing above all else: procrastination.”

~ Creative Writing Center

I’m going to make an assumption about you. I’m going to assume that if you’re reading this book, you’re reading it because you keep procrastinating on writing your book and are looking for a solution that will help you become a more dedicated writer. You’re not working on your book even though you know you should be.

According to motivational guru Anthony Robbins, people are motivated by two things: pain and pleasure. Pain pushes people away from a task whereas pleasure attracts them towards it. If you think of the pain-pleasure principle in terms of procrastination, it means that if you’re avoiding writing it’s because you associate (either consciously or unconsciously) some kind of pain to it.

Now, depending on what type of writer you are, you’ve had one of two reactions to that statement:

1. “Yep, that sounds about right” or

2. “That is completely not true! I love writing”

If you thought to yourself, “Yep, that sounds about right,” then you fall into the category of writers who like having written but don’t like writing.

If you thought to yourself, “That’s not true, I love writing!” then you fall into the category of writers who like the process of writing but who probably don’t like the book they’re writing (which is why you’re procrastinating).

OK, so let me delve into those two distinctions deeper and you can decide what type of writer you are.

“I like writing but don’t like the book I’m writing”

I enjoy writing. When people ask me what I do for a hobby, I tell them “I write.” When people ask me how I relax, I say, “I write.” Writing allows me to connect with my inner being. It allows me to connect with the deepest part of my being and share that with the world.

I was recently reading Dr. Wayne Dwyer’s book, I Can See Clearly Now in which he says “writing is like sitting on the lap of God to share your thoughts with him and being paid for it.” I wholeheartedly agree with that sentiment. Writing adds meaning to my life, and that is why I enjoy it.

Two months ago, I was working on a book titled The Science of Attraction. However, even though I enjoy writing, I found myself struggling with the book. Normally I look forward to my writing sessions, but with this particular book I found myself dreading them. Why? Because I didn’t like the book I was writing. It was a pain to write a book I didn’t enjoy, so I procrastinated.

If you’re a writer who enjoys writing but finds it a pain to write the book that you’re working on, then it’s maybe a wise choice to scrap that book. If you don’t enjoy writing it, chances are your readers won’t enjoy reading it. It sucks to have to throw aside a project that you’ve worked hard on, but if you truly do not enjoy writing it then it’s a wise choice to leave it aside and work on something that you do enjoy.

Personally, I threw aside the The Science of Attraction and started working on a new project I enjoyed. I know I made the right choice because I made more progress on the new book in a week than I did with the old one in an entire month!

If you’re lucky, you might not have to throw your entire project aside. For example, if you’re writing a novel and you’re not enjoying writing a particular chapter within the book, then toss aside that chapter and add in another chapter that you will enjoy writing.

Writers don’t become writers because they hope to be famous or rich. Very few writers ever make it big. Most writers become writers because they enjoy writing. (If you’re in this for the money, then you’re in this for the wrong reason.) If you’re procrastinating because you’re not quite “into” a book, then it’s time to examine whether you should be working on it at all.

“I don’t like writing, but I like having written”

When I was first starting out as a writer, I hated writing, but I loved the feeling of having written. As a newbie, I found the discipline of writing very tough. Writing required a lot of willpower and skill (skill that I hadn’t yet developed), so I didn’t enjoy it because I wasn’t good at it yet. I was outside my comfort zone, which is why I was very inconsistent with my writing practice.

On some days I would be able to muster up enough willpower to write, but on most days I would procrastinate and not get around to doing any writing at all. I associated pain with writing, so to avoid the pain I avoided writing.

However, I knew I wanted to be a writer because even though I hated writing, I loved the feeling of having written.

If you’re like how I used to be (especially if you’re in the beginning phases of your writing career), then Dan Ariely’s simple trick for beating procrastination can come in handy.

Dan Ariel’s Simple Trick for Beating Procrastination

The trick to beating procrastination is to stop associating the task with pain and associate it instead with some kind of reward. This reward will motivate you to complete the task. By changing the association you have with the task, you’ll become much more likely to engage in it.

As an example, consider how Dan Ariely (a psychology professor at Duke University) used this principle (he recounts this particular story in his best-selling book, Predictably Irrational). When Ariely was infected with hepatitis C, he was told that in order to cure the infection he would have to inject himself with interferon.

Injecting yourself with interferon is no walk in the park – the side effects involve fever, vomiting and dizziness. Ariely’s medication scheduled involved him injecting himself with interferon three days a week for a period of eighteen months. Most patients given this treatment are unable to stick to their medication regimen, and you can see why!

So, how did Ariely fare? At the end of the eighteen months, his doctors said he was the only one of their patients who’d managed to take the medication regularly.

How did Ariely manage, when it would have been so easy to skip a couple of days? He did this by changing his associations with the medication. Because he loved movies, he rewarded himself with watching his favorite movies on the days that he injected himself with interferon. This reward was a strong enough motivator to keep him on track with his medication schedule.

I also used this technique to help me overcome procrastination in the beginning stages of my career. When I learned this technique, I tied the task of writing to a reward I loved: watching sitcoms (specifically Friends). I loved watching Friends every night (I still do!), so I allowed myself to watch an episode at the end of the night only if I had met my writing quota for the day.

On the days that I did not meet my quota, I did not allow myself to watch any sitcoms. Over time, this changed my association to the task and as I became better at getting my thoughts on paper, I no longer needed to use external sources of motivation.

However, if you are someone who still hasn’t fallen in love with the process of writing, then you might need an external source of motivation to help you.

How to Change Your Associations to a Task

If you need an external source of motivation to help you change your association to the task of writing, then you can follow this simple five-step system that I used:

1 – Choose a reward that you love. It should be something that you value so much that the pleasure of the reward outweighs the pain writing.

2 – Think about how great it would be to enjoy the reward. Imagine how much pleasure you will experience when you are enjoying the reward. Get yourself into a state where you are excited about the reward.

3 – Tie the reward to the task of writing. Tell yourself that you can only enjoy the reward if you meet your writing goal for the day (writing X number of minutes, or writing X number of words).

4 – When you meet your writing goal, enjoy your reward! You’ve deserved it.

5 – If you fail to meet your goal, punish yourself by withholding the reward. It’s essential that you don’t allow yourself to enjoy the reward until you complete the task. Also, examine why you failed to achieve your goal. Perhaps you need to change the reward so that the pull of the reward is stronger. If the reward is irresistible enough, you’ll push yourself through any pain to achieve it.

In a Nutshell

- People procrastinate on tasks that they view as being painful.

- To stop procrastinating on a task, attach its completion to a reward you value highly.

- When you meet your daily writing goal, reward yourself to build positive associations to writing.

- If you fail to achieve your goal, withhold the reward to punish yourself.

Actionable Knowledge:

Application Exercise #6

“Procrastination is the bad habit of putting of until the day after tomorrow what should have been done the day before yesterday.”

~ Napoleon Hill

1 – Set a clear, measurable daily writing goal that you would like to achieve. This can be a results-based goal or a time-based goal:

2 – In this step, we will work on changing your association with writing. To do this, find a reward that is pleasurable enough to motivate you to write. Tell yourself that you can enjoy the reward only if you meet your writing goal. Write your desired reward below:

3 – If you do achieve your set goal, allow yourself to enjoy the reward. If not, withhold the reward to associate pain with procrastination.

4 – Repeat this process often for ongoing tasks (e.g., writing, going to the gym, studying) to change your perceived association with the task.

Chapter Eight

2 Small Techniques to Make Writing Fun – Even on Days You Don’t Want to Write

“I’d be frightened by not using whatever abilities I’d been given. I’d be more frightened by procrastination and laziness.”

~ Denzel Washington

As we saw in the last chapter, you’re going to find it difficult to engage in any activity if you associate it with pain. If you view the task as boring, dull and uninteresting, it’s no wonder that you’re procrastinating!

Tying the task to a reward is a great technique for motivating yourself to get started on the task, but there’s an even more powerful technique. Here’s the technique: Make writing fun! This may sound very simple and trite, but it works!

So, how do you make writing fun (even on days when the last thing you want to do is write)? Here are two ways that I add more excitement to my writing sessions:

1 – Change Environments

If possible, change the environment to one that is fun and interesting. For example, when I find myself procrastinating on my writing, I get out of my house and head over to my favorite café.

Being in a café automatically makes whatever task I am working on more enjoyable. I love the smell of coffee and the quiet chatter of people.

By the way, speaking of cafés, research has revealed that the sounds at a coffee shop boost creativity. Here’s the research:

“In a series of experiments that looked at the effects of noise on creative thinking, researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign had participants brainstorm ideas for new products while they were exposed to varying levels of background noise. Their results, published in The Journal of Consumer Research, found that a level of ambient noise typical of a bustling coffee shop or a television playing in a living room, about 70 decibels, enhanced performance compared with the relative quiet of 50 decibels.

A higher level of noise, however, about 85 decibels, roughly the noise level generated by a blender or a garbage disposal, was too distracting, the researchers found.” – via New York Times

What environments do you enjoy being in? Cafés? Libraries? Parks? Write in a place you enjoy being in, and writing will become more enjoyable.

Here’s another example: For a long time, I had wanted to make swimming a regular part of my day. However, I’m not a fan of swimming! I hate being in cold water. I had been telling myself I would start swimming but putting it off day after day. I had even signed up for a gym with an indoor swimming pool but never actually went there.

So, to make swimming more fun, I chose a gym with an outdoor swimming pool that had an AMAZING view of the ocean.

The view was so gorgeous that I found myself wanting to go the gym just so that I could enjoy the beautiful sunset after work. Once there, I would get into the pool and swim, allowing myself to admire the view between laps. After my swimming session, I would reward myself with a delicious but healthy dinner.

Sometimes changing your environment can be all it takes to stop procrastinating and start writing.

2 – Add some music

When I’m forced to do some really boring work (such as cleaning up my home), I make the task more interesting by playing some music. Because I enjoy music, the chore of cleaning up my home goes from being deadly dull to being a more pleasurable experience where I get to listen to my favorite songs. Some of my friends also use this technique when they go to the gym or go jogging: By listening to good music on their iPods, they make the experience of working out more pleasurable.

Similarly, I write with some light, instrumental music in the background. According to The Next Web:

“When you listen to music, a part of your brain called the nucleus accumbens activates. This triggers the release of the ‘pleasure chemical’ dopamine, that lives in a group of neurons in your brain called the Ventral Tegmental Area (VTA): This pathway in the brain is called the Reward System and Dopamine is strongly associated with it.” – via The Next Web

Published studies also note the effect of music on task improvement:

“In a study published in the journal of Neuroscience of Behavior and Physiology, it was found that a person’s ability to recognize images, letters, and numbers was faster when rock or classical music was playing in the background compared to when there was no music.

A similar effect was noted when workers on an assembly line listened to music. The workers who listened to music were more happy and efficient and made fewer errors.

So whatever type of music you like, as long as you’re listening to something, you’ll enjoy repetitive or boring tasks more and get them done faster.” – via The Next Web

The important thing when choosing music to listen to is to ensure that it’s music that you’re familiar with so that it doesn’t distract you. Also, instrumental music is best because songs with lyrics can distract you from thinking (you might suddenly find yourself singing the lyrics instead).

The next time you get stuck writing, try adding some familiar instrumental music into the mix to help get your creative juices flowing.

In a Nutshell

- If you want to stop procrastinating, then try making the task of writing more fun.

- Changing environments can sometimes be all it takes to stop procrastinating.

- If you enjoy music, try adding music during your writing sessions to help get your creative juices flowing.

Actionable Knowledge:

Application Exercise #7

“Only put off until tomorrow what you are willing to die having left undone”

~ Pablo Picasso

Write down some creative ideas you can use to make writing more fun and interesting.

Chapter Nine

The Perfectionist’s Curse

“I know some very great writers, writers you love who write beautifully and have made a great deal of money, and not one of them sits down routinely feeling wildly enthusiastic and confident. Not one of them writes elegant first drafts.”

~ Anne Lamott (Bird by Bird)

One of the reasons it took me two years to write my first book was because I had extremely high expectations of it. I wanted it to be PERFECT (yep, PERFECT in capitals). I didn’t just want it to be a good book; I wanted it to be the best book on public speaking. I wanted it to be the ultimate in public speaking resources. I had dreams making it a New York Times bestseller and receiving rave reviews from the likes of Seth Godin, Robert Kiyosaki and Anthony Robbins.

Have you ever had such high expectations for your book?

How My Pursuit for Perfection Led to Procrastination

However, after almost one and a half years of no progress, I was getting frustrated. I had such high expectations of my writing that I was actually scared of writing (what if my work wasn’t as good as I wanted it to be?). Therefore, to avoid the uncomfortable possibility of facing the fact that my writing wasn’t perfect, I avoided writing anything at all. This uncomfortable fact was pointed out to me by my girlfriend, who gave me what I consider to be the best advice I have ever received: “Just get it done, even if it isn’t perfect!”

After my conversation with my girlfriend, I went back home and examined why I wasn’t making progress on my book. This took some introspection, but I finally came to the conclusion that my pursuit of perfection was leading to procrastination.

Why You Should Give Yourself Permission to be Imperfect

That night, I set asides all my fantasies of writing a perfect book and decide to write a book. I reasoned, “How am I going to publish a New York Times bestseller if I never even write the book in the first place?” I let go of the need for perfection and gave myself permission to write an imperfect book. As the poet Margaret Atwood said, “If I waited for perfection, I would never write a word.”

Instead of fantasizing about publishing THE best book ever written, I focused on writing the best book that I could write (even if it was imperfect). My motto went from “Seek perfection” to “Done is better than perfect.”

Giving myself permission to be imperfect allowed me to get rid of the unconscious block that was stopping me from making progress on my book.

Also, I let go of all grandiose fantasies of my book being a sensational bestseller and making me millions and focused instead on just writing. As Steven Pressfield writes in The War of Art, “grandiose fantasies are…the sign of an amateur. The professional has learned that success, like happiness, comes as a by-product of work. The professional concentrates on the work and allows rewards to come or not come, whatever they like.”

I realize that not everyone is a perfectionist, but if you are then here’s a simple method to release yourself from the pressures of perfection:

1 – Examine why you’ve been putting off writing your book as long as you have. Is it because you are expecting too much from yourself?

2 – Accept that seeking perfection is stopping you from making progress. Look for examples from your life when you procrastinated because you were seeking perfection. Go through these examples in detail until you internalize and believe on an emotional level (not just a intellectual level) that perfection is the enemy of progress.

3 – Give yourself permission to be imperfect. Accept that your writing will never be perfect, and that “done is better than perfect.” You can always improve what you have once you write it, but don’t let perfection stop you from writing in the first place.

4 – Monitor your internal dialogue. When you find yourself avoiding a task, monitor your self-talk. Are you avoiding it because you are seeking perfection? Talk back against these perfectionist thoughts using logical arguments such as “If I try to get it perfect, I’ll never get it done. It’s better to get it done imperfectly now and perfect it later.”

Not everyone procrastinates because of perfectionism, but if you do then it’s time to give yourself permission to be imperfect. Procrastinating on writing your book? Don’t focus on writing the perfect book – focus on writing a book (you can always try to perfect it once it’s written).

Remember: Done is better than perfect.

In a Nutshell

- Seeking perfection from your writing can lead to procrastination.

- Monitor your internal dialogue and talk back against perfectionist thoughts.

- Give yourself permission to be imperfect.

- Consciously change your goal from writing the perfect book to creating imperfect work.

- Realize that you can always try to perfect what you have once you create it.

Actionable Knowledge:

Application Exercise #8

“The first draft of everything is shit.”

~ Ernest Hemingway

1 – Write down a time when you procrastinated on your writing because you were expecting perfection.

2 – Write yourself a note giving yourself permission to be imperfect (e.g., “I allow myself to create an imperfect first version of my book. I realize that my first draft won’t be perfect, and I’m OK with that because I can always work on making better what I have after I complete it.”).

3 – Write down two to three statements you can use to fight back against perfectionist thoughts (e.g., “Done is better than perfect” or “If I try to get it perfect, I will never get it done” or “I’ll focus on getting an imperfect version done first and improve it later”).

Chapter Ten

How to Conveniently Stop “Forgetting” Your Writing

“Writing is a muscle. Smaller than a hamstring and slightly bigger than a bicep, and it needs to be exercised to get stronger. Think of your words as reps, your paragraphs as sets, your pages as daily workouts. Think of your laptop as a machine like the one at the gym where you open and close your inner thighs in front of everyone, exposing both your insecurities and your genitals. Because that is what writing is all about.”

~ MC Sweeney

When I go into work in the morning, there are certain tasks that I just do not want to do – because they’re too boring, too complicated or too time-consuming.

Let me give you an example: Because I head up the commercial division of an IT firm, I usually spend a lot of time meeting the heads of various companies and discussing how we can partner together to grow our businesses. While I enjoying meeting new people and striking up new deals, the task that I absolutely dread is reading through contracts of 50+ pages. If you’ve ever had the misfortune of reading through business contracts, you know that they are written in dry and dense and boring language.

At any time I have three to five such contracts sitting on my desk. I absolutely hate reading the contracts (in case I didn’t emphasize that already), but it’s an important part of my job. Given that I’m the one striking up these new deals, I need to understand what I’m getting into.

Here’s where I have to make a shocking admission: There was a time where I hated reading the contracts so much that I had several of them sitting on my desk for months! I kept telling myself that I would read the contracts “tomorrow” until months had gone by.

How to Stop Procrastinating and Double Your Productivity

However, one day, seeing the growing pile of contracts on my desk and feeling disgusted with myself for not carrying out this important part of my job, I grabbed a blank sheet of yellow paper (for some reason, I prefer working on yellow paper) and created a simple “to-do” list for the day. This to-do list contained action points for the contracts I needed to read.

By the end of that day, I had read through and approved more than half of the contracts (with a couple being sent for revision). The next day I came in and created a similar to-do list. By the end of the day, I had completed reading all pending contracts! Over the six months that I have used to-do lists at work, I have dramatically reduced the instances where I procrastinate and more than doubled my productivity!

Similarly, on some days when I get home I do not want to research or write my book. It’s much easier to just “forget” about it than to get myself to sit down at my desk and write. However, because I prepare my writing to-do list the night before and stick it up on my wall where I can immediately see it when I walk into my house, it becomes harder to forget about it. Seeing my commitment to my writing already scheduled on my to-do list (e.g., “write for 30 minutes from 8:30 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.) increases my intrinsic desire to write.

To-do lists are effective for avoiding procrastination because having a to-do list makes it very hard to conveniently forget about a task. Furthermore, you’ll love crossing off a completed task (it gives you a great feeling of accomplishment), and that will get you addicted to getting things done! It will help you create the foundation for an anti-procrastination habit.

If you’re looking for an effortless way to stop procrastinating and double your productivity, I encourage you to start making to-do lists not just for your writing, but also for other aspects of your life. The discipline you gain from getting other aspects of your life in order will help you become a more committed and focused writer.

In a Nutshell

- It’s easy to conveniently “forget” about unpleasant tasks.

- Using a to-do list for your top tasks will increase your desire to complete them so that you can cross them off your list at the end of the day.

- Create your writing to-do list the night before. Schedule in a specific block of time into your to-do list for your writing to increase your commitment to it.

- As a result of using to-do lists, you will experience an increase in your productivity.

Actionable Knowledge:

Application Exercise #9

“You may delay, but time will not.”

~ Benjamin Franklin

1 – Before you go to bed at night, grab a pen and a piece of paper and write down your top five tasks for the following day (writing should be one of them).

2 – Next to each item on the list, write down a time when you plan to tackle the task (e.g., “Create the outline for my novel – 9:30-11 a.m.).

3 – When you complete the appropriate task, cross off the task on your list. This will give you a great sense of accomplishment that will get you addicted to getting things done.

4 – Repeat the above steps daily. This will help you develop greater discipline and willpower, which will translate over to your writing.

Chapter Eleven

Pareto’s Principle: How to Eliminate Disguised Procrastination

“Procrastination is the thief of time, collar him.”

~ Charles Dickens, David Copperfield

Disguised procrastination is one of the most dangerous forms of procrastination. Disguised procrastination makes you feel that you’re busy being productive when you’re actually just busy being busy.

As a writer, one of the ways I procrastinate is by pretending I am “marketing” my books. Instead of writing my next book (which is the best form of marketing for an author), I engage in disguised procrastination by browsing author groups on LinkedIn, updating my Facebook fan page and reading blogs online. I also spend time messing around with the HTML code on my blog to try to make my website look more attractive.

Can you think of a time when you engaged in a form of disguised procrastination?

So, what’s the solution?

How the Pareto Principle Can Help You Avoid Disguised Procrastination

The solution comes in the form of the 80/20 principle (also known as the Pareto principle). You’ve probably heard of the 80/20 rule, which says that 80% of your results come from 20% of your activities. The 80/20 principle was “discovered” in 1987 by an Italian economist named Vilfredo Pareto when Pareto found that 80% of the wealth in his country was owned by 20% of the population.

Since then, Pareto’s principle has been extended to almost all areas of life. It has come to be generally accepted that 80% of your results come from only 20% of your activities. When applied to business, it has been found that for many companies 80% of their revenue comes from the top 20% of their clients (this is true of the company where I currently work).

So, what does Pareto’s principle have to do with procrastination?

Everything!

“In studies conducted over several years, Dr. Boice, Professor of Psychology at SUNY, Stony Brook, found that the characteristic that marked new faculty at SUNY who moved through the tenure process without difficulty was their ability to work at a moderate but consistent pace. He found that all faculty who had difficulty making tenure had difficulties with “procrastination.”

Dr. Boice found that procrastinators work constantly, but put their time and effort into low priority tasks while high priority tasks wait.” – via University of Chicago

So, how does this apply to you?

In any given day, you might have hundreds of tasks you would like to complete. However, some of these tasks are extremely important because they contribute to 80% of your success, whereas other tasks are less important. If you do not classify which tasks are of high importance (the top-20% tasks) and which ones of low importance (the bottom-80% tasks), you might find yourself using up all your time on low-priority tasks.

Since high-importance tasks (i.e., writing) are also usually the most difficult, many people engage in disguised procrastination by working on low-importance tasks (i.e., social media marketing). While this makes many authors feel that they are being productive, this is nothing more than a form of self-deception.

If you’ve ever used the excuse that you are “too busy” or “don’t have enough time” to complete a task, applying the 80/20 principle will eliminate this excuse.

Identify Your Top 20% Tasks

Right now, I want you identify the top-20% tasks that contribute 80% of your results as a writer. What are those high-importance tasks that you keep putting off because you are deceiving yourself by working on the low-importance tasks? Write them down below:

Once you identify your top-20% tasks, make a commitment to focus on those tasks. For the low-importance tasks (the 80% of tasks that contribute only 20% of your results), focus on delegating or eliminating them from your life. At the very least, do not engage in these low-importance tasks until you have first completed the top-20% tasks.

In a Nutshell

- Disguised procrastination is very dangerous for writers.

- Identifying and focusing on your top-20% tasks will help you avoid creative forms of disguised procrastination.

- Focus on delegating or eliminating as many bottom-80% tasks as you can so you can free up your time to write more books.

Actionable Knowledge:

Application Exercise #10

“A year from now you may wish you had started today.”

~ Karen Lamb

1 – Every night before bed, write down a list of the tasks you hope to accomplish the following day. What tasks do you hope to accomplish tomorrow? Write them down below:

2 – Go through the list above and identify each one either as a high-importance task (a top-20% task that contributes to 80% of your success) or a low-importance task.

3 – Identify which tasks you can delegate to others so that you do not have to spend time on them. Delegating low-importance tasks to others is a smart idea because it allows you to focus on those tasks that are most important to you. Write down all those tasks you can delegate to others:

4 – Identify what tasks need to be eliminated from your life. Eliminate as many nonessential activities as you can to free up your time. Write down all those tasks that you can eliminate from your life:

5 – Make a commitment to never engage in any low-importance, bottom-80% task until you have completed all your top-20% tasks for the day. This will allow you to avoid the tricky trap of disguised procrastination.

Chapter Twelve

Avoiding Procrastination by Eliminating Distractions

“Protect the time and space in which you write. Keep everybody away from it, even the people who are most important to you.”

~ Zadie Smith

Distraction is one of the main causes of procrastination.

Have you ever found yourself sitting down at your computer to work on your book, and then, just before you’re about to start, decided to quickly check Facebook?

Several hours later you’re still on Facebook and you realize you’ve made no progress. Since it’s so late and you’re feeling tired, you decide to postpone your work till tomorrow.

A Recipe for Failure

Trying to work in a distraction-rich environment is a recipe for failure. No matter how much willpower you use to focus on the task at hand, sooner or later you’ll end up being distracted by text messages, phone calls from friends or any number of things you’d much rather waste time on. Maya Angelou also seems to believe this. Here’s a short excerpt from an article on Maya Angelou’s writing habit:

Maya Angelou checks herself into a hotel with a room equipped to her odd specifications. All potential distractions – visual stimuli – removed and the following items added: legal pads and thesaurus, playing cards and a bottle of wine. – via MHPBooks

If you want to start getting things done, you need to create an environment that eliminates any options for procrastination. Here are some tips to help you do just that:

1 – Cut yourself off from the Internet

The Internet is one of the main productivity killers on the planet. Even though it’s a tool that’s meant to help you be more productive, it (ironically) leads to “disguised procrastination.” Disguised procrastination is my term for when you’re doing things that make you feel like you’re being productive but which are really time wasters (e.g., watching a cooking tutorial on YouTube or browsing blogs on the Internet when you should be working on your book instead).

Jonathan Franzen, author of the bestselling book The Corrections, also believes in cutting yourself off the Internet. Here’s a short snippet of an article from the Guardian:

Jonathan Franzen attracted a lot of attention when he described writing The Corrections in a state of primitive solitude. According to Time magazine, “Franzen works in a rented office that he has stripped of all distractions. He uses a heavy, obsolete Dell laptop … Because Franzen believes you can’t write serious fiction on a computer that’s connected to the internet, he not only removed the Dell’s wireless card but also permanently blocked its Ethernet port.” - Guardian

If you’ve ever wondered how much time you’re wasting on the Internet, you should download RescueTime (https://www.rescuetime.com). RescueTime gives you “detailed reports [that] show which applications and websites you spent time on. Additional reports show how much time you spent in different categories, how productive you were, and whether you achieved your goals.” (via RescueTime)

For example, here’s my graph showing how much time I spent on productive websites versus unproductive websites in the month of January.

Seeing how much time you’re wasting online makes you want to kick yourself, and it makes you more conscious of how much time you’re spending online. Being aware of time-wasting activities is the first step in eliminating them. [You can download RescueTime for free here: https://www.rescuetime.com]

I’ve found that cutting myself off from the Internet is one of the most effective strategies for eliminating procrastination. For example, on days when I don’t feel like writing, I head over to my favorite café. The café doesn’t have Wi-Fi, so I’m stuck with a laptop without connection to the Internet. My only option to entertain myself in this situation is to start writing. A couple of cappuccinos later, I usually head home having made substantial progress on my book.

There are also many days when I don’t feel like going to the gym. I’d much rather stay at home and watch YouTube videos. On those days, through a sheer act of willpower, I disconnect my Internet router from the power supply, thus cutting myself off from the Internet (sometimes I ask my housemate to do this for me). With no more YouTube videos to distract me, I’m able to use my limited willpower to head over the gym.

I realize that heading over to an Internet-free café to work might not be an option for you, but don’t worry because there are some great tools available to help you stop wasting time on the Internet:

A -- StayFocused is “a (free) productivity extension for Google Chrome that helps you stay focused on work by restricting the amount of time you can spend on time-wasting websites. Once your allotted time has been used up, the sites you have blocked will be inaccessible for the rest of the day.” (via Chrome Web Store) The app is available for free here: http://bit.ly/1bsM1X0

B -- If you use Mozilla Firefox, you can download LeechBlock. LeechBlock “is a simple productivity tool designed to block those time-wasting sites that can suck the life out of your working day. All you need to do is specify which sites to block and when to block them.” (Via Firefox) You can download the Firefox extension for free here: http://mzl.la/1c7XWtj

C -- Another option for cutting yourself off the Internet is Freedom. Freedom is an app for Windows and Mac computers that “locks you away from the ‘net for up to eight hours at a time. At the end of your time offline, Freedom allows you back on the Internet.” (Via MacFreedom) You can buy the Freedom app ($10) on http://macfreedom.com/

2 – Turn off your smartphone

You’re least likely to procrastinate when you have no distractions. Turning off your smartphone ensures elimination of a host of distracting activities: WhatsApp messages, phone calls and texts, Facebook notifications, Angry Birds updates, etc. Once you get rid of possible diversions, it becomes easier to focus on writing your book.

3 – Shut your door

Friends and family can be a great excuse for procrastinating! Shut your door and let your friends and family members know that you’re busy.

Place a “Do Not Disturb” sign outside your door. Let your family members know that you should not be disturbed except for emergencies. This eliminates possible distractions and allows you to focus on crunching out your book!

4 – Work in the right place

Trying to work in your bedroom is generally not a good idea. Why? Because your mind is conditioned to relax and sleep when you are in the bedroom. Therefore, instead of fighting this association, work in a place that you normally associate with productive behaviors (this might be a library, a café, your office, etc.). If you work in an environment that you associate with work, you’re less likely to procrastinate.

*

Given that your environment heavily influences your productivity, ensure that you work in an environment that is distraction-free and doesn’t give you options to procrastinate.

In a Nutshell

- Your environment has a big influence on your behavior.

- It’s easy to procrastinate in a distraction-rich environment. To get rid of distractions:

- Cut yourself off the Internet

- Turn off your smartphone

- Shut your door

- Work in environments that you associate with productive behaviors.

- Your mind has been conditioned to work or relax depending on the setting. Take advantage of this conditioning effect by writing in environments that you associate with productive-behaviors.

Actionable Knowledge:

Application Exercise #11

“It’s doubtful that anyone with an Internet connection at his workplace is writing good fiction.”

~ Jonathan Franzen

1 – Set up RescueTime on your computer (https://www.rescuetime.com). This will send you a weekly email report that shows you how much time you’re wasting on the Internet. Once you have the report, focus on eliminating the time-wasting websites from your life. “I don’t have enough time” should never be an excuse for not writing.

2 – When deciding where to write, choose an environment that is associated with work and productivity. List a couple of your favorite places that you associate with productive behaviors (and which have the minimum number of distractions). Examples: your local library, your office, your favorite café, etc.

3 – Download StayFocused, LeechBlock or Freedom and block out time-wasting websites (e.g., Facebook, MiniClip, eBay). The fewer distractions you have, the less likely you are to procrastinate. Write down a couple of time-wasting websites you should block:

4 – Monitor your procrastination habit. Pay attention to which environments you are most likely to procrastinate in. Write down the environments that seem to encourage you to procrastinate (e.g., “places with Wi-Fi,” “my house because there are too many distractions,” etc.). To increase your chances of getting things done, avoid these environments in the future:

Chapter Thirteen

How to Triple Your Chances of Success with the “If-Then” Technique

“Nothing is so fatiguing as the eternal hanging on of an uncompleted task.”

~ William James

When I was a university student, I had a terrible habit of procrastinating! If there was something I didn’t want to do, I would put it off for as long as I could. For example, I would routinely hand in my assignments after the deadlines (even though that resulted in me automatically receiving a 20% penalty off my final score). As ashamed as I am to admit this, sometimes I wouldn’t hand in my assignments at all.

One specific incident I remember very clearly was when I had to renew my status as an international student who needed on-campus housing. This required me to fill out an application form every year and hand it to the Student Housing Office so that they could consider me for on-campus housing (which was substantially cheaper and more convenient than off-campus housing).

One month before the application deadline, I received an email reminding me to fill out the form and hand it in to the housing office immediately. I found filling out the housing application boring and tedious, and I hated waiting in line to submit my application, so I put it off.

Two weeks later, I received another email reminder.

One week later, I received another reminder with the words “URGENT” in the subject line. All this time, I kept telling myself that I was going to fill out the housing application “tomorrow.”

However, every night, I found an excuse not to do so: “I’m too tired today” or “The housing office is too far, I’ll go tomorrow after class” or “It’s OK, I still have time to do it tomorrow.” Meanwhile, I continued to waste time watching countless episodes of Friends, How I Met Your Mother, The Big Bang Theory, Vampire Diaries, Dexter…

The final day for turning in the housing application came and went, and I still hadn’t submitted my application! I reasoned that I could always submit it after the deadline and that the housing office would find a way to make an exception for me.

When I did go in to submit my application – a couple of days after the deadline – I was told that there were no more rooms available for on-campus housing. All the dorm rooms had been assigned to those who had applied. I was left without on-campus housing. The only option I had left was to look around for off-campus housing, which was less conveniently located, more expensive and came with the hassle of having to pack and unpack my belongings. Simply put, it would have been less painful in the long run to fill out the student-housing application and hand it in on time.

It was after this incident that I decided to stop being a procrastinator. I read books, listened to audiotapes and watched videos on how to beat procrastination. Using the tools I learned, I was able to get a grip on my procrastination habit. These are the same tools that you’re picking up in this book, and I hope that implementing the ideas discussed so far have made a positive difference in your life.

How to Triple Your Chances of Success with “If-Then” Planning

So, is there a tool that could have allowed me to overcome my procrastination (aka “laziness”) and fill out the housing application even when I didn’t want to do it? Yes, there is, and it’s called “if-then planning.”

Before I reveal the technique to you, let us look at a relevant experiment. The research study (http://bit.ly/16eyGAk), led by Peter M. Gollwitzer, was conducted on people who wanted to exercise regularly. Some participants were told to plan when and where they would exercise each week. For example, they would plan ahead by saying, “If it’s Monday, then I’ll go to the gym at 5 p.m. and exercise for an hour.” The other participants were given no such instructions and didn’t plan ahead.

So, what were the results of the study?

It turns out that several months later, only 39% of the non-planners were exercising regularly. What about the if-then planning group? An amazing 91% of the if-then planners were still exercising regularly!

As the research shows, “if-then planning” is a very powerful technique to help you stick to your personal promises. While simple, it is a great tool for avoiding procrastination.

Commit to Specifics

If-then planning is effective because it gets you to commit to doing a particular task at a particular time and on a particular day. Instead of saying, “I’ll do it tomorrow,” say, “If it’s 8 p.m. on Saturday, I’ll head to the library and work on my book.” This makes it more likely that you will get it done. By planning what we will do in advance according to a future scenario (“If X happens then I will do Y”), we unconsciously create a mental command that tells us how to act when the said scenario arises.

To increase the effectiveness of the if-then technique, I recommend you write your “if-then” plan on a piece of paper and stick it somewhere where you can see it. Not only will this paper serve as a visual reminder to push you to work on your task, the very act of writing down your “if-then” implementation plan will solidify your commitment to it and thus make it more likely you will follow through.

Given what I know now, if I could go back in time, I would write an “if-then” plan to apply for on-campus housing. On a piece of paper I would write down, “If it’s Saturday (date: XX/XX/XXXX), then at 2 p.m. after my Economics class I will go to the library, print out the application form, fill it out and walk over to the Housing Office to submit it.” This very clear instruction ensures that I have no room for negotiation as to when I will complete the task. By setting the if-then plan (as opposed to saying, “I will do it tomorrow”), I would have increased my chances of following through on my intention.

Nowadays, I use this technique very often to help me accomplish all manner of things. These are some of the if-then plans I have set for myself:

- “If it’s 8 p.m., I will sit down at my desk and work on my book for an hour.”

- “If it’s 8:30 a.m., I will jump out of bed and drink a glass of water before heading to work.”

- “If it’s Monday through Friday, I will go to the gym at 1 p.m. and swim for an hour before eating a light lunch.”

Ever since I started using if-then plans, my success rate of achieving my goals has gone up. Using if-then planning has helped me develop great habits such as drinking more water, going to sleep earlier and writing daily.

Using if-then planning, I have been able to achieve far more than I thought possible.

What are your “if-then” plans?

In a Nutshell

- Vague promises such as “I’ll do it later” are ineffective at beating procrastination.

- If you want to stop procrastinating, set an if-then plan. Research shows that if-then planning can help you triple your chances of success.

- Write your if-then plan on a piece of paper and stick it somewhere where it is easily visible.

Actionable Knowledge:

Application Exercise #12

“The best way to get something done is to begin.”

~ Author Unknown

1 – What task would you like to complete? What habit would you like to create? What goal would you like to accomplish? Write it down below:

2 – Write down an if-then plan to achieve the above goal or task:

3 – Stick your if-then plan somewhere where it will serve as a visual reminder.

Chapter Fourteen

Creating Accountability as a Writer

“Following-through is the only thing that separates dreamers from people that accomplish great things”.

~ Gene Hayden

It’s easy to break promises when you have no one who is going to hold you up to them.

You tell yourself, “I’m going to write 20 pages of my novel tonight,” but with no one to check up on you, it’s easy to procrastinate and break this commitment.

One very simple technique I learned to overcome procrastination was to make myself accountable to someone else. For example, when I began work on my second book, there were some days where I made a lot of progress because I was fuelled by the success of my first book. However, there were a lot of nights when I did not do any work on my book. Why? Because on some nights I was feeling lazy. On other nights I was too tired from work. On other days I was feeling demotivated because I kept wondering what if my second book was not as good as my first.

Why You Should Partner Up

Realizing that I would never meet my goal of writing every day by myself, I recruited my girlfriend to serve as my accountability partner. At the end of every night, she would call to ask what progress I had made. Giving her these daily reports held me accountable to her. She’s a tough woman and she wouldn’t accept my excuses, and that forced me to push through the laziness and demotivation and write anyway.

As I write this book, my girlfriend is applying for her Masters in Finance program. Because the application can be very time-consuming (studying for GMAT examinations, writing essays, seeking reference letters), she has set up a plan on how she will go about completing the application. For this, she has asked me to be her accountability partner. Every night, I check up on her progress.

Some nights, I encourage her. For example, when she was feeling demotivated because she was didn’t do as well as she wanted on her GMAT practice test, I encouraged her to keep practicing. My encouragement lifted her spirits and allowed her to continue studying.

On other nights, I am harsh and call her out on her excuses when I catch her procrastinating. It’s a delicate balance, and because I know her well, I am able to judge what method to use to help her make progress.

When trying to beat procrastination, you don’t have to go at it alone. Whose help can you enlist? Which colleague, friend or family member can serve as your accountability partner?

What to Look for in an Accountability Partner

When choosing an accountability partner, make sure it’s someone who is tough and won’t accept excuses. The best accountability partners are those who are brutally honest and are willing to challenge your excuses. At the same time, they are encouraging and will try to lift your spirits when you are feeling demotivated.

Your accountability partner has an important task to do, so let them know that you appreciate their help. Also, let them know what you expect of them. Tell them, “I want you to be harsh and let me know when I am being lazy and making excuses. I give you permission to be tough on me. I also want you to encourage me on the days I am feeling demotivated. I want you to guide me as you see fit.”

Join a Group

Another great way to build accountability is to be part of an organized group that has the same goal as you. For example:

- For alcoholics, groups such as Alcoholics Anonymous (http://www.aa.org/) keep participants accountable to each other.

- Writers’ groups (http://writers.meetup.com/), including online programs such as National Novel Writing Month (http://nanowrimo.org/), keep writers accountable to their writing goals.

- For people who want to overcome their fear of public speaking, groups such as Toastmasters (http://www.toastmasters.org/) teach how to give speeches and offer regular meetings.

A quick search on Google and Meetup (http://www.meetup.com/) will show you accountability groups within your area.

Source: MeetUp

If you cannot find one, you can always create your own group on Meetup (as well as on Facebook and LinkedIn).

Sharing Your Goals

Another method for holding myself accountable to my writing is to post my goals for the day on my Facebook page. For example, here’s one I posted recently:

My parents (hi Mum, Dad!) as well as my friends have “liked” the status. This holds me accountable to them. I know that the next time I meet them, they will most likely ask whether or not I completed my book, and I don’t want to have to tell them that I was too lazy.

I have found that when I write and share my goals publicly, I am less likely to procrastinate. This isn’t just my opinion – it’s also backed up by science. According to research conducted by Gail Matthews at the Dominican University of California (http://bit.ly/1e4THi5), people who write, share and track their goals are 33% more likely to achieve them than those who don’t.

You don’t necessarily have to share your goals on Facebook, but I do encourage you to write them down and share them with at least one person who will hold you accountable.

In a Nutshell

- It’s easy to procrastinate if you don’t have anyone to hold you accountable.

- Choose an accountability partner who will be both tough and encouraging when you are procrastinating.

- Consider joining MeetUp groups in your area that can support you in achieving your goal.

- People who write, share and track their goals are 33% more likely to achieve them than those who don’t.

Actionable Knowledge:

Application Exercise #13

“If you put off everything till you’re sure of it, you’ll never get anything done.”

~ Norman Vincent Peale

1 – In order to maximize your chances of beating procrastination, it’s important to build accountability. Write down the names of at least two individuals who would be willing to serve as your accountability partners. Make sure these are people who can be tough on you and are not afraid to call you out on your excuses:

2 – Approach at least one of these individuals above and share your writing goals with them. Ask if they would be willing to check up with you periodically to see how you are progressing.

3 – Once you have secured an accountability partner, let them know that you appreciate their help. Also tell them that they have your full permission to be tough on you and that you would appreciate it if they challenged you when you made excuses.

4 – Search for writers’ MeetUp groups in your area. Sign up to attend one of the meet-ups and see if the group is a good fit for motivating you to stay on track with your writing. Write down the name of the meet-up, as well as the date, time and location of the gathering:

Chapter Fifteen

Pre-Commitment Devices: Why You Should Burn Your Ships

“Stop talking. Start walking.”

~ L.M. Heroux

I’ve found pre-commitment devices to be another great tool in my anti-procrastination arsenal.

What is pre-commitment?

The term pre-commitment was coined by Nobel Prize winner Thomas Schelling. Schelling is the founder of Egonomics, which is a self-management system:

“At the core of Egonomics is the idea that within each person exists two selves: the future self and the present (or past) self, constantly at odds, leading to a sort of cognitive dissonance between the two. Both selves exist within us and are equally valid, but aren’t always active at the same time. It’s a natural and ongoing conflict between immediate desire and long-term goals.” – via Egonomicslab (http://www.egonomicslab.com/)

Given that there is a conflict between our present-self and our future-self (our current desires and our long-term goals), Freakonomics authors Stephen Dubner and Steven Levitt define pre-commitment as “a means with which to lock yourself into a course of action that you might not otherwise choose but that produces a desired result.”

Burn Your Ships

An example of pre-commitment is when Spanish conquistador Hernando Cortez burned his ships. In 1519, Cortez and his small army of 500 men sailed across the Atlantic Ocean and landed in what is now Mexico. Cortez’s aim was to conquer the Aztecs and claim their wealth, so he used an extreme form of pre-commitment: He burned his ships! This left him and his troops with no choice but to win against the Aztecs. By cutting off any means of escape, he had pre-committed himself to win!

Here are some less extreme examples of pre-commitment that I use in my life to avoid procrastination:

- Paying for my gym membership for several months so that I will have no choice but to work out because I don’t want to waste my money.

- Agreeing to meet my friend at the gym, hence ensuring that I won’t give into the temptation of watching YouTube videos instead.

- Not keeping any junk food at home so that I won’t binge eat at night.

- Going shopping with a limited amount of cash (and no credit cards) so that I won’t overspend.

- Using the StayFocused app to cut myself off time-wasting websites so that I can focus on my writing instead.

- Making a deal with my best friend that if I do not complete my book by the end of the month, I will give him $500.

The French novelist Victor Hugo (who wrote Les Misérables and The Hunchback of Notre-Dame) also used a pre-commitment device to ensure that he would not procrastinate. According to RD (Readers Digest) here’s what he did:

“With a deadline looming, Hugo locked himself inside his house with nothing to wear but a knitted gray shawl that reached down to his toes. The uniform suited his productivity, and he completed the novel weeks ahead of the deadline.” – Via Readers Digest (http://bit.ly/1E91pse)

The Greek orator Demosthenes was another person who used pre-commitment to get his work done. He would shave half his head so that he would be forced to stay indoors out of shame (for months at a time) and complete his work.

Of course, I’m not recommending that you shave half your head or lock yourself inside your house without your clothes. The point I am trying to make is that pre-commitment can be a useful device in beating procrastination.

As a final example, look at how economists Dean Karlan and John Romalis used a pre-commitment device to lose weight:

When two tubby graduate economics students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology decided to lose some weight, they employed the profit motive to help them succeed. Dean Karlan promised to pay John Romalis $10,000 if he did not lose 38lb (17kg) by an agreed date. Mr. Romalis made a similar pledge. If both failed, the one who failed by least would get $5,000. Happily, both succeeded in shedding pounds not dollars, and the initial deal was replaced with a “maintenance contract” which allowed either economist to show up unannounced to check the weight of the other and collect $5,000 for each pound over an agreed weight. – Via Economist (http://econ.st/MAXxJQ)

The key to success of this strategy was that both economists knew that if they failed to lose weight, they would lose the money. It’s important that the threat of loss must be real. If you make a bet with a friend who you know is going to return your money should you fail to meet your agreed milestone, you won’t have the motivation necessary to stick to your goal.

After his successful experiment with pre-commitment devices, Karlan went on to create Stickk.com, which is a fantastic tool for creating a pre-commitment device. You simply go to the website, sign up, set a goal you want to achieve, set the stakes (usually money) and appoint a referee who will decide whether or not you’ve reached your goal. Failure to reach your goal results in you losing whatever was at stake. Usually the fear of losing a substantial amount of money is enough to drive those who sign up to achieve their goals.

Source: StickK

As we’ve seen, pre-commitment devices can be a powerful tool to help you beat procrastination. What writing goal do you want to accomplish? What pre-commitment device can you use to help you achieve it?

In a Nutshell

- Since there is a conflict between our present-self and our future-self (our current desires and our long-terms goals), using a pre-commitment device can be an effective way to lock yourself into a specified course of action.

- If you want to be successful, burn your ships.

Actionable Knowledge:

Application Exercise #14

“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

1 – Write down your pre-commitment to lock yourself into your desired course of action:

2 – Sign up on Stickk.com, create your goal, set the stakes and appoint a referee. Realize that if you do not achieve the milestone you’ve committed yourself to, you’ll lose whatever is at stake.

Chapter Sixteen

Using the Pomodoro Technique to Triple Your Productivity

”When there is a hill to climb, don’t think that waiting will make it smaller.”

~Author Unknown

My final and personal favorite technique to stop procrastinating and start achieving maximum productivity as a writer is the Pomodoro technique.

Here’s how the Pomodoro technique works: You break whatever task you are working on into 25-minute blocks. Each 25-minute block is called a “Pomodoro”, named after the Italian word for tomato. Why? Because the founder, “Francesco Cirillo used a kitchen timer shaped like a tomato as his personal timer, and thus the method’s name” (via Lifehack). After each Pomodoro, you take a five-minute break to recharge and refresh yourself. This way, when you get back to working on the next Pomodoro, your focus level stays high because you are refreshed from your break.

Here’s how you can get started using the Pomodoro technique:

1 – Download the free Pomodoro app for your Android phone from Google Play (http://bit.ly/1ed3RNn). If you use an iPhone, you can download the paid Pomodoro app for $1.99 from the iTunes store (http://bit.ly/1cgwPfN).

2 – If you do not own a smartphone, then don’t worry because downloading the Pomodoro app is not necessary (although it is useful). Instead, you can use any countdown timer.

3 – Set aside 25 minutes of uninterrupted writing time. Make sure you are in a private environment where there are no distractions. It is essential that you work in a distraction-free environment so that you can give your undivided attention to your book.

4 – Use the Pomodoro app or a countdown timer to monitor how much time you have till the end of the sessions. Once the 25 minutes are up, take a five-minute break to get refreshed.

5 – At the end of your short break, start your next Pomodoro. Repeat this process as long as necessary.

The reason I like using the Pomodoro app for my Android phone is because the app automatically tracks how many Pomodoros I complete each day and each week. This way I can monitor my daily progress and see how much “real” writing work I am getting done. Usually, I try to match or beat the number of Pomodoros I completed the previous day. The Pomodoro app for Android also has different “levels” of expertise that you can unlock, which turns the process of working into a fun game.

Why the Pomodoro Technique is so Effective

The Pomodoro technique is my favorite productivity technique. Using the Pomodoro technique, I have more than tripled my productivity. The reason it works so well is because it requires that you give your undivided attention to the task at hand (ensuring that you won’t get distracted and procrastinate).

Secondly, each Pomodoro is very short (only 25 minutes), meaning that it’s relatively easy to find the time to complete at least one Pomodoro each night (no more excuses of “I don’t have the time to write”).

Furthermore, the short breaks between each Pomodoro keep you recharged, which allows you to write for longer as well as more efficiently.

Finally, keeping track of the number of Pomodoros you complete each day adds an element of competition as you try to beat your “previous score” for the number of Pomodoros completed.

What If You Have Nothing to Write?

What if, during your 25 minutes of focused writing time, you simply run out of things to write? First, this should not happen if you’ve spent five minutes at the beginning of the session outlining whatever it is that you want to write. However, in case you genuinely do run out of things to write or are faced with writer’s block, what do you do then?

Simple.

Do nothing! Force yourself to simply sit there and do nothing else. This is known as the “nothing else alternative.” Doing nothing else but sitting and staring at a blank piece of paper will pretty soon get your creative juices flowing. You will hate the “nothing else alternative” so much that you will end up writing something simply to entertain yourself (which was what we wanted in the first place).

Gretchen Rubin, the mega best-selling author of The Happiness Project, writes in her blog how she uses the “nothing else alternative” to write:

“When I want to do the difficult work of original writing, I often work outside my apartment, in a library a few blocks away. This gets me away from the temptations of the Internet, and it also forces me to accept the “nothing alternative.” I say to myself, “I’ll stay here for two hours,” and then I’m stuck. If I’m not writing, I’m just sitting there. Sure, sometimes I jump up and go look for a book in the stacks, but that doesn’t take long. I end up writing just to pass the time. At home, by contrast, there’s no end to the useful tasks that I can find to occupy myself.”

From earlier chapters, you might also remember how I head over to my favorite café with free Wi-Fi. With nothing else to do apart from write, I end up making good headway on my book.

If you’ve never used the Pomodoro technique, I highly recommend you try it. If during the Pomodoro you run out of things to write, follow the “nothing else” rule and you’ll pretty soon find yourself writing again.

Using the Pomodoro technique and the “nothing else alternative,” you’ll end up making more progress on your book than you had anticipated.

In a Nutshell

- The Pomodoro technique is a great productivity and anti-procrastination technique.

- The Pomodoro technique requires you to give undivided attention to the task at hand, which increases your productivity.

- It only requires 25 minutes of focused attention, which gets rid of the excuse that you don’t have enough time.

Actionable Knowledge:

Application Exercise #15

“I don’t wait for moods. You accomplish nothing if you do that. Your mind must know it has got to get down to work.”

~ Pearl S. Buck

1 – Go over to your “to-do” list and schedule in 25 minutes of uninterrupted time where you can use the Pomodoro technique to work on your book.

2 – Set a goal for how many Pomodoros you would like to achieve today.

3 – Try out the Pomodoro technique and watch your productivity triple!

Chapter Seventeen

Wrap Up

“Begin while others are procrastinating. Work while others are wishing.”

~ William Arthur Ward

We’ve covered a lot of anti-procrastination tools in this short book, and I hope that you have picked up a couple of techniques to apply to your life. You don’t have to apply all these techniques, but experiment with a few of these so that you can stop procrastinating, start writing and create a daily writing habit:

1 -- Use the solar-flaring technique to break a task into a ridiculously small first step (“write only one sentence”) and then focus on working on only that first step. This reduces the dread associated with writing.

2 -- Use the five-minute technique to eliminate the perceived pain associated with writing (as well as the excuse that you don’t have any time). Commit yourself to working on your task for just five minutes on your book.

3 -- Focus on getting started: Research reveals that once people get started on a task, they have a tendency to want to complete it.

4 -- Get clear on what it is that you want to write. Spending five minutes outlining what you want to write will increase your writing speed as well as your intrinsic desire to write.

5 -- Monitor your inner dialogue when you find yourself procrastinating. Replace procrastinator talk with productivity talk.

6 -- Use the words “Will I” instead of “I will” to increase intrinsic motivation to write.

7 -- Utilize the Seinfeld calendar to hold yourself accountable for those days when you do procrastinate. It’s easy to procrastinate when you don’t monitor how frequently you’ve been procrastinating.

8 -- Experiment with new and creative ways to make boring tasks fun: Consider changing the environment, adding music to the mix or adding a social element to the task.

9 -- Stop seeking perfection from your writing because it can lead to procrastination.

10 -- Give yourself permission to be imperfect: Monitor your internal dialogue and talk back against perfectionist thoughts.

11 -- Create a to-do list of your top tasks for the day. This stops you from conveniently forgetting about them and increases your desire to complete them.

12 -- Identify your top-20% tasks that contribute to 80% of your results. Avoid “disguised procrastination” by focusing most of your energy on these tasks.

13 -- Delegate or eliminate as many bottom-80% tasks as you can to free up your time to write.

14 -- Get rid of distractions in your environment: Cut yourself off from the Internet, turn off your smartphone and shut your door when working. The fewer distractions there are, the less likely you are to procrastinate.

15 -- Write in environments that you associate with productive behaviors.

16 -- Set an “if-then” plan for when and where you will write. Research shows that if-then planning can triple your chances of success.

17 -- Write your if-then plan on a piece of paper and stick it somewhere where it is always visible to you.

18 -- Choose an accountability partner who can be both tough and encouraging. It’s easy to procrastinate if you don’t have anyone to hold you accountable.

19 -- Consider joining MeetUp groups in your area that can support you in your writing career.

20 -- Write, share and track your goals: People who write, share and track their goals are 33% more likely to achieve them than those who don’t.

21 -- Burn your ships: Use a pre-commitment device to lock yourself into a specified course of action.

22 -- Utilize the Pomodoro technique to boost your productivity. Work in a distraction-free environment and give your undivided attention to working on your book.

23 -- Follow the “nothing else” rule when you find yourself experiencing writer’s block. With nothing else to do, you will find yourself suddenly writing again – and you won’t even realize how!

To your writing success,

Akash Karia

#1 Bestselling Author of

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- 26 Ways to Persuade People to Do Stuff

- How Successful People Think Differently

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Live well, work hard – and have fun doing both!

Akash Karia

AkashKaria.com

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Table of Contents

Title Page

Copyright

Table of Contents

Chapter One: The Writer’s Guide to Stop Procrastinating, Start Writing and Create a Daily Writing Ritual!

Chapter Two: How to Use the Solar Flaring Technique to Avoid Procrastination

Chapter Three: How I Doubled My Writing Speed

Chapter Four: How to Avoid Procrastinator-Talk

Chapter Five: How to Increase Your Motivation Using These Two Words

Chapter Six: How to Create a Daily Writing Habit Using the Seinfeld Calendar

Chapter Seven: The Two Types of Writers Who Procrastinate

Chapter Eight: 2 Small Techniques to Make Writing Fun – Even on Days You Don’t Want to Write

Chapter Nine: The Perfectionist’s Curse

Chapter Ten: How to Conveniently Stop “Forgetting” Your Writing

Chapter Eleven: Pareto’s Principle: How to Eliminate Disguised Procrastination

Chapter Twelve: Avoiding Procrastination by Eliminating Distractions

Chapter Thirteen: How to Triple Your Chances of Success with the “If-Then” Technique

Chapter Fourteen: Creating Accountability as a Writer

Chapter Fifteen: Pre-Commitment Devices: Why You Should Burn Your Ships

Chapter Sixteen: Using the Pomodoro Technique to Triple Your Productivity

Chapter Seventeen: Wrap Up