Jack Canfield walks through how to stop procrastinating: make a firm decision, publicly commit, list what it costs you to wait versus what you gain by finishing, break the project into steps, find someone who's done it before, schedule time blocks, get an accountability partner, and visualize the finished result.
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Hi, I'm Jack Canfield, and today I'd like to talk to you about how to complete those things you've been putting off. Is there something in your life that you want to do or get done that you've been putting off? Perhaps you've been planning but not actually doing anything to start that big project you want to do. Or maybe you keep saying that you're going to work your latest business idea as soon as you have more time. Or maybe you've just been putting off decluttering your office or rotating the tires on your car or something as simple as cleaning out your closets. Well, the first thing you need to do is to decide to do it. The first thing you have to do is simply make a decision to stop putting it off and do it. Now. The word decision comes from the Latin word decidere, which means to cut off all other options, including the option of not doing it. So make a decision. Next, make a public declaration that you're going to do it. Tell a friend or a colleague at work, or better yet, a group of people that you have decided and are committed to do it. Now this will help put your feet to the fire. And also, research has shown that just declaring your goal to another person increases your chance of completing it by 8 to 13%. Now the next step is to answer two questions. Set aside some time and write out the answer to these two questions. First, what are the costs or the consequences of my not taking the actions I need to take to handle this thing I've been putting off? Second, what are the potential benefits of my completing it? And then, as a way to keep yourself motivated, read the answers to the second question every day until you've completed it. Next, chunk it down. By that I mean chunk it down into smaller steps. Now, sometimes we procrastinate because we don't know where to begin. So start by breaking your large projects in the milestones that you can reach along the way, and then into smaller action steps inside those milestones. For example, the milestones for writing a book might include first, deciding upon the main message of the book, and then next brainstorming everything you currently know about the topic. Another milestone would be finishing conducting your research. Another milestone would be interviewing people for more information, deciding on the content and the order of the chapters in your book, outlining each chapter in detail, sending out the chapters for some readers to give you feedback, completing a first draft of the book, deciding whether to self publish your book or to seek a traditional publisher, and then writing a book proposal. And then finding a literary agent or a publisher, deciding on the title and the subtitle of your book, designing the COVID securing endorsement quotes for the back cover and then publishing the book and then designing a marketing and PR plan and so on. Now those are all different steps that need to be taken and if you just take one at a time by breaking it down to these smaller steps, it doesn't seem so overwhelming. Now, if you don't know what to do to complete the thing or things you've been putting off, reach out to someone who has already done it for help in one of the following ways. Read their book for example, if you want to declutter your home or office but don't know where to start, there are tons of good books with simple and practical tips for on how to start and how to finish. Decluttering 2 that I love are the Life Changing Magic of Tidying up by Marie Kondo and New Order A Decluttering Handbook for Creative Folks and Everyone Else by Fay Wolf. Now another way to find out what you need to do is to hire people who've already done what you want to do as a consultant. Go to one of their seminars or ask them to mentor you. Next, write out a detailed action plan and then schedule your action steps. Once you've figured out what steps you need to take, go to your calendar and schedule blocks of time to work on completing the project or the task. If there are just a few simple steps required to complete it, like getting the tires on your car rotated, just write the activities into your schedule like on Wednesday write call the tire dealer at 9:00am or on Saturday, take car in. All the research on high productivity will tell you this. Work from a schedule, not from a to do list. Next, make sure to work with an accountability partner for the tasks that are large, hard, scary or challenging. It's really important to work with an accountability partner, someone who is equally committed to getting things done in their life and who will be a strong enough person to keep you focused and not accept your excuses for not doing it and then agree to check in every day with them at the same time to monitor your progress. This way you have another person supporting you to get it done. A little bit of advice don't have your wife or your romantic partner be your accountability partner. This is proven over time never to work out very well. Now the first of the last two steps are Number one, create an affirmation that affirms you've already completed the project, such as I'm so happy and grateful that I've completely decluttered my office. Or I am enjoying the light, airy feeling working in a clean and ordered office. Or I'm so happy and grateful that I'm joyfully cooking healthy meals for my family in my completely remodeled kitchen. And then the last step is to close your eyes after you state your affirmation and take one minute visualizing the completed result. See your clean, organized, spacious workplace, see all the details of your remodeled kitchen and remember to feel the feelings you would feel feel if you'd already completed a task or the project as you visualize it. And one more thing, when you finish the project, reward yourself for having completed it. I suggest you decide in advance what that reward will be. Now, for small things, it might simply be taking a 15 minute break to take a walk outside, or doing five minutes of stretching or taking a colleague to lunch that day. But for bigger projects, it could range from going to a movie, eating out at a nice restaurant or getting a spa treatment, all the way up to taking a weekend vacation or buying yourself something you've been wanting for a long time. We used to always celebrate with our whole staff after completing a Chicken Soup for the Soul book by drinking champagne accompanied by gourmet snacks before we would put the manuscript in the mail. You see, rewarding your inner child for cooperating with the work that the inner adult needed to get done assures that the inner child, which would rather play or procrastinate for any number of reasons, will be willing to cooperate with getting it done in the future because they see there's going to be a reward. So when you reward yourself for getting things done, it reinforces the habit of getting things done in the future. Okay, here's your homework to complete after watching this video. Make a list of all the things you've been putting off and then choose one to complete and then do the first three steps I talked about in this video today. So thanks a lot for watching. And remember, nothing in life is going to change for the better until you do. Now, if you found this video helpful, make sure you like it, share it with a friend who may need it, and subscribe to my channel for more videos like this one. And for some additional resources on getting things done, make sure to visit my website@jackcampfield.com thanks again for watching.
