Transcript excerpt from a conversation (Vishen Lakhiani interviewing Marisa Peer) about a core productivity habit: doing disliked, difficult, or stressful tasks first thing to avoid procrastination and free mental bandwidth. Marisa presents this as a learned habit of many successful people, gives examples (choosing to read essays first in school, scheduling workouts early, and a rock-star anecdote), and Vishen relates the idea to the ‘slay the dragon’ model used in workplaces.
Chapters
Well, number two is that they do what they hate first thing. If they have to fire someone, if they have to make a very uncomfortable phone call, they will do it first. And what's interesting is that they naturally do that. They would say things like, well, you know, I've got to end a partnership with my best friend or I've got to fire someone I really care about. I couldn't possibly have that hanging over my head all day. I need to do it first, then it's done and then I feel better. People who are not in that group will go, oh, God, I've got a fire like my friend. I'll do that at six o'.
Clock.
I'll wait till the end. I do that after lunch. Or I've got to go and do a gruelling workout. I'll do that at five o'. Clock. But of course, five o' clock comes and you have a phone call to make or you've just had lunch and then you don't get to do it. And so for very successful people, they do do these things quite naturally, even in school. And I mean, one of my clients who was very successful said, yeah, when we had to read out an essay, I never understood the kids who went last. I put my hand up and went, I'll read the essay first because I want it done. So they do it naturally. But that doesn't matter because of course, the wonderful thing is that when you do what you hate first enough times, it starts to become natural. Like, I've got to do my taxes, I'll do that first thing. I've got to confront someone, I'll do it first. And so I still to this day wake up and think, oh, I don't really want to do that, so I'm going to do it first. Because what I do want is to belong to that group of very, very successful people. So I know what the membership is. And every time I don't want to do something, I think I don't want to do it. But what I do want is to belong to that group, so I'm doing it first. And it's a great way of thinking because it starts to move you around, wanting to do it for all the right reasons.
You know, I love that nuanced model that you just brought in. I know what the membership is. And when you think about it that way, this is a price you got to pay for admission. I love that. That's a really interesting mind flip to motivate people to start taking action on these ideas. You're sharing now, what you just said reminds me of a model I read. Sorry, a system. I read from a book. I can't remember the name of the book, but it was called Slaying youg Dragon.
Yeah.
And it talked about how the most productive performers at work, when they come to work in the office, the first thing they do is slay the biggest dragon. The biggest dragon is that task or that piece of work that's the most uncomfortable that they dread, that's the most boring. It's that accounting report that you just can't bear to look at, but you need to finish before your fun brainstorms. So Slaying the dragon, something that we introduced in our company and we had many of our top performers understand this and it worked really well. You slay your dragon in the morning and then the rest of the day you just feel so much better. Because I think. I think there's a mental toll to doing work. Knowing that the bad stuff, the stuff that you do not like is about to come. I think it slows you down. But if you clear your mind by getting rid of the bad stuff first, I think it makes everything else flow.
I mean, I started to go to the gym first because I realized that so many times I'd planned to go later and something would happen. And occasionally I think I must go to the gym. And I think I've been. I went at 6 o' clock this morning and it was always such a great feeling I'd occasionally forget. So I'm going to tell you a great story about another person who did what they hate. So many, many years ago, I met someone who wanted to be a rock star. That was his actually particularly wanted to be a drummer. And he was a very young married man with two children to support. And he was going for a lot of auditions. And of course all the auditions take place during the day. And every time he had a job, they wouldn't let him take time off. So he decided he would have to work nights in order to audition during the day. And the only job he could get was a job he hated. He was a taxi driver and he hated it, but he did it. But he just wasn't making enough money. So he thought, okay, I have to work at McDonald's, I get more money, I can work nights, I'm free to audition. And about a month before he'd applied to work at McDonald's, he'd been for an audition to be a drummer in a band. He didn't know who the band was. And the day he was due to start working at McDonald's, which he absolutely hated even the thought of. He got a call to go, you know that band you auditioned for is actually Simple Minds, and now you're the drummer in Simple Minds. So he never worked in McDonald's or drinking, drove a cab again for the rest of his life. But when he told people that story, they'd all go, ugh, I would never work in McDonald's. Oh my God. I'd never degrade myself by driving a cab around London. And I'm like, don't you think you're missing the point? His ability to do what he hated is what made him a rock star, because he had to have his days free to rehearse and audition. But if you had your mindset, I'd never do that. He would never be a multi millionaire rock star. It was because he was fully prepared to do what he hated, to swallow his pride, to keep his vision in mind. I want to be a rock star. I must be free for auditions. How can I do that? Well, I have to work as a cab driver and in a fast food restaurant, which I hate, but I'm going to do it because it's going to take me to my goal. And it did. But the people who laughed at him and said I wouldn't do that, none of them are rock stars.
