Geoffrey Yang - WritingProductivity and Procrastination

You've seen this TED Talk. It’s iconic…

And, a great take on procrastination.

If Tim Urban had 5 more minutes, he could have explored this rabbit hole.

But first, a recap:

We all like fun, easy tasks. Deadlines mean we do tasks on-time. No deadlines means we set our own.

That’s a great start. But...

Output isn’t solely IF we get tasks done.

It’s also:
- Productivity: our capacity to get things done
- Priority: when we get things done
- Purpose: why we get things done

These P’s are a lot to think about.

So don’t think - write & do instead.

The Productivity School's approach is simple:
1. Write down goals as they come.
2. Cross them off daily on a visible calendar.
3. Try not to break the streak twice in a row. (Seinfeld Strategy)

What better way to achieve this than by eating a frog?

A frog?

It about crossing off your most challenging task, the 'frog', first thing in the day. You’ll do the fun & easy tasks no matter the time or place.

To wrap up now.

There are many myths with these P’s: how we procrastinate on difficult tasks, that procrastination itself is bad and flow is not, how it’s pointless to do anything without a purpose, or that successful days are determined by how many tasks we check off.

What we remember isn’t the number of goals we achieved, or how quick we achieve them.

That’s just a never-ending goal-seeking cycle.

Let's write things down, tackle challenges first.

Also, listening to your mind and doing things you’d look back and be proud of is a bright enough North Star.

That’s a good place to leave it.

I would write more, but today, I’ve got bigger frogs to swallow.
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Image from TED, Tim Urban’s ‘Inside the Mind of a Master Procrastinator’