The Mindset Mentor - 5 Ways to Stop Procrastinating

Starting point is 00:00:00 Welcome to today's episode of the Mindset Mentor Podcast. I'm your host, Rob Dial, and if you have not yet done so, hit that subscribe button so that you never miss another episode. And if you are out there and you want to receive motivational emails and mindset emails from me, go to mondayemail.com right now. I'll send them out to you directly every single Monday with what I'm focusing on for the week and a couple extra tips to make your week amazing. So once again, it's absolutely free. Just go to mondayemail.com right now. Today, I'm going to give you five different ways, five different keys to stop procrastinating. If you're a lazy person, this is for you. If you're a procrastinator,

Starting point is 00:00:45 this is for you. The first thing I want to say before we actually dive into it is I don't want you to identify with that being lazy or that procrastinator that you've been calling yourself anymore. Whatever you identify with, you will take actions as. You know, if I say that I come from an overweight family and there's no way they'll ever be in shape, I'm not going to take the same actions as a fit person. I'm not going to work out the same amount. I'm not going to eat, you know, as healthy of food. If I say I'm an athlete, I'm going to change the actions that I take.

Starting point is 00:01:22 The identity that I have for myself will dictate the actions that I'm going to change the actions that I take. The identity that I have for myself will dictate the actions that I'm going to take. And so the first thing I'll say before I give you these five tips is that you have to change your identity. If you're like, I'm a lazy person. No, you used to be lazy. I'm a procrastinator. No, no, no. You used to procrastinate. Okay. Which goes into tip number one. Tip number one is to stop lying to yourself. Just admit your laziness. Don't call yourself lazy, but admit your laziness. It's like a, you know, a 12 step program. When you're in a 12 step program, you have to admit that you're, when you're an alcoholic, you have to say, I'm an alcoholic, right? You have to at least admit

Starting point is 00:02:00 to yourself so you can start working through it. You can't work through something and improve something if you won't admit that there's a problem. So just call it what it is. Hey, you're lazy, right? You've been lazy. Let's put it that way. Call it what it is. And once you admit it, then you can start to work through it and then you can start to overcome it. I'm going to tell you this. I think that humans are just inherently lazy. You know, if you go back a hundred thousand years ago in the middle of the day, like right now it's 93 degrees outside in, in, um, Austin, it's hot. It's humid. I would imagine if it was a hundred thousand years ago, any native person was probably under a tree hanging out, waiting for it to cool down.

Starting point is 00:02:42 They probably do their hunting in the morning and their foraging in the morning. And then they probably do their hunting and their foraging when it starts to cool down. They probably do their hunting in the morning and their foraging in the morning. And then they probably do their hunting and their foraging when it starts to cool down and then they go to sleep. So the thing you have to do is you have to admit it and you have to understand, yeah, you've been lazy. And you know what? I've been lazy. I'm not going to be lazy anymore. I've been a procrastinator. I'm not going to be a procrastinator anymore. I am not going to take on that identity anymore. Same way that if, you know, you, I don't know about you guys, but I've done some pretty crazy things in my life. I used to be a hardcore partier. I used to do a lot of different things and take a lot of different things when I was younger. I used to identify as somebody who was a partier.

Starting point is 00:03:20 I would not identify as that anymore because I don't take those actions. And so you have to first admit to yourself, yes, this is who I have been, but this is not who I'm going to be anymore, right? And, you know, another part of that, if you're going to admit it and you're going to say it, you then stop having, you have to stop blaming anything outside of yourself. What we tend to do, people tend to do, is we tend to blame things outside of ourself instead of blaming ourself. Oh, I don't have enough time. You know, I hear that one all of the time. Oh, I don't have enough time. Okay, cool. No, you have enough time if you wanted to make enough time. Like if I had someone put a gun to your head and say, find some time,

Starting point is 00:04:01 you wouldn't be like, well, I don't have enough. No, you'd figure out where to find time. You get really efficient with your time really quick is what you guys. Stop blaming anything outside of you. Don't blame it on your children. Don't blame it on your family. Don't blame it on your work. Don't blame it on, you know, the time that you don't have in the day. Figure it out is what you have to do. Okay. So stop blaming the external. You have to take full acceptance. So that's number one is to make sure that you stop lying to yourself and to just admit that you have been lazy.

Starting point is 00:04:28 Okay, step number two, make your goals bite-size. Make your goals bite-size. I don't mean that if your goal is to make $100,000 this year, that you need to switch it to $50,000 this year. What I mean is that you look at your long-term goal and you make it smaller. Like if I were to hand you a

Starting point is 00:04:46 plate, this massive plate of food, you wouldn't try to fit all of the food into your mouth at once. What would you do? Bite by bite by bite. The same way that you accomplish eating, you know, food that's on your plate, bite by bite by bite, is the same way that you should be going towards your goals and starting to work towards your goals, to stop procrastinating, to actually start moving towards your goals. You can't hit all of your goals at once. You've got to go step by step by step. Some days are going to be amazing. Some days are going to be terrible. Some days are just going to be, well, they're just going to be normal, right? But what do I mean by taking your goals and making a bite size? Let's say that you're a sales rep and you want to make $100,000 this year.

Starting point is 00:05:24 And you do the math. You know what your closing percentage is. You know how many calls you need to make in order to make X amount of dollars. And you do all of those numbers and you know your closing percentage, how many people call, all that stuff. And you break it down. You're like, okay, for me to make $100,000 this year, I just have to do 100 calls a week. That's it.

Starting point is 00:05:42 Okay. Well, that means that all you have to do is 20 calls today. All I want you to do is focus on the 20 calls. I don't want you to focus on the $100,000 you want to make. Because things that are bigger and things that are long term, actually, if I'm being honest with you, I found can really start to demotivate some people. So it's always good to know like what your 10 year goal is, where you want to be in 10 years. But if you're only concentrating on that, it can be demotivating because 10 years is a really long way away. And what your brain starts doing is your brain starts processing and thinking, oh my God, these are all the things that I have to do over the next 10 years. And it's too much,

Starting point is 00:06:17 and it's too much, and it's too much, and it's too much. And you're just thinking too much versus going, what can I do right now? Right? So that's why I think a lot of people, it's great that you plan your goals. It's great that you have your 10-year goals. You should have those, but your focus should be on today. What can you do today to get you one step closer to that? It's hard for us to focus on something that's too far in the future. So instead of focusing on the $100,000 this year, just focus on the 20 calls today. That's all I care about. And if you're going to work for five hours today, make four calls. That's all you have to do.

Starting point is 00:06:47 Make four calls. That should take up the next hour. And then you work for another hour and you just do four calls. I'm just worried about call. If I'm being honest with you, I'm just worried about the first call, not the $100,000.

Starting point is 00:06:59 And then I'm worried about the second call and the third call and the fourth call. The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. Stop making it seem too big. Just take the first step. So that's number two is to take your goals to make them bite size. Hey, if you want to pay off your student loans faster, listen up. Earnest was voted best student loan refinancing overall by NerdWallet.

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Starting point is 00:09:55 And for only a limited time, get $300 off and free shipping at liveouter.com slash dial. liveouter.com slash dial. Terms and conditions apply. Number three is to find your why. You need to care more about what your goals are. That's what you need to do. You need to care more about what your goals are. A lot of times people will write down goals. Sometimes they don't, like, you know, a small percentage of this world actually writes down their goals. But let's say you have written down your goals. Do you know why you want to hit those goals? What would it do for you if you hit those goals? What would it do for your family? What would it do for the rest of the people around you?

Starting point is 00:10:33 What would you do? Would you finally be able to take your mom on that amazing trip or move your children into a house instead of the apartment or be able to show your children the world or whatever it is you want to do? You know, if you look at it, and I were to say, hey, and I say this to people all the time, when they're like, yeah, you know, I just don't have enough time. I don't know how I'm going to do it. I don't know if it's possible for me to be able to do it. And I say, okay, you want to make $100,000 this year? What if I put a gun to your head and said, you this year have to make a million dollars this year legally in the business that you're already in, in the company that you're already in, whatever it is that you

Starting point is 00:11:09 already do, or change your job and get another one. You have to make a million dollars this year legally. Would you be able to do it? Everybody's like, yeah, absolutely. What if I said every single person who you love, their life depends on it as well. Not just your own life, but everybody else's. Everyone's like, yes, of course, I would make way more than a million dollars. They say, oh, so what happened? You know, before it wasn't possible. It was hard for you to do. And then when your life is on the line and people that you love's life is on the line, it somehow becomes possible because everything is 100% possible. But you just might not care enough about your goals. So what is your why behind the

Starting point is 00:11:45 goals? Because if you say, oh, I want to make $100,000, cool. But if I'm being honest with you, most people are motivated by money to a certain extent and then they give up. How can you make something to motivate you that is outside of the money, but you'll still end up getting the money if that's something that you're going for? You know, you don't have enough. It's not that you don't have enough time. You always have enough time. You just don't care enough yet. How can you make yourself care more about your goals? Okay, so that's number three is to find your why. Number four, this is important, is to remove your distractions. Throughout the day, you're not just sitting there staring at the ceiling.

Starting point is 00:12:21 You're not. You're not sitting there just like, oh, staring at the ceiling all day long. No, just things aren't happening. No, you're doing something. When you're not, even when you're not doing something, you're still doing something. You realize that, right? You're on your phone, you're on the computer, you're talking to somebody, you're going, then whatever it is, you might be doing another workout, a second workout of the day because you're telling yourself that's more important than building the dreams that you want. Whatever it is, we're all doing something. When you're not doing something, you're still doing something. But if your phone is something that is a distraction to you, take your phone, put it in the other room. Let me give you a big tip of something that's really helped me out recently.

Starting point is 00:13:00 I have a special place inside of one of my drawers in my kitchen where I put my phone every single day when I wake up. And then when I need it, I walk and I get it and then I put it back. Because what I've come to realize is when it's right next to me, it's very easy to pick up. It is. And what happens? We've all done this before. You pick up your phone because you've got to send a quick text message. Then 17 minutes later, you're like, oh my God, I've been looking at Instagram this entire time. You're like, damn it. It got me again. These, you have to realize, these machines are built to keep you addicted to them. So what can you do to keep yourself away from it? When it is in visual sight, it is so much easier to grab it. I was in Sedona about a month ago and I was writing, in the process of writing my book. And I had this morning where I was just so ridiculously productive. I went outside and I was writing, you know, I was outside and I was looking at

Starting point is 00:13:54 the beautiful mountains in Sedona and I had my computer. In my computer, the wifi was off and I was just writing. I was writing for like four hours straight. It was amazing. And then I had a scheduled phone call at like noon I had to hop on. So I get on the phone straight. It was amazing. And then I had a scheduled phone call at like noon I had to hop on. So I get on the phone call. It's like a 15 minute call real quick. Get on the phone call. I'm walking around outside. I'm looking at the mountains. I'm talking on this call. Then I get done and I throw my phone right next to where I was sitting. And I noticed that I didn't check my phone for four hours when I was writing, but when it was next to me, I picked it up like seven times in like 30 minutes just because it was there. My brain was there, my mind was there,

Starting point is 00:14:29 and I just reached for it. So what can you do to remove your distractions? If your phone is a distraction, what can you do to remove it? If Netflix is a distraction, what can you do to remove it? Unplug your TV for a little while. Take your TV off the wall. Put it inside of a different room. If you're spending too much time just sitting around on your couch and being all lazy, take the couch cushions off and throw them in another room. What can you do to take all of your normal distractions and just remove them from your life? That's what you have to do. If you can remove distractions, you're going to be like, well, I'm bored. I've got to figure something to do. Well, shit, I guess I might as well work towards my goals in my life

Starting point is 00:15:06 and my dreams, right? Remove all the distractions that are in your way. Phone, TV, other people, whatever it is that you have distractions, your children. How can you remove as many distractions as possible? It is fully possible for you to remove all of your distractions. You just have to be a little bit surgical with the planning. Okay, so that's number four. And number five, the thing that I've told you guys over and over and over again, just the more that I do it, the years I've been doing it, it just gets better and better and better. Number five is the Pomodoro technique. That is 25 minutes of work on one thing, one thing only, and then five minutes off. 25 minutes on, five minutes off.

Starting point is 00:15:47 One thing I haven't told you is that I've been doing the Pomodoro technique for so long. I'm starting to do like what I'm calling Pomodoro Plus, where it's like when you go into a gym and say you can lift 25 pounds. You lift 25 pounds for long enough, it starts to become pretty easy. And you're like, I could probably lift heavier. Well, now at my Pomodoro sessions,

Starting point is 00:16:04 because I was doing 25 on, five minutes off,, 25 on five minutes off for like three years, my Pomodoro sessions are like 45 minutes on five minutes off now. It's just, it's just, I've been able to lift heavier weight. And I think that's one thing I've never talked about before, because I never really knew it was a thing up until the past few months. But if you've never done it before, what it is, the Pomodoro Technique, is 25 minutes of dedicated work on one thing and one thing only. There is nothing else that you can do in this world except for that thing. And your brain knows at 25 minutes, my alarm is going to go off and I can take a five minute break. And when you take a break, you don't go look at your phone because what you're doing

Starting point is 00:16:40 is you're still focusing on your phone. It's a whole lot of neuroscience that goes into it. But when you look at your phone, your brains actually do this vergence eye movement where they converge and they start to look in. That actually makes your brain focus even more. And so you go from a focused state to looking at your phone again and focusing again. You don't want to do that.

Starting point is 00:16:58 What you want to do is you want to take 25 minutes of hardcore dedicated work, and then five minutes, go on a walk with your dog. Go out and look at a beautiful landscape. Look at the sky. And you sit there and you don't look at your phone, you don't talk to me, you just hang out for a little while. And what it does, it allows your brain to kind of go into what, you know, Andrew Huberman calls non-sleep deep rest, just this chill mode. You take in your peripheral vision, you just sit there and you just have five minutes to do nothing and just chill for a minute. And then you go back in and you go 25 minutes on, five minutes off. And really what happens is

Starting point is 00:17:29 you're breaking your life up in 30 minute increments. And what happens is the amount of productivity that you have, if you could just trust me and try this for a week, it works ridiculously well for me. And I get so many messages on Instagram of people who have done this as well. And they're like, I am being so ridiculously productive because I'm starting using Pomodoro technique. 25 minutes on, hardcore work, five minutes off. The only other thing that you have next to you, whatever it is that you're working on, say you're sitting there and you're writing your book and you're sitting on your computer, you're writing your book, your Wi-Fi is off. Right next to you, the only other thing that you can have next to you is a pen and paper,

Starting point is 00:18:02 blank paper, but a pen next to you. Therefore, if any idea comes up, you can just write it down that has nothing to do with your work, write it down, get it out of your brain, go back to what you're doing. So therefore your brain can go, okay, I can let go of this thing because I know that this thing is on the paper. And so use a Pomodoro technique to get things done because it's hard to motivate yourself when you know you've got eight hours of work you have to do. It's a's hard to motivate yourself when you know you've got eight hours of work you have to do. It's a lot easier to motivate yourself when you go, okay, I can do 25 minutes. And then once those 25 minutes are done, you get your break. And then after those 25 minutes, the first round, you just decide if you want to keep going. But therefore, you're not married to

Starting point is 00:18:37 the next eight hours. You're just married to the next 25 minutes. And that alone will help you be more productive because it's the same way. You don't take an entire plate of food and shove it into your mouth. You eat it bite by bite. That is the same way that you accomplish your goals is bite by bite by bite. Don't think about the long-term, all of the stuff that you have to succeed at. Just worry about what it is that you have to do right now. So that's what I got for you for today's episode. If you love this episode, please share it on your Instagram stories and tag me in at RobDialJr, R-O-B-D-I-A-L-J-R. The only way that we grow is from you guys sharing it, so I greatly appreciate every single time that you share it. And also,

Starting point is 00:19:13 if you love it, please do me a massive favor. Please go to iTunes or Apple Podcasts, wherever you listen to this, Spotify, and give us a rating and review. The more positive rating and reviews that we get, the more that those platforms actually show this organically to other people so that more people can find this podcast and it can grow. So if you've ever gotten any value from anything I've ever said, please do me that favor right now.

Starting point is 00:19:36 It'll take you like 30 seconds to do. And with that, I'm gonna leave the same way I leave you every single episode. Make it your mission to make someone else's day better. I appreciate you, and I hope that you have an amazing day.

The Mindset Mentor - 5 Ways to Stop Procrastinating

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