The Savvy Entrepreneur

When I asked What’s your productivity tip? on LinkedIn, I received an answer from Christopher Morrissette which intrigued me:

Just Do It. Do the thing you don’t want to do and you will be doing it. Then it’s over.

You can trick yourself… but in the end you will only be successful by doing the things you don’t want to.

So I contacted Christoper and asked him to elaborate on how he ‘tricks himself’ to stay productive. His reply is today’s procrastination-beating suggestion.

First — “Trick Yourself” I used to not have money and I had started this sales job. So you know sales jobs; no work — no pay. When I started this sales job I, for some reason, had gotten real sick. Like doctor sick. (I still don’t know what it was.) So I would wake up in the morning feeling so bad that I couldn’t get up out of bed. So I would trick myself.

I would tell myself… “I am going to get up out of bed and if I don’t feel good when I get up I will lay back down.” Of course when I got up I still didn’t feel good. Then I would tell myself… “Well I am up I might as well shower and shave and if I don’t feel good after that I will go back to bed.” Then after I shaved I would not feel good then I would tell myself “I have showered I might as well get dressed and eat a little something and if I don’t feel good I will go back to bed.” I wouldn’t feel good. I would then “Well, I am dressed I might as well go out and work some and if I don’t feel good by 11am then I will come back home and go to bed.” I would feel very bad at 11am. Lastly I would tell myself… “Well I am out working and it is 11am already, I might as work till 2pm and if I don’t feel good … .” When 2pm came around I would say “I might as well work till 5pm.” There you have it. I tricked myself into working a full day even though I didn’t have the energy or the countenance to get out of bed that morning.

We can do the same thing with sales or anything… make ourselves take the first step of a difficult task or chore. When you “start” something that is almost 80% of the work in finishing something. The other 20% is the actual work. There is no energy expended in Finishing a project because when you are finished you are finished. All the energy expended is up front.

So starting is the only cure for procrastination. To say another way procrastination is potential energy and starting is kinetic energy. Except one creates depression and the other creates enthusiasm. — Christopher Morrissette, author of For Free and For Fun