2 Things To Obliterate Procrastination

procastinate Hey Moguls –

Cody Sperber here weighing in on this lesson about procrastination. UGH! Who wants to talk about that awful subject? We’re all guilty of it, right? But we can learn a few things from someone who’s been there, done that and pressed on ahead. Not to mentioned I’ve flipped 1,000+ deals and counting. (Deals worth more than $180 million.) Just sayin’…

Yep, I have fought with the ugly demon of procrastination - and won. Soooo… I want to share with you how I did it. (And how I continue to do so.)

As a Newbie, I Was All Over the Place

Recently, I attended a mastermind event and I was asked this question: How do you avoid procrastination and stay motivated?

It’s a lesson that has to be learned early in the game - otherwise, as an entrepreneur, you’ll never get your business off the ground. Believe me, when I was a newbie investor I was all over the place. Getting tasks accomplished effectively and efficiently did not come easy for me.

It’s typical – and perfectly normal – that newbies are super-excited. We’re so pumped up, filled with energy and ready to go. But that can be both a blessing and a curse.

You’re taking care of all these daily tasks, and then the next day comes, and the next… and all of a sudden the enthusiasm is wearing thin, and at the end of the day it seems you’ve been busy but what is there to show for it? You feel like you’re the hamster on the wheel. Your to-do list is never really cleared.

#1: Problem-Solving App

I’m a little geeky, but I love phone apps – especially those that help me in my business. I now have a cool app on my smartphone that helps me not only organize my to-do list but to stay on task. It’s called Any.do.

procrastinate If you need something that’s user friendly and also syncs with iCloud, this is it. And no matter if you’re on your computer, tablet or iPhone, you’ll still receive your needed reminders.

And there’s no need to stop and type in the tasks because this app has a talk-to-text feature. Verbally add a task to the to-do list in seconds.

When a task is completed you simply swipe it to mark it as completed, then shake your phone and clear it completely.

Need to set priorities? Need to create folders? All it takes is a tap of your finger.

#2: Need Sauce with That?

A while back I was reading a great book by Dave Ramsey called EntreLeadership. In the book, Dave explained a concept that he called Put a Little Steak Sauce on Your Day. Here’s the basic idea:

Step 1 - Brain Dump

Take time at the beginning of each week and brain dump ALL of your to-dos into one big general list. This is not time to analyze or sort – just dump.

Step 2 - Now Code Your Brain Dump

Now that the brain-dump list is completed, you can spend time organizing. You’re going to create a code to prioritize – A tasks; B tasks; and C tasks.

A List Tasks – Look over your brain-dump list and choose the ones that must be completed right away – and also the ones that will make you money. Mark each of these tasks with a big A
B List Tasks – Continue to review the list. Of the tasks that remain, which ones can wait for another day? They’re important, but not as important as the A List. If you don’t get them done by the following day, you could actually lose money. Mark those with a B.
C List Tasks – Every task that’s still on your list will be marked with a big C.

Step 3 - Further Organize Your Coded Brain Dump by Numbering

Here’s how your list will now look:

A lot of tasks marked A
Some tasks marked B
A few marked C

1) First you’ll work on your A tasks. The first task you need to complete – the most important and the most lucrative task – will be marked A-1. (Ah – you’ve found your steak sauce for the day!) Go down from there with the next most important and so on, marking them accordingly as A-2, A-3…

wiser 2) Go to your B tasks and label them in the exact same way: B-1, B-2, B-3 and so on…

3) You’re getting the picture – time to number all your C tasks in the same way.

Stop a minute and think about the power of this concept. The A task list is your goals list for that day. The B task list will be for the following day. The C task list is for tasks that are not imperative and can be put off for a few days.

It’s time now to bring back our Thing #1 into the picture - Any.do. You’ll simply enter the lists you’ve just created into the app to help you stay organized and on schedule.

There It Is

Congratulations! You are on the road to a more stress-free life.

At the end of the day, you’ll look back and see you’ve made real progress. It’ll be much easier to spot those time-wasters, such as spending too much time on your Social Media sites or on tasks that aren’t bringing you in leads, deals and money, of course.

You’ll stop yourself short and remind yourself that you must give total focus to the A-1 task of the day, and no doubt, you’ll enjoy that steak sauce.

When you put this plan into action, your life will change. From the outset of each day, you’ll know exactly which task to accomplish first. You can focus on the tasks and the app will take care of the rest.