Authored by: Mark S.
- Eliminate all hope of motivation. Motivation will fail you, every time. Embrace Discipline instead.
- Discipline means showing up every day, at the same time, no matter what. Feelings are irrelevant – they don’t get a vote.
- It’s time to get aggressive. Face the Dragon and slay him. Get a fresh notebook and ink pen. Solely for this purpose. Right now.
- Write down all the massive overwhelming projects you have to do, and their due dates, on page one. Label it “Fall Projects” or something. “Write term paper,” “read 3 massive boring books,” “prepare for exam,” whatever.
- Break down these projects into smaller and smaller tasks, on page two. Keep breaking them down until the tasks are small and manageable. e.g., “Read a 500 page book in 14 days” becomes “read 36 pages (each day),” and so on.
- Write today’s date on page three. Then, write down the THREE most important of those small tasks you could do TODAY. Just pick three.
- Decide on which time you are going to work each day. Say, 1-6pm (to start). Set a reminder alarm in Google Calendar for 1-6 each day. Live by this calendar. This is sacrosanct time. NO ONE can distract you at this time.
- At 1 pm, open your notebook to page three. Do task number one. Don’t think about anything else. Put your phone into “do not disturb” mode. Crush the task.
- Cross out task one. Do task two. Crush the task.
- Cross out task two. Proceed to crush task three.
- If 6:00 rolls around and you haven’t finished task 3, that’s ok. Don’t fret. Can you finish it up in 10 in minutes? Then work til 6:10. Otherwise, just stop right there.
- Cross out the tasks you just finished on page two. Feels good, man!
- Write down tomorrow’s date back on page three. Write down the THREE tasks you can do tomorrow. Didn’t finish task 3? Then today’s task 3 becomes tomorrow’s task 1. Choose two more from page two, then.
- Now go and do something fun, guilt-free. You’ve earned it.
- Repeat, forever. Dominate and crush your work. Become a goddamned Professional.
