Productivity Hack

An Easy Life Starts With The Hard Stuff

Here’s how to start doing them.

After a long day at work, we’re pretty much beat. We deserve our relaxing evenings.

But wait, what about that article you’re supposed to write? Or maybe today is the day for that dreadful leg workout.

There will be days that things seem more difficult to get into than they’re supposed to be.

If you have that fire in you to achieve more, we should have some strategies at hand to tackle these sloppy days.

Have An Accountability Partner/Coach

I’m an advocate of getting enough rest.

Keyword — “enough", not “excessive” (which is what most of us do).

As mentioned in The 5 am Club written by Robin Sharma, our “ancient brain” pulls the brakes for doing things that push our limits to maintain the status quo. This is a survival mechanism that saved our ancestors from threats.

We do this ever so subtle that we come up with excuses like:

• It’s alright if you skip ONE day;
• There’s always tomorrow;
• Life is a marathon, take it easy;

More often than not, these excuses repeat day after day. Eventually, we never get our hands dirty and we feel down about not having any progress.

This is when a coach or partner comes in handy. A study has found that engaging a coach can have an influence on performance.

When you have another person keeping you accountable, you’re more likely to pick yourself up and do the hard work because you don’t want to let others down.

Action time:

• Find a gym buddy to workout with;
• Have a writing challenge with a friend;
• Hire a coach for weekly coaching calls;
• Join an offline or online community of your choice;

Imagine The Worst Consequences That Can Happen To Others

This is like having a partner or coach, except this is imaginary.

Tom Bilyeu, the founder of Quest Nutrition and Impact Theory, shared an example of this method in one of his interviews.

When he’s working out, he’d imagine a scene where his wife is getting raped while he couldn’t do anything so he would push harder to challenge his limits.

This is an extreme method, but it works well if we’re trying to push our extreme limits.

Action time:

• Think about the worst possible consequences that can happen to people that are counting on you if you put off the hard stuff. This might be your spouse, family, or friends.

The 5 Second Rule

This is a method popularized by Mel Robbins in her Ted Talk.

At the start of this article, we briefly discussed how our ancient brains would come up with excuses to stop us from going through any discomfort.

Five seconds — that’s all it takes for your brain to come up with those excuses.

If you have a commitment to act on something and you don’t start within the 5-second window, you are more likely to skip it and remain stagnant.

Action time:

• The next time you have an impulse or thought of doing something, count backward from 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, and start engaging in the task.

Get Inspiration From Others

I’m sure you’ve heard of the following phrase:

You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with — Jim Rohn, Motivational Speaker

In this digital world, the content you consume on the internet has a similar effect. On days when I’m lazy, I’d search for articles or videos on the topics below for inspiration:

• Writing;
• Coding;
• Working out;

All of us have mirror neurons in our brain that handle the “monkey see, monkey do” phenomenon. Studies have shown that because of these mirror neurons, we are wired to imitate the behaviors of others.

Imagine yourself in a concert with thousands of people getting fired up when the musician makes his/her entrance. You’d probably be caught up in the enthusiasm and go wild too.

Motivation is contagious. If you can’t find the energy to do something from within, you can always turn to others to “borrow” their energy. Use our imitating nature to your advantage to get your bum moving.

Watching others helps to inspire fresh ways to work as well. It can be a different technique or strategy in doing something. I get excited about trying new stuff, even if it's hard because of the novelty.

Action time:

• If ever you slack, look for videos or articles of people who you admire or friends who are doing what you want to do to get yourself moving.

Make Engaging In Hard Tasks A Routine

Humans are creatures of habit.

We find routines that are favorable to us, and we stick with them for the long term. When a task becomes a habit, we go through less mental resistance to start compared to a “once-in-awhile” feat.

Also, we prime ourselves to get into the right state of mind (which is important for tasks that require a clear head) so we can produce better results in a routine.

Action time:

Some tips on building a new habit out of doing hard stuff:

• Since most people have day jobs, early mornings and late nights seem to be the most viable option to build a new habit;
• Pick a time when you’re free from distraction since hard tasks require more attention;
• If you already have a morning or evening routine, bundle hard tasks with an existing habit.
• If you make coffee every morning, follow it up with a 15-minute brainstorming for ideas. If you’re trying to practice singing, do it when you shower since you’ll be showering at least once a day. You get the idea.

Start Freaking Small

You build a house by laying one brick at a time.

A hard task can seem daunting to start if we don’t break it up into smaller achievable goals.

Great salespeople use the foot-in-the-door technique to persuade their prospects to take action. They start by asking for a small favor that’s impossible to reject and follow up with larger commitments.

We are replicating this technique on ourselves to do the hard stuff.

Make the task so simple that it’s impossible for you NOT to do it:

• Showing up at the gym if you intend to workout;
• Sit in front of your computer if you intend to write;
• Get your books open if you want to study;

As we say yes to these simple commitments, we’ll most likely do more than what we initially hoped for.

Action time:

• Identify what is the first step that can build up your hard task and commit only to the first step to get started.

In Summary

Again, nobody likes to do the hard stuff, but they are necessary if we intend to grow ourselves.

What separates excellence from mediocrity is showing up even when you don’t really want to.

To get to where you want to be, embrace the hard work, and enjoy the journey.