5 Ways to Stop Procrastinating and Finish Your Book

Welcome to the Best seller Secrets podcast, where business owners and experts learn how to get their best selling book done and then use it to make an income and an impact. I’m Rob Kosberg, your host, and today I’m going to be talking about one of the biggest issues that I see, which is how to overcome procrastination and finally finish writing your book book, or any real big project that you may be undertaking or having a challenge with. I want to give you five ways to think about the challenge ahead of you, maybe reframe things a little bit and overcome that procrastination.The biggest challenge that I see, number one, is we tend to prioritize what is urgent over what is important. This is something that I, and many of us do in, like, all aspects of our life. This is a very, very common problem. 95% of retirees end up needing assistance from the government or family when they retire.Retirement is something that hopefully is coming to all of us.We know that this very, very important part of life is just down the road. Well, what happens that95% of the people end up needing assistance? Well, it’s because we didn’t set our priorities correct as we were going down the road. Now, look, certainly there are some cases where some people aren’t making enough money, but the vast majority of people do make enough money to save for retirement. The problem is where we’re prioritizing things. So what we need to do here to overcome this is we need to work on looking at the big picture when it comes to our book, when it comes to our project, what are our goals, our values, our responsibilities?What’s the thing that we should really be focused on? Something that I like to use is called the Eisenhower Matrix. General Dwight Eisenhower, who later became President, would use this, and he’s certainly credited for creating this, ergo, the name Eisenhower Matrix. But he would use it to make big decisions and prioritize his schedule, both as a general and then later as President of the United States. And so there are four quadrants in the Eisenhower Matrix. The first quadrant is what is urgent and important. The second quadrant is what is not urgent but important, like saving for retirement. Quadrant three is urgent but not important. And quadrant four is not urgent and not important. In quadrant one, where things are urgent and important, that’s what we have to do first, right? That’s what we tend to dive into, solve those problems,et cetera. So we do those things first. Quadrant two,though, is where the book and your big projects often lie. This is what’s urgent yet not important.What we have to do for that quadrant, for these big projects,is we need to put it on the schedule.What we need to do with quadrant two is schedule it and schedule blocks of time so we can actually make progress on our big projects, especially our book, to finally get it completed. Quadrant three, urgent but not important. That’s something that should be delegated. Quadrant four, not urgent and not important. Guess what? Get rid of it. Completely delete it. Maybe that’s something that’s on your calendar, and it’s perhaps not even on your calendar, but it’s something that you do, something that I do on a regular basis. You know what? We can instead put something in that place like getting our book completed and delete that time from us. So use the Eisenhower matrix to deal with number one, which is prioritizing what is urgent over what is important. Number two, we tend to struggle with how to start or the steps that we need to take for a big project like a book. The problem is we look at like this entire task and it seems overwhelming. I need to write a 200 page book, 40,000, 50,000,60,000 words. Instead, what we need to think about instead is taking one small step towards the completion of our project. One small step might be simply creating an avatar of our ideal reader. Or maybe it’s deciding on what ideal audience we want to speak to. You can do that. That’s one small step that you can set aside 30 minutes or an hour and do that really completely. So don’t think instead of the giant project that is before you or what every intricate step needs to be,just take the first step. Work on small tasks to get into motion and make it okay that you don’t know everything. You just need to know what is right in front of you. That’s number two. Number three. Number three is more emotional. We can be afraid to fail or be embarrassed of what our final result is going to be. Perfectionism is a killer, and it’s something all of us face.Your performance doesn’t need to and shouldn’t tie directly in to your self worth. You are worth much. You have many people that love you and care about you and think the world of you. Your performance and how you think others are going to view your book should not be considered. You need to write. You need to obviously get help. You need to get your message out there and make a difference. In the world. I’ve seen this with everybody. I’ve seen this with professionals. I’ve seen this with coaches and consultants, probably especially.I tend to see it with professions like attorneys,financial advisors, doctors. I understand it. Sometimes it shocks me what people often say to me in email or on my social media ads,right? I mean, it can be downright offensive. Now,I’ve been doing this a long time, so I’ve grown a thicker skin.But the reality is, in the beginning, when people would say things under my ads, people that don’t know me at all, don’t know anything about me. And just because my ad showed up on their timeline, or oftentimes they will opt into my email list. And then because of an email that I sent, which is not offensive at all,they will respond back with the most heinous stuff. There’s something about the barrier, right, of the Internet that can bring the worst out in people.Here’s what you have to understand. Everything that you want is on the other side of fear. And something that I like to remember that’s very, very helpful for me is that everything that you want is on the other side of fear. And something that I like to remember is that no one who is doing more than you or better than you is ever going to take the time to tear you down and criticize you just to bring you lower. That’s not going to happen. It only happens when people are already looking up to you. So just remember that. Don’t allow perfectionism to be tied up with your self worth and instead focus on what the goal is and what it is that you’re trying to achieve. Number four,some of us will say that we work better under pressure. And this is actually something that I’ve said. I remember I had a coach, and we were talking about this very challenge. I have a new book coming out, and I’ve been slow in getting that book out. And the coach said, There are different kinds of people, and I see you as like a cheetah. And I said, okay, well, that’s kind of cool. She goes, There are turtles and there are cheetahs. And I said, okay, I kind of like that.I like the idea of being the cheetah rather than the turtle. Here’s the thing about the cheetah. The cheetah lays around all day. Most of the day, the cheetah is doing nothing. But when it’s time to hunt, the cheetah gets up, goes, hunts, does what it needs to, and then it’s done. Now, look, I understand that. And some of us are cheetahs, and others of us, maybe more naturally, are turtles. But this can also be a cop out. It can be a cop out to just having the discipline to get started when you need to start to put aside this idea that when I have pressure, if I have a deadline, I’m going to work best. That may be true, but don’t use it as a cop out number five. And lastly, this idea of writing a book or some massive project that you have what we need to do is hard,and it’s challenging to do hard things. Yes, there are other things that we would rather be doing than the work that matters most. And it’s actually fine for you to do what you want when you want to do it right. That’s the whole idea of having your own business and having a best selling book that attracts clients and people that are interested in having you speak in media and PR and all of that.But understand, to receive the rewards,you must do the hard work. So consider what it will take to get it done. Block out time on your calendar and be willing to have the discipline and the diligence to do what is hard. Because all the rewards come for doing what is hard, not what is easy. So those are five ways to overcome procrastination. Perhaps consider change your line of thinking when it comes to a big project,and especially a book, if you’re interested in learning more and maybe having some guidance. Well, I’ve written a book called publishpromote Profit. It became a Wall Street Journal bestseller. You can buy it on Amazon, but you can also go to Publishpromoteprofit.com and you can get a copy free. I simply ask you to pay for the shipping and we’ll send it right to you.