150: Do the Hard Things First by Scott Allan

Click any line to jump to that moment.

1. 00:00:00 You know my historically were really good about planning ahead and knowing when big events have come up
2. 00:00:05 and
3. 00:00:07 You know what we missed. I do know what we missed. We missed two things. Do you know two things that we miss?
4. 00:00:13 One this is episode 150 and I don't have any trivia for you
5. 00:00:18 The second one probably is the bookworm birthday. I think it was yeah seven years recently or something like that six or seven
6. 00:00:29 So I think it's six because it's roughly 25 26 a year
7. 00:00:34 Because you know half of 52 right and we're at 150 so
8. 00:00:39 Here we are at
9. 00:00:41 150 episodes and we're doing absolutely nothing special other than recording yet another book and
10. 00:00:47 We completely missed our sixth birthday happy birthday bookworm
11. 00:00:51 so
12. 00:00:53 There's that we're great podcast hosts. We completely missed our big events
13. 00:00:59 Yeah
14. 00:01:01 That's okay. We will we will just continue to make
15. 00:01:07 great pods
16. 00:01:10 150 episodes and
17. 00:01:13 Six years we are going to record
18. 00:01:15 Another book for you. Yep. Yep. Exactly
19. 00:01:20 So that said my big question for you Mike is did you take the standout assessment and was it's all?
20. 00:01:28 You did dreamed did I got to find my results here, okay?
21. 00:01:32 While you're hunting I did order a fan for my camera
22. 00:01:36 I know that was an action item I had I have a fan point right at the back of the camera nice so
23. 00:01:41 Hopefully we don't have this overheating nonsense happening once more
24. 00:01:47 All right, I got my my report. Yes. I did take the assessment. It's a 13 page report
25. 00:01:54 It's actually free to take so I would recommend people do it
26. 00:01:57 there are nine roles and
27. 00:02:00 They are advisor
28. 00:02:03 connector creator equalizer influencer pioneer provider stimulator and teacher and
29. 00:02:10 My two highest are provider and stimulator
30. 00:02:14 Okay, which I don't know if I 100% agree with that. It's fine. Yeah, I
31. 00:02:20 These types of assessments
32. 00:02:23 Never land exactly how you think they're going to
33. 00:02:27 I
34. 00:02:28 Will I think that?
35. 00:02:30 Just based on the definitions of those those different categories, which I've read the descriptions I
36. 00:02:36 would wait creator a bit heavier and having gone through the unique ability thing I think
37. 00:02:45 Other people might say the same thing about me. So it's not just my two cents. So I
38. 00:02:52 Was a little bit surprised by the results creators actually number six on my list. So I
39. 00:02:59 Don't think that makes a whole ton of sense, but the assessment itself is really well put together
40. 00:03:04 you know how a
41. 00:03:07 Lot of people will get paralyzed when they take assessments and the general vices just go with your gut whatever you initially think is
42. 00:03:13 The right answer well instead of just trying to pick the right perfect thing, right? Yep
43. 00:03:19 So instead of just telling you that they do two things number one
44. 00:03:24 Every question is read aloud by I believe Marcus Buckingham
45. 00:03:30 So before you even get to the answers you have to sit and listen to the question being read to you or statement being read to you
46. 00:03:37 Okay, and then they time
47. 00:03:39 The answers I forget how much time they give you for each response
48. 00:03:44 But it gives you one question at a time and once the timer goes off then whatever answer you have highlighted
49. 00:03:51 I assume that's the one that it selects and then it just moves on to the next one
50. 00:03:55 So there's a forcing function you can't sit there and be paralyzed by the choice
51. 00:03:58 It's gonna just pick one for you in a minute and a half or something like that sure know so it's a pretty clever way to
52. 00:04:05 build an assessment in
53. 00:04:07 my opinion I
54. 00:04:09 Just I'm not so sure about these these results, but
55. 00:04:13 I wonder if because there's there is a personality where
56. 00:04:18 People will sometimes like they know themselves well enough that they're trying to process
57. 00:04:23 what the answer is to the question based on what they know about themselves and
58. 00:04:29 Sometimes I wonder if that just takes enough time that it may force you to pick something even though it might not be a hundred percent
59. 00:04:37 Correct. You just haven't had the time to get it fully process totally get it that some people need that nudge
60. 00:04:42 That need to be kind of forced into that. I am not one of them
61. 00:04:46 I tend to pick the answers very quickly and move on give me like four seconds and I probably haven't selected
62. 00:04:51 Yeah, but I know that's not that's not for everybody. So I don't know. I just kind of wonder if that maybe
63. 00:04:56 Shoots somebody in the foot like a certain type
64. 00:05:00 possibly
65. 00:05:02 The other thing that I think is going on here because it is a free assessment the more
66. 00:05:07 people you have go through the assessment the
67. 00:05:11 more valid the assessment becomes
68. 00:05:13 So it would not surprise me if this is still an early stage assessment
69. 00:05:19 And they're trying to get it in as many people's hands as they can which is why it's still free and once they hit a
70. 00:05:24 number of a hundred thousand or a million or whatever that then they start to charge for it so sure maybe
71. 00:05:30 That contributes to the fact that it's free and also to the fact that they're still trying to dial things in in terms of the waiting of the
72. 00:05:38 questions and things and
73. 00:05:40 Why my results were kind of surprising to me
74. 00:05:44 How how old is this test? How long have I been doing it? You know I?
75. 00:05:48 Don't know but from reading the last book it sounded like
76. 00:05:54 Marcus Buckingham had been at the
77. 00:05:57 Strengths finder the Clifton company for quite a while and just recently gone out on his own
78. 00:06:04 Those my impression. I did not look at when he made that move or anything though
79. 00:06:09 Sure, no that makes sense
80. 00:06:11 Cool well sounds like you have results that you maybe don't trust
81. 00:06:16 So now what you do with it
82. 00:06:20 Well, I'll keep them, you know, it's another data point
83. 00:06:23 Right, but the more of these types of assessments that I do the more I can kind of spot the ones that are not quite
84. 00:06:31 Right not quite in line with everything else. This feels not quite in line with everything else
85. 00:06:39 The unique ability thing if I were to give somebody somewhere to start the unique ability is the place that I would I would go because that
86. 00:06:45 Combines a couple different it combines the Colby it combines the Strengths finder and then it combines some some real world feedback
87. 00:06:52 I know I had asked you and it's several other people
88. 00:06:55 some questions about my strengths and things and so the whole idea is that you get people to validate what your strengths actually are and
89. 00:07:02 That process was much more enlightening than taking the standout assessment sure
90. 00:07:08 I kind of wonder if you know something like taking a whole bunch of these assessments actually can serve you well in the in
91. 00:07:17 the
92. 00:07:19 Collection of them more so than the independent
93. 00:07:22 Test it's similar to like we know when a book generally doesn't follow
94. 00:07:27 standard protocol as far as like this science just seems a bit iffy compared to all the other ones that we've
95. 00:07:34 Read or this one has a section. It's very weak in comparison to the five other books that we read about habits
96. 00:07:40 You know what I mean? Like so you can kind of pick the ones that
97. 00:07:43 Don't really add up. I wonder if taking tests like these like these these assessments is similar
98. 00:07:50 You take enough of them you can start to pick out which ones aren't quite right
99. 00:07:55 Granted you have a little bit better skill at that than I do but that's
100. 00:07:59 Working theory obviously
101. 00:08:03 Yeah, I think there's probably some some truth to that and then ultimately
102. 00:08:07 It's all just information and you got to do something with it. So you can decide for yourself which assessment you want to wait
103. 00:08:14 more heavily
104. 00:08:16 you know, what are the most important factors for you but
105. 00:08:21 without digging into it too far I think the
106. 00:08:25 the order of of weight that I would give to
107. 00:08:30 These assessments this one's near the bottom of the list
108. 00:08:33 sorry Marcus
109. 00:08:36 It happens that it does
110. 00:08:38 Well as far as my side like I mentioned earlier got a fan on the camera
111. 00:08:43 So hopefully it doesn't overheat the other thing I had on my list was to go through the red thread
112. 00:08:46 questionnaire, this is from our last book where
113. 00:08:50 There was a series of questions that
114. 00:08:52 That Marcus had for you to go through that would kind of help you identify some of the things that you
115. 00:08:58 love to do just for you
116. 00:09:00 whether it pays or not is and it just doesn't apply and I went through this and
117. 00:09:06 at the end of the day
118. 00:09:09 like there were some stuff I would I wouldn't say that anything was like super surprising but I
119. 00:09:16 I discovered like there are some small things. I love to do
120. 00:09:21 that make absolutely no sense, you know in the grand scheme of trying to earn an income which is kind of the lens that I was
121. 00:09:28 originally seeing that through and
122. 00:09:30 One of those is just like I like to build random organization stuff for myself
123. 00:09:36 Thus like I've got a post out on all the different socials about this random wood scrap bin thing that I made
124. 00:09:43 In the span of a couple hours. I saw that. Yeah, just total random thing
125. 00:09:49 Makes my messy wood pile looks slightly less messy still looks messy, but it's kind of fun
126. 00:09:55 I at least know where the different sizes of wood are now
127. 00:09:58 Super fun, but just stuff like that is is kind of what I was discovering
128. 00:10:03 But again, nothing really groundbreaking but at least somewhat enlightening at least kind of informs some minor decisions here
129. 00:10:09 So I don't know that I would recommend people go through this questionnaire, but
130. 00:10:14 It was fun
131. 00:10:17 Didn't take too long, but that's me and I make decisions very quickly apparently
132. 00:10:20 There's that
133. 00:10:23 All right, all right, that said
134. 00:10:25 Let's jump into today's book, which is do the hard things first
135. 00:10:29 by scott allen and I originally picked this book because I know that I tend to
136. 00:10:35 And a lot of people tend to procrastinate and I tend to put off things that I don't want to do like the hard things
137. 00:10:42 You know, I tend to put these things off and don't want to
138. 00:10:45 Follow through on them and then it can eventually become an issue
139. 00:10:48 so I was trying to find a book somewhere in that territory to maybe inform my thoughts around that a little bit more and
140. 00:10:55 Landed on this particular book what I did not know when I selected it
141. 00:10:59 I need to get better about vetting books. I think what I did not know is that this is the first book in a series
142. 00:11:04 Did you realize this? This is a whole series of books that he's got put together
143. 00:11:09 I did not however
144. 00:11:13 It does not surprise me and I feel like this whole series should probably be contained to a single volume
145. 00:11:19 I'm okay with that. Yes
146. 00:11:22 After reading this one I
147. 00:11:25 I agree with you
148. 00:11:27 It should be stuck right here
149. 00:11:29 Uh, but yes, there are a whole series of books that follow this
150. 00:11:34 And this one came out in 2021
151. 00:11:39 And it's the first of those but you can order all the other ones
152. 00:11:41 So it makes me wonder if he released them all at once it seems kind of odd
153. 00:11:45 How that does in my mind you would release one and then release the next and keep going
154. 00:11:51 But these seem to be all done at the same time, which is fairly substantial
155. 00:11:54 Uh to say the least so anyway
156. 00:11:58 That was my original choice
157. 00:11:59 The the tagline on this is how to win over procrastination and master the habit of doing difficult work
158. 00:12:05 And I think the two words in there that caught my attention were procrastination and habit
159. 00:12:09 Because we like to talk about habits and I've struggled with procrastination for a long time
160. 00:12:13 So I was thinking this would maybe help with that and
161. 00:12:16 I'm still looking for a book on that mic
162. 00:12:19 so
163. 00:12:22 What were your initial thoughts on this because mine were uh, yes
164. 00:12:27 I'll stop there
165. 00:12:29 So, uh, I'm just looking it up
166. 00:12:33 Real quickly you're right as part of the bullet proof mindset mastery series of which there are 10 books
167. 00:12:39 Yes
168. 00:12:41 Which is a little bit
169. 00:12:43 surprising
170. 00:12:45 Yeah, I was surprised that you picked this one to be honest
171. 00:12:48 Uh
172. 00:12:49 For a couple of reasons number one. I know you've shared
173. 00:12:52 about struggles with adhd
174. 00:12:55 And the thing that came to mind right away
175. 00:12:58 Was the advice I saw in an atomic essay by jesse janderson
176. 00:13:03 Um about
177. 00:13:04 Eating the ice cream not the frog
178. 00:13:06 Right, right and jesse is
179. 00:13:10 Kind of the person when it comes to adhd productivity at the moment
180. 00:13:16 He's kind of leaned into that angle. He's got a adhd nerds podcast that he records now
181. 00:13:22 So, um
182. 00:13:25 He talks about it a lot shares his own experience a lot and is kind of becoming
183. 00:13:29 at least in my world the voice when it comes to this kind of stuff so that felt a little bit
184. 00:13:33 contradictory to
185. 00:13:35 the goal you had for
186. 00:13:37 picking this book in the first place
187. 00:13:39 the other thing and I I've dismissed this one pretty quickly because
188. 00:13:43 I haven't read all the books on procrastination. I don't know which ones are the good ones
189. 00:13:48 But my second thought was why didn't he pick eat that frog
190. 00:13:51 That's like the book on overcoming procrastination
191. 00:13:56 And then I'm and then I quickly dismissed that like not has got to be other good ones
192. 00:14:00 I'll give this one a shot and then further along we went I was like
193. 00:14:04 We should don't eat that frog
194. 00:14:06 Yeah, I'm with you. I am and I and I know that
195. 00:14:13 some of the rationale is that
196. 00:14:17 I know that if I did the whole eat the ice cream thing first
197. 00:14:22 Uh, I just eat ice cream all day long
198. 00:14:26 So I know that that actually doesn't work for me
199. 00:14:28 I mean it's good in principle, but it doesn't pan out
200. 00:14:32 And I won't get to
201. 00:14:35 the hard things at all. So I know that that works for
202. 00:14:37 some people. I know it doesn't
203. 00:14:40 for me and to be honest when it comes to eat the frog first scenario or
204. 00:14:46 What was his name? Tracy?
205. 00:14:49 Brian Tracy. Yep, Brian Tracy
206. 00:14:51 Uh when it comes to his book, I completely spaced on it to be honest
207. 00:14:55 I should not have spaced on it, but I did
208. 00:14:58 Well, I don't think it's necessarily wrong to pick something else instead of that because
209. 00:15:03 We've been in the productivity space long enough that you probably have heard
210. 00:15:09 All the the good bits from that book
211. 00:15:12 quoted by myself and others at this point
212. 00:15:15 There wouldn't be a whole lot new there. However, I'd argue there isn't a whole lot new in this one either
213. 00:15:21 Correct. Yeah
214. 00:15:23 I suspect we could run through this fairly quick
215. 00:15:25 Um, which I guess we should jump in so that our
216. 00:15:28 complaints are
217. 00:15:31 solidified for everybody listening
218. 00:15:33 Um, but okay, so do the hard things first
219. 00:15:37 Essentially that is the topic of the entire book of don't put things off do the hard things first so that you can get to the fun things
220. 00:15:45 Okay, you can put the book down and move on now like that's
221. 00:15:51 I feel like that's your your thing
222. 00:15:53 Um, I do have a lot of things in the outline here just because there's like these real quick things that we could
223. 00:15:58 Discuss but there's uh, this is a four part book
224. 00:16:02 Mike
225. 00:16:03 This is not a three part book plus an introduction. So if you want to count the introduction, that's five
226. 00:16:07 so bonus bonus, but we don't normally do it
227. 00:16:09 so
228. 00:16:12 the the thing that stands out to me here is that
229. 00:16:15 uh, there is a lot of like duplication of
230. 00:16:20 stances and he reiterates things quite a bit here, but uh, let's just jump into
231. 00:16:26 the very beginning of this so the introduction
232. 00:16:30 why we do hard things last and
233. 00:16:35 Basically, he's explaining what is procrastination putting things off and
234. 00:16:40 telling you that you need to do something different in order to succeed and
235. 00:16:45 this is where he originally starts to
236. 00:16:49 Show his colors and sharing other people's stuff because he starts off
237. 00:16:53 Not right away, but pretty close sharing some things from like Tim urban from weight but y.com
238. 00:16:59 and is just kind of reiterating some of the things that are said there and elsewhere, but
239. 00:17:06 Really, why do you do hard things last? Well, they're not fun. That's that's really the moral of the story there
240. 00:17:15 I will say that this was my favorite part of the entire book
241. 00:17:19 Nice
242. 00:17:24 so
243. 00:17:25 You mentioned he defines procrastination, which we've all heard before
244. 00:17:29 but he does a pretty good job of leaning into
245. 00:17:33 a unique angle on this, I think
246. 00:17:36 which is the
247. 00:17:40 Driving force behind procrastination and that's the prioritization of the short-term mood repair and emotional regulation over long-term
248. 00:17:47 achievement and well-being
249. 00:17:49 So the framing of that I feel is pretty solid
250. 00:17:53 Like you're doing this because you're trying to feel better now instead of being better
251. 00:17:59 in the future if I were to
252. 00:18:01 paraphrase that
253. 00:18:02 He talks about goals which exist in the future, but the problem is that you can only take action in the present
254. 00:18:10 And he talks about how we're hardwired to
255. 00:18:13 prioritize the the present
256. 00:18:16 with time inconsistency he he defines it
257. 00:18:19 That's the tendency of the brain to prefer immediate rewards over future rewards
258. 00:18:23 And so there's enough unique stuff there that I feel like this is a pretty good setup for the the rest of the book
259. 00:18:31 Um, however, I feel like that's about the extent of the original ideas in here
260. 00:18:38 Uh, the rest of it is packaged into these different parts because that is where his lists of lists
261. 00:18:45 are cleanly defined
262. 00:18:48 There are so many lists in this book that they lose their
263. 00:18:54 uh, that like normally you would create a list when you want to condense a whole lot of information into an approachable
264. 00:19:00 approachable
265. 00:19:03 You want it to be digestible by the person that's reading it. However, he goes from list to list to list to list to list to list
266. 00:19:09 And they quickly just all meld together
267. 00:19:12 Yeah, and and you can easily get lost in them
268. 00:19:15 And the other thing too is if you're going to make a list
269. 00:19:18 Of things that you want people to be able to remember
270. 00:19:22 You either have to come up with
271. 00:19:25 like two
272. 00:19:26 Of these lists and make them memorable and make them not too long
273. 00:19:30 and
274. 00:19:33 You know, if you let's go back to building a second brain, right
275. 00:19:36 uh, tjago forte had really two
276. 00:19:38 lists
277. 00:19:41 For you to remember para and code
278. 00:19:44 Right and and we could probably both sit here and explain to you how both of those are supposed to work
279. 00:19:48 even though it's been
280. 00:19:50 a month since we read it now and
281. 00:19:53 This is very different from that in that there are so many of these in there so long
282. 00:19:58 That I started off trying to like write some of these down, but
283. 00:20:03 Forget it. Did you manage to get these all written into your mind node?
284. 00:20:05 File did you try?
285. 00:20:08 sometimes I mean even the
286. 00:20:10 the
287. 00:20:11 Actual delivery of the list was kind of all over the place the table of contents is not really the chapters
288. 00:20:17 There's a whole section in there. I think it's the fears
289. 00:20:19 Where they will start they're listed in the table of contents, but they will start in the middle of a page
290. 00:20:24 So you have no idea where the chapters are and then some of the quote unquote chapters
291. 00:20:29 Like here are 11 things
292. 00:20:31 About this topic and then there's a list of three and then there's a list of four and then there's a list of three
293. 00:20:36 And then i'm like that's not 11
294. 00:20:38 Yes, so
295. 00:20:40 Some of these I was thoroughly confused by the ones that made sense. I jotted down
296. 00:20:45 But I did not try to I didn't spend a whole lot of time trying to
297. 00:20:50 Figure out how to fit the square peg in the round hole
298. 00:20:52 After a little while because I knew there was another list waiting for me in the next chapter
299. 00:20:58 Yeah, and the one that really bugged me was that the formatting for them was different too
300. 00:21:03 Like when he did have a solid like here are the 10 things
301. 00:21:07 Sometimes he would just list them as he wouldn't even put a number in front of them
302. 00:21:12 Sometimes they had a number in a dash sometimes they had a number and parentheses on each side of them like
303. 00:21:15 Yep
304. 00:21:16 If you're gonna have all these lists like at least be consistent with how you're going to
305. 00:21:20 Present them. So I think he sorely needed an editor
306. 00:21:25 I was going to say I will defend him because I think he self edited self published this
307. 00:21:29 Um, it was just a bit that yeah
308. 00:21:32 I noticed several typos which is the kind of thing that an editor would would find now as a fellow self editor self publisher
309. 00:21:39 I'm willing to give him a a break there
310. 00:21:42 Yeah, I do think if you really want to be taken seriously, you do get a dial that stuff in
311. 00:21:47 Hopefully by the time I write another book. I'll have an editor who can help me with that
312. 00:21:52 That would be great. But the other thing I want to mention here regarding the lists
313. 00:21:56 Um, you mentioned like building second brain has a couple of lists and that is true
314. 00:22:00 But I was also thinking through like what's the best application of a list like if I'm gonna
315. 00:22:06 Use a book that we've read as an example of this is how an author could clearly communicate a message and make sure that it sticks in somebody's brain
316. 00:22:14 The absolute best one that I can come up with is atomic habits by james clear
317. 00:22:20 Because he frames the four laws at the beginning
318. 00:22:25 And then he reframes them in the form of questions
319. 00:22:30 So you've got the same list but different angles on it
320. 00:22:35 For as you build out the rest of of your book
321. 00:22:39 And what that does is it kind of anchors like this is the the key takeaway from everything that you're reading here
322. 00:22:46 make sure that you remember these four things
323. 00:22:50 And uh, cue craving routine reward, you know mission accomplished
324. 00:22:54 Right and I feel like uh
325. 00:22:58 Scott could could take that same approach with some of this stuff. Maybe
326. 00:23:02 Maybe this book by the way is
327. 00:23:05 simply supposed to be the
328. 00:23:08 Like the definition of done for this project is he writes regularly and these are all blog posts
329. 00:23:14 And he put them together in a book for people to buy and in that case
330. 00:23:18 All my criticisms are invalid like if this is what he meant to do then that's fine
331. 00:23:23 But coming at it from the approach of the other books that we have read
332. 00:23:27 Yeah, one of these things is not like the other right
333. 00:23:31 Yeah, totally get it. It reminded me a little bit of uh
334. 00:23:35 What was the name of the book? Michael Hyatt wrote it and it was exactly that it was a conglomeration of his blog posts about
335. 00:23:42 Making uh an online presence and building a personal brand online
336. 00:23:48 Oh
337. 00:23:49 I remember that one. It was red and white
338. 00:23:53 Yes
339. 00:23:55 And I can't place what the name of a story brand, but that's not it
340. 00:23:59 No, but it it actually was just copy paste of a whole bunch of his blog posts and put together into a book
341. 00:24:06 And I remember picking it up thinking I was getting something that was like
342. 00:24:11 a rewritten
343. 00:24:13 Thought out put together a process for that but
344. 00:24:17 It was just copy paste off of a blog that I had read probably 90 percent of at that point
345. 00:24:23 It's like, okay. Well, that wasn't really worth it
346. 00:24:26 So it kind of turned me off to Michael Hyatt at that point
347. 00:24:29 Which is kind of sad because you know, he's a good dude, but platform university. That's what it was. There you go platform. Yep
348. 00:24:36 That's what it was
349. 00:24:38 But I don't know. I feel like this is similar in that. Yeah, these are definitely
350. 00:24:42 Short enough that they could be
351. 00:24:45 Blog posts for sure, but yeah, the introduction
352. 00:24:48 One of the stronger points probably
353. 00:24:51 Uh, then we get into part one
354. 00:24:53 Which is breaking fear minimizing excuses and the science of delaying gratification
355. 00:24:58 and
356. 00:25:00 This is this is where it gets messy as far as the
357. 00:25:03 flow of the book because
358. 00:25:06 It might be four chapters. Maybe it's five. Maybe it's nine nine. Yeah, I don't really know
359. 00:25:14 I'm not sure how how this
360. 00:25:16 is supposed to go, but
361. 00:25:19 uh, the one that stood out is the
362. 00:25:21 There's one called coping mechanisms and procrastination
363. 00:25:24 And the part of this that I thought was interesting was the the coping mechanisms list because you know, it's all lists
364. 00:25:31 and
365. 00:25:33 How many are in here? Can I actually find them? He has these numbered these ones are numbered
366. 00:25:37 And then he gives you solutions to each of them, but they are self isolation
367. 00:25:42 distraction
368. 00:25:43 comparison emotional distancing or minimizing
369. 00:25:46 denial avoidance
370. 00:25:49 Valorization or identification making big plans that never happen
371. 00:25:54 externalization self blame or rumination
372. 00:25:57 And he gives you a solution for each one of those
373. 00:26:00 Uh, the problem with it is there are probably about three or four of these that overlap with each other if you really dig into them
374. 00:26:05 Which gets to be a bit of an issue
375. 00:26:09 Because then the question is which one is it actually so then trying to follow through with it makes it a challenge
376. 00:26:14 but
377. 00:26:15 Regardless of that
378. 00:26:17 looking for the positive side of this
379. 00:26:19 uh
380. 00:26:21 These are all
381. 00:26:23 coping habits, I guess would be the way I would put it in that we have a tendency to find excuses for doing hard things
382. 00:26:30 And this is a very point blank list of ways that we do that
383. 00:26:36 Like we're we're hunting for reasons to not do the hard thing
384. 00:26:39 and if you feel like you have
385. 00:26:42 justified rationale for not doing something
386. 00:26:45 Uh, he does kind of quell that here. It's like, oh, no, mm-hmm. Nope
387. 00:26:50 And he does get into like he got to take responsibility for this later, but
388. 00:26:54 Uh, at least thought this list was helpful helping to identify some things
389. 00:26:58 I was wondering if you were going to say that these lists were helpful or if they were just not
390. 00:27:06 Uh, specific enough since like you said a lot of times there's overlap and it's a combination of factors
391. 00:27:12 Um, it feels very prescriptive
392. 00:27:16 I don't my first reaction when I read this was that there's no way things get categorized this cleanly
393. 00:27:24 And the solution that you're presenting makes it seem so simple and so effortless
394. 00:27:31 And uh, yeah, it didn't really sit super well for me
395. 00:27:35 I also
396. 00:27:37 I have to say that at this point in my life. I'm not the person he's writing this book for
397. 00:27:42 Uh, that is not to say that I have mastered procrastination or anything like that
398. 00:27:50 But a lot of these tactics I have heard before and so
399. 00:27:54 the
400. 00:27:56 Curse of knowledge, right? You forget what it's like to be a
401. 00:28:00 beginner and hear some of these things and be like, oh pomodoro timer. I should totally do that
402. 00:28:05 Oh my gosh that changed my life, right?
403. 00:28:07 I've kind of gone through that already and I
404. 00:28:09 Realize that that kind of works sometimes and I use it tactically, but it's not the thing that I I try to follow
405. 00:28:15 All the time that the system that sort of thing
406. 00:28:18 So I don't have a whole lot to add actually to these specific coping mechanisms other than to say in this chapter
407. 00:28:25 I did like one specific phrase that he used
408. 00:28:28 Which was run your race at your own pace
409. 00:28:31 one of the things that I mentioned
410. 00:28:34 Before we hit record I shared with you the slides that I put together for the max.comference
411. 00:28:38 And as I was putting that together
412. 00:28:41 There were a couple of tips in there like follow your own path and tell your story
413. 00:28:47 And you don't have to go pro all that kind of stuff because
414. 00:28:51 What happens is you tend to look at somebody who's doing something you want to do
415. 00:28:57 and then you feel like that's the blueprint. I'm going to follow that exactly
416. 00:29:01 and the most recent examples I have are people like David Sparks and
417. 00:29:07 John Syracuse, uh
418. 00:29:09 They're probably the most famous ones, but kind of the dream for every creator
419. 00:29:13 Right is like I can go independent people are going to pay me lots of money to make my art
420. 00:29:17 And if you can get to that point that is awesome. Absolutely go for it
421. 00:29:20 But uh if you aren't in a position where you can make that leap because you don't have
422. 00:29:27 Bunch people who are willing to pay you money for it yet
423. 00:29:29 That doesn't mean you shouldn't do it, you know if we we're taking that approach with bookworm
424. 00:29:34 We are just now selling ads 150 episodes in we have not made money from this podcast
425. 00:29:41 Is it therefore not worthwhile doing because they're not a good return on investment?
426. 00:29:47 I would argue no
427. 00:29:48 If we were going to try to feed our families off of it. Yeah, then that is that
428. 00:29:52 By that criteria. Yeah by that criteria. We should acquit a long time ago, but that's not yes
429. 00:29:58 That's not the goal. So there there are ways that you can combine these things
430. 00:30:02 And figure out the right mix for you and i've mentioned the Derek sivers that that balance
431. 00:30:09 Quote that he had like how to
432. 00:30:11 How to uh make good money and do what you love it's have a well-paying job and then do your art for the art
433. 00:30:19 Right and get the joy out of doing it and that was kind of
434. 00:30:22 That that was a light bulb moment for me. It's like oh well
435. 00:30:27 Yeah, I could do that and I don't have the pressure to make the whatever I create
436. 00:30:31 I don't have to do the
437. 00:30:32 That's you if I don't want to because I don't have to sell certain number of copies of it
438. 00:30:37 Pay the bills and all that kind of stuff but not having that pressure that would actually be kind of nice
439. 00:30:41 You know, I would have a little bit more more freedom a little bit more ownership over with the stuff that I make
440. 00:30:45 And ultimately I believe that in a long game
441. 00:30:47 That's the kind of thing that resonates with your audience anyways, so
442. 00:30:51 Long-winded way of yeah, you have to figure out your own direction
443. 00:30:56 And you need to figure out your own timeline and anytime you're going to try to do something
444. 00:31:02 Somebody else has done that should be a red flag. It's not going to work that exact same way again
445. 00:31:07 Yeah, you got to pave your own path exactly. I mean you can follow what somebody else is doing, but
446. 00:31:16 You got to put your own flavor on it. Just just copy pasting their stuff doesn't work
447. 00:31:20 Because everybody knows who it came from
448. 00:31:23 So yeah, pave your own path once he once you get through this he gets to
449. 00:31:28 an introduction to fear
450. 00:31:31 and
451. 00:31:34 He has this explanation of how fear is a big part of what stops us from doing hard things
452. 00:31:40 and that is what prevents us from
453. 00:31:45 moving forward and then
454. 00:31:47 We have a five chapter one chapter confusion point here
455. 00:31:51 where he has five fears listed in the table of contents and
456. 00:31:57 You could say it's all in one chapter because he's got them all
457. 00:32:02 In one place and they don't line anyway. We've talked about this
458. 00:32:06 The five fears that he has here are the fear of commitment
459. 00:32:10 the fear of the unknown
460. 00:32:13 the fear of discomfort
461. 00:32:15 the fear of decision-making and the fear of negative feedback and I feel like these are all
462. 00:32:20 Fairly obvious. I feel like these are all things that we've kind of talked about to some degree or another
463. 00:32:27 uh, the only one that I really felt like
464. 00:32:29 Discussing a little bit more was the fear of negative feedback
465. 00:32:33 Maybe that's because that's one of my bigger
466. 00:32:37 Fears, it's the one I resonate with more than than some of the others like fear of commitment
467. 00:32:43 No, I'm kind of a loyalist when it comes to
468. 00:32:45 That sort of thing
469. 00:32:47 Uh fear of the unknown. I dive into new stuff all the time
470. 00:32:51 I'll make people uncomfortable. So discomfort's not it
471. 00:32:54 Uh decision-making I do that all the time like that's that's not it at all
472. 00:32:58 So the negative feedback piece is the part where I tend to
473. 00:33:02 To stall out because I'm always just a little bit nervous about what somebody's gonna think of something when I put myself out there
474. 00:33:09 Like that that is a real thing. So if I have a fear of something that's creating the procrastination piece
475. 00:33:16 per his list
476. 00:33:19 That's here that would be
477. 00:33:21 it of these five now
478. 00:33:24 That said
479. 00:33:27 I feel like this is maybe an incomplete list
480. 00:33:30 Because this is a case where I feel like there's probably four or five more of these that could be put in but then at that point
481. 00:33:38 you're starting to consolidate them
482. 00:33:40 and it gets to be
483. 00:33:42 Confusing the fear of confusion and then I find that like then I'm just yeah going off the deep end
484. 00:33:51 So anyway, those are the five fears
485. 00:33:53 Those are five fears. Yes
486. 00:33:56 Yeah, those are five fears not the five fears good call
487. 00:34:00 Yeah, now the fear of negative feedback though the thing that comes to mind with that is uh
488. 00:34:05 something I addressed in the talk at max stock that I mentioned
489. 00:34:09 um
490. 00:34:11 That there will be people who will dislike what you make
491. 00:34:15 And so I definitely understand that fear. I have wrestled with this myself
492. 00:34:22 Uh, this is the reason that I don't look at reviews for anything that I make
493. 00:34:32 I uh, don't even check the for a while we were looking at the
494. 00:34:35 Like the apple podcast reviews. Yeah, is this gonna bring that up?
495. 00:34:39 You used to bring those up all the time about the firm reviews. Yeah, I did
496. 00:34:43 Uh, I stopped looking at those
497. 00:34:46 As well and it's kind of interesting because as we record this in a recent upgrade episode my curly and uh
498. 00:34:54 Jason snell kind of talked about that
499. 00:34:56 And Jason's like, oh, yeah, obviously you never go read those
500. 00:35:00 Yeah, yeah, and uh, it occurred to me that the people who are going to leave the comments on
501. 00:35:05 the uh podcast specifically, there's no investment in a podcast you just sign up download listen
502. 00:35:13 So
503. 00:35:14 I'm sure there are people who have stumbled upon the things that I make who if you understood my perspective my belief system
504. 00:35:20 You would never have chosen to download the podcast in the first place
505. 00:35:24 Right, so I'm not for you. That's fine
506. 00:35:27 But those are the people who are incentivized to go and leave
507. 00:35:30 a review
508. 00:35:32 It's not the people who are going to tell you what a great job you've done and how much
509. 00:35:38 That really meant to them
510. 00:35:41 Interestingly, I got to have a conversation with somebody at max stock who um a while ago when I wrote my my book
511. 00:35:50 I uh published it and I was looking at the reviews for that and I was watching the positive reviews roll in
512. 00:35:57 And that was great and then there was the one negative review that kept me up at night for about a week
513. 00:36:01 You know, I don't have an opportunity to have a conversation with this person even if I could I'm not going to change their mind
514. 00:36:07 They completely twisted some things that I said
515. 00:36:10 And I'm like well, it's not what I meant at all, but
516. 00:36:13 What are you gonna do with that? Right? So it's a one it just makes no sense
517. 00:36:17 Julia Cameron in the artist way it calls those people crazy makers
518. 00:36:21 Right
519. 00:36:23 And the people who are the most crazy making are people who know that they should be making something themselves, but they are stuck
520. 00:36:30 And so instead of trying to get unstuck themselves, they're gonna try to pull down everybody that they can
521. 00:36:36 That is comments and reviews in a nutshell
522. 00:36:40 You know that the people who are really gonna resonate with your your stuff
523. 00:36:44 Like the person that I mentioned that I got chance to talk to at max stock
524. 00:36:47 I have held on to an email that they sent me big long email
525. 00:36:53 Basically saying this is the this your book was the right thing at the right time for me and interestingly enough
526. 00:36:58 When I was being distracted by the the negative reviews and then eventually, you know, they they stopped coming in
527. 00:37:04 It's kind of like well, did this make any difference at all
528. 00:37:06 and uh, it was that that email
529. 00:37:10 that
530. 00:37:13 Was the right thing at the right time for me?
531. 00:37:15 So if you really want to encourage some of your favorite creators for number one thing you can do
532. 00:37:19 Is go monetarily support the stuff that they make
533. 00:37:22 Not just bookworm if there's somebody who makes something that you like and you want them to keep doing it
534. 00:37:26 Throw a couple bucks their way
535. 00:37:29 Vote with your dollars
536. 00:37:30 The second thing you can do is you can reach out to them directly not via these mass feedback mechanisms
537. 00:37:35 Which they are not checking because the minute that they do
538. 00:37:39 they're going to
539. 00:37:42 Instantly lose the motivation to make the thing that you like
540. 00:37:44 And thanks from miro for your comment at exactly the right time. Yeah
541. 00:37:52 So if you have it, you can also join us live and leave your comments while we're having the conversation. It's super fun
542. 00:37:57 So yes, I I'm with you like the negative feedback thing is one that I know that
543. 00:38:01 I've
544. 00:38:03 Like that's a fear that I have and yet
545. 00:38:05 it's it's a weird dissonance for me because it's
546. 00:38:09 a thing where
547. 00:38:11 yes, I tend to be
548. 00:38:13 Nervous about the negative feedback, but at the same time
549. 00:38:16 I tend to
550. 00:38:20 Ignore it a lot
551. 00:38:22 so
552. 00:38:24 It's absolutely paramount that I don't go read reviews and don't check numbers and such like do your thing
553. 00:38:30 But the rest of it come like that's that's what I really have to do
554. 00:38:34 But I still want to see the numbers sometimes and and well see that's that's the thing is
555. 00:38:40 If you don't go looking for it in the wrong
556. 00:38:46 Places when it comes to you you can say yeah, I know that stuff's out there and then just dismiss it
557. 00:38:51 Right, but if you're going into those reviews and things look expecting to get the warm fuzzies from all the people who love your stuff
558. 00:39:00 Like that's that's gonna be mad the wrong thing. Yep
559. 00:39:03 Well, he has a couple chapters here at the end of this first part
560. 00:39:07 one of those is the 10 reasons we delay doing the work
561. 00:39:13 And he doesn't put numbers on any of these so it's just the headings
562. 00:39:18 That are in here. There's only one of these that really caught my attention
563. 00:39:22 And one of the this is so weird
564. 00:39:26 One of the reasons he puts in here for delaying doing the work is ADHD
565. 00:39:33 That is one of the reasons like what
566. 00:39:37 Okay
567. 00:39:40 He may just gonna sound like he's been diagnosed with it, but I don't think yeah explicitly said that anywhere correct
568. 00:39:47 And yet I I don't know I got so confused by this one. It's like, okay. Why is that
569. 00:39:54 considered a reason and it's also the one where he has no real
570. 00:39:59 Information on it is just a here's the thing that might be causing this visit your local doctor read this book
571. 00:40:08 And learn more about it at this web address
572. 00:40:10 Basically he punted that one
573. 00:40:13 And didn't take it on but felt it was important enough to stick it in there
574. 00:40:17 So I was just a bit perturbed over that that's all it was and I wanted to point it out. That's all
575. 00:40:23 That is this book in a nutshell though
576. 00:40:27 It is it is but that was the first point. So this is on what pages this 65
577. 00:40:33 That was the point at which I was a bit
578. 00:40:38 Like I came to that realization that he's just going to bring things up and then not go into them
579. 00:40:44 Like that's that's kind of what I
580. 00:40:47 Discovered that same page also has one of your favorite topics on it though. Mike. Did you catch this?
581. 00:40:53 I know I will get the book and you're not I didn't write it down. So what is it? So this is where he mentions smart goals
582. 00:40:59 Like you need to have like one of the reasons this is the the next reason right after ad
583. 00:41:06 One of the reasons we delay doing the work is abstract or unclear goals
584. 00:41:10 And he says that putting things like get into shape or begin exercising is too vague
585. 00:41:15 Instead you need to get very specific on what you want. I'll quote him here
586. 00:41:20 I want to lose five kilograms in the next 60 days and to achieve this goal
587. 00:41:25 I will work out three times a week on monday, wednesday and friday in addition
588. 00:41:28 I will stop eating sugar based snacks and do 20 minutes of cardio per day end quote
589. 00:41:35 Is that how you write your goals out, Mike?
590. 00:41:37 exactly
591. 00:41:39 Not exactly
592. 00:41:43 Anyway goal setting uh, but again he he lays that out like this is how you need to lay out your goals
593. 00:41:51 But then he just moves on moves on so
594. 00:41:55 Just gonna skip over it apparently
595. 00:41:58 So many issues with that
596. 00:42:00 um
597. 00:42:02 The biggest one I think is the fact that
598. 00:42:05 You think you're going to nail all of the variables by setting that smart goal right at the beginning
599. 00:42:12 That kind of gets into the whole book that we read on scrum and
600. 00:42:17 The cascading
601. 00:42:20 Waterfall method of project management. He's applying that to his personal life here with these these smart goals, but
602. 00:42:26 Yeah
603. 00:42:29 I don't know
604. 00:42:30 That the point below the point here
605. 00:42:32 I think you're that I jot down in my notes where I think that comes from is the abstract or unclear goals
606. 00:42:36 I didn't write down the smart stuff, but basically I think what he's getting at here
607. 00:42:40 Is that you have to be able to see it before you can achieve it
608. 00:42:44 You have to have a vision of what you're moving towards and I think I agree with that
609. 00:42:50 so
610. 00:42:51 I'll cut him a break there, but
611. 00:42:54 Yeah, smart goals aren't the way to uh
612. 00:42:56 to do that
613. 00:42:58 Let's move on to
614. 00:43:00 Part two. Oh goody
615. 00:43:02 Are you excited about this?
616. 00:43:05 I love me a 22 part system
617. 00:43:07 Uh, I one of the notes I wrote down before I started reading it
618. 00:43:16 Uh was did I pick a system book?
619. 00:43:19 Like I wrote that down. I was like I don't I did not intend to do that if I did
620. 00:43:25 And it was because he has these steps in here. I did not realize how many steps
621. 00:43:29 That he had here until I started diving into it and looking through table contents and stuff, but
622. 00:43:34 Uh, he had this is called part two practical steps for doing the hard things first
623. 00:43:39 And like Mike said, this is a 22 step
624. 00:43:42 Thing that he has here and I say thing because it's not a system
625. 00:43:48 It's not a process and he doesn't even tell you you need to do all of these steps. He just says these are the steps
626. 00:43:53 Okay, so but in my head steps come one after another you can't just skip around you have to follow the steps
627. 00:44:01 But exactly two of them. I don't know. It's weird
628. 00:44:05 So I picked five out of these 22 to discuss
629. 00:44:09 The first of which is actually step one because this one I actually kind of get
630. 00:44:15 Uh take total ownership for behavior change
631. 00:44:19 And I think this is actually true. It's like personal responsibility, right?
632. 00:44:23 You you can't
633. 00:44:25 Explain away your actions by something somebody else did or said like it's up to you to make the call
634. 00:44:31 what you're going to do
635. 00:44:34 but
636. 00:44:36 I guess that's as far as it goes
637. 00:44:38 This is the uh the best step out of the whole thing to be honest
638. 00:44:44 Starting with yeah, I mean this is this is the place to start. So this is the right step one. Yes
639. 00:44:53 Um, it it derails from from there in my opinion when I was reading through these I did not
640. 00:44:58 Look back at the table of contents to see how many steps there were
641. 00:45:03 And so I read this step one. I'm like, okay. I'm on board with you step two make your list of things to get done
642. 00:45:09 Well, that's a weird
643. 00:45:11 Framing but okay step three decide you're doing it now
644. 00:45:13 Okay step four write it down five times. I don't know it's the next one you want to talk about
645. 00:45:18 And then by the time I got to step five time block five minutes start doing it. I was like
646. 00:45:23 uh
647. 00:45:25 You're drifting and how many of these are there? Yes
648. 00:45:28 22 are you kidding me?
649. 00:45:31 Like like you said so step four is write it down five times
650. 00:45:35 Which was strange to me like why do I need to write it five times?
651. 00:45:39 Like I don't understand that like I get like stick it in your brain
652. 00:45:42 but
653. 00:45:44 If i'm writing it down five times like I would do that for something i'm trying to remember without having to the need for the paper
654. 00:45:50 Then I'm writing it on too like that so if you're using omni focus do you create five tasks?
655. 00:45:55 Yeah, that's I mean it doesn't or even if you've got it in a note system like are you gonna put it in there five times?
656. 00:46:02 Well, then it's this copy paste and it didn't actually have the effect of
657. 00:46:04 You know writing it. I don't know it seemed weird. So that step was weird to me
658. 00:46:10 step five time block five minutes to start doing it
659. 00:46:14 As an ADHD person, I kind of get this one
660. 00:46:19 but it has one glaring flaw
661. 00:46:21 in that
662. 00:46:24 If I time block okay, so let me back up if I say i'm going to take five minutes to start a task
663. 00:46:29 Like i'm only going to work on this for five minutes
664. 00:46:31 That usually will work in helping me do the thing I don't want to do because that is not what he's suggesting though
665. 00:46:39 No, it's not
666. 00:46:41 But that is that is what works for me like okay
667. 00:46:44 I know if I can just say i'm going to take five minutes and i'm going to start this thing
668. 00:46:49 I don't have to work
669. 00:46:51 Longer than five minutes, but I can't work less than five minutes like that will work for me
670. 00:46:55 I will just do five minutes. Yep. I am a hundred percent on board with this
671. 00:46:59 Yes, but setting aside five minutes to to start doing it
672. 00:47:05 like the way that he has that frame is like well
673. 00:47:09 I immediately think five minutes
674. 00:47:13 I could put a lot of five-minute blocks in an hour
675. 00:47:17 Like that is where my brain went and i'm like, huh?
676. 00:47:20 So it doesn't add up. I don't think it actually works because I feel like that's what he's saying
677. 00:47:24 But he doesn't spill it out that way
678. 00:47:26 Well, he uses the term time blocks. So
679. 00:47:28 That is what I thought of as well is you are planning your day in five-minute increments correct. Yes, which is
680. 00:47:36 Madening that that's madness. Who does that and if you did do that you're going to be upset
681. 00:47:44 Within the first 15 minutes of your day because it's not going to go
682. 00:47:48 According to your schedule. I have a pretty autonomous schedule
683. 00:47:53 And I don't even think I could do this
684. 00:47:56 I know there's no way you could do this based on the reason action
685. 00:48:01 I was trying to get you to time block
686. 00:48:03 So if you want the quickest way to decide that time blocking is not worth it
687. 00:48:09 Follow this
688. 00:48:13 Because it's not going to work for you. I don't think this could work for anybody
689. 00:48:16 but
690. 00:48:18 And he's got a
691. 00:48:20 Where's this at? I opened up the thing, but it's
692. 00:48:25 It's a thing that he does like he sets aside a five-minute time block
693. 00:48:31 But he even says he was like don't stop after five minutes if you want to keep going
694. 00:48:37 He's like well, it's not a time block then. Yep
695. 00:48:40 It's actually the next one I wanted to talk about which is step 15 because I skipped straight from five to 15 because I was
696. 00:48:46 Frustrated by the ten in the middle
697. 00:48:49 But 15 is begin with one small action like it's kind of the same thing like you're going to do something like if it's five minutes
698. 00:48:56 It's a small task
699. 00:48:58 So then that can get the momentum going
700. 00:49:01 That makes more sense than saying i'm only going to give myself five minutes
701. 00:49:06 But it's not a time block if you're saying that you're allowed to go beyond that
702. 00:49:11 At least I wouldn't think of it that way. Maybe I don't understand time blocking and this is why it's always failed for me
703. 00:49:15 But this is not it like this is you know, do the one small thing
704. 00:49:21 And then that can give me the momentum to get the rest of it done
705. 00:49:24 And then I usually find out that the project or whatever is i'm doing is not anywhere near as big as I thought it was and not as
706. 00:49:29 Nearly as overwhelming as I thought it was and i'll actually get it done much quicker than I thought I would
707. 00:49:33 but
708. 00:49:35 That's different than time blocking. That's not the same at all at least to me
709. 00:49:39 I agree with you
710. 00:49:42 Number 16 is the one that I wanted to talk about oh sure
711. 00:49:47 Adopt the 80/20 principle and then he gives a whole bunch of bullet point examples of the 80/20 principle
712. 00:49:53 And most of them you've heard before
713. 00:49:55 But I got to share this gem from page 34
714. 00:50:01 20 percent of the students will score higher than 80 percent of the class
715. 00:50:06 Solid right there
716. 00:50:09 But would it be true that 25 percent of the students would score higher than 75 percent of the class
717. 00:50:14 Or 80 percent of the class will score less than 20 percent of the class
718. 00:50:19 The point that he's trying to make is that there's a small percentage of activities that provide a disproportionate amount of value
719. 00:50:27 But by using that percent that score higher than the other percent you completely invalidate that argument
720. 00:50:33 50 percent of the students will score higher than 50 percent of the class you're literally just cutting it down the middle
721. 00:50:41 This is how math works Mike
722. 00:50:45 Oh
723. 00:50:49 This is fun
724. 00:50:51 Okay, so that was step 16. What else is in here? What have I got step 17?
725. 00:50:56 I put I had to put this one in you know I had to put this one in
726. 00:51:00 Step 17 is schedule a one-hour weekly review session
727. 00:51:04 This is this is a thing and inside of this he recommends taking like a was it five-minute daily review
728. 00:51:12 as well and
729. 00:51:15 Like I've tried these things in the past and it it never goes away. I think it will and
730. 00:51:20 I get his intention, but
731. 00:51:22 a weekly review like
732. 00:51:25 What I've run into is that the concept of a scheduled recurring review period
733. 00:51:30 is too rigid
734. 00:51:34 for
735. 00:51:35 The flexibility of life like that's that's what I run into if your weeks are all identical like roughly
736. 00:51:41 Then sure this could work out well, but some projects need more touch points than others
737. 00:51:47 Like if you're always doing the same types of projects then sure even video work like
738. 00:51:54 the scale of the video dictates
739. 00:51:56 how
740. 00:51:58 Long it's going to take and the weeks can be different so
741. 00:52:01 A weekly review is in a scheduled review period is not something I find helpful. It has more
742. 00:52:08 I find it has a lot more value to notice like when you have an unknown or a pain point
743. 00:52:14 A pinch point or the the bottom of a funnel if you will
744. 00:52:18 where you're not real sure what the
745. 00:52:21 Decision is you need to make about what's coming up next or what project comes next
746. 00:52:24 That's when the review needs to happen
747. 00:52:26 If you can't make a decision correctly or cleanly that's when you need to do the review
748. 00:52:32 And I don't think it needs to be an hour most of the time when I've done full system reviews
749. 00:52:36 Uh, I usually get them done in five ten minutes like this is not
750. 00:52:41 A big hairy process, but he makes it sound like a big hairy process just like david allen
751. 00:52:46 super fun
752. 00:52:48 I feel like that's at least a good tactic that uh that you could use
753. 00:52:51 I want to talk about step 18 control your distractions and manage shiny object syndrome
754. 00:52:56 using the static method
755. 00:52:58 Which sounds catchy right static method. Yep. All right. Let me just tell you what this stands for stop
756. 00:53:05 think
757. 00:53:07 argue the pros and cons
758. 00:53:09 Stay as you are for 24 hours
759. 00:53:12 revisit the decision in 48 hours
760. 00:53:15 Complete what i'm doing first
761. 00:53:19 And if you're thinking to yourself that doesn't equal static
762. 00:53:22 You are correct. You are correct. Yeah, it took a lot of creative license
763. 00:53:27 In grabbing a letter from anywhere in that first word to create this acronym
764. 00:53:32 Which completely defeats the purpose of the acronym
765. 00:53:37 Staserc staserc. I think is what it is
766. 00:53:40 Stop think argue stay revisit complete. Yeah, that's both static good job
767. 00:53:47 Yeah, this should have just been a six point list and like this is what I follow
768. 00:53:50 This is my method
769. 00:53:52 Don't try to name it cleverly with this mnemonic
770. 00:53:55 If it doesn't line up. This is
771. 00:53:58 square peg round hole
772. 00:54:00 Or like look up some synonyms, right?
773. 00:54:04 Like stop think argue stay has all sorts of synonyms like surely you could find something that
774. 00:54:09 Like
775. 00:54:12 Basically what that tells me is like yeah, it's cool to do the acronym thing you could do that but
776. 00:54:17 Just my experience if you take the time
777. 00:54:20 Like you could find the words that do what you want like you can you can make that happen
778. 00:54:26 This is somebody who didn't have an editor and who is just trying to do things quickly
779. 00:54:30 Yeah, that's what this is
780. 00:54:33 And that's the hard part with that's what clicks for him like that's that's awesome, but the way it's packaged in the book
781. 00:54:40 I don't know if he's writing it for himself. That's one thing if he's writing it for somebody else
782. 00:54:45 This is not the way that you get someone to retain this right so
783. 00:54:49 Just my two cents any other of these steps you want to talk about
784. 00:54:54 No, let's get out of here
785. 00:54:57 Some of them are quite funny like we've talked about okay, so part three
786. 00:55:01 breaking negative behavior
787. 00:55:04 Uh, there are three chapters here, I think and they are breaking your negative
788. 00:55:10 Yeah
789. 00:55:13 Least structure. I think we've had maybe ever in a book
790. 00:55:18 breaking your negative conditioning breaking anxiety and overwhelm breaking your limiting self-talk
791. 00:55:25 and
792. 00:55:28 We could cover each of these independently, but I think it'd be more fun to do it in
793. 00:55:32 Mass because these are what one the first one's one page long
794. 00:55:37 Yeah, they're within five six pages
795. 00:55:41 first one being one, but basically
796. 00:55:44 Like this is this is a reiteration of some fears and solutions that he talked about back in part one
797. 00:55:50 That's that's really what this is like so you have patterns that you repeat all the time negative conditioning
798. 00:55:57 That you have taught yourself to to do some of those could be
799. 00:56:01 Leading you to anxiety and overwhelm, which is some of my deal right
800. 00:56:05 Uh, and then some of those could also lead you to the limiting self-talk
801. 00:56:09 Which we talked about in soundtracks with
802. 00:56:11 John a cuff like that is a big part of this now
803. 00:56:15 I will say that breaking your limiting self-talk that
804. 00:56:19 Going all the way back to like the introduction like the introduction had a strong point. I feel like this one may actually be
805. 00:56:25 Super helpful for some people again. We've had entire books about this
806. 00:56:31 and and would probably recommend that
807. 00:56:34 Way before we would recommend this particular chapter
808. 00:56:38 but
809. 00:56:39 This one I feel like does have some good points like whatever it is that you're repeatedly telling yourself
810. 00:56:43 That's what's going to come true if you're always telling yourself you're a bad procrastinator. Guess what?
811. 00:56:47 You're focusing on being a bad procrastinator
812. 00:56:50 Like this is the whole whatever you repeat in your mind that tends to be the thing you focus on or the the thing you focus on is what you lean towards
813. 00:56:57 If you're telling yourself to stay out of the left lane while you're driving and you're constantly telling yourself stay out of the left lane
814. 00:57:03 Stay out of the left lane stay out of the left lane. Eventually you're going to drift into the left lane
815. 00:57:07 That's just what your eyes are focused on because of that. Yep. So that when I get like
816. 00:57:13 The whole what you tell yourself like you got to watch that you got to be careful with it
817. 00:57:18 Yeah, that gets into the whole topic of visualization, which
818. 00:57:22 I don't think he really talks about in this book, but it's hard to remember because they're
819. 00:57:28 Yeah, but there are lots of topics in here that there are whole books written on and and he
820. 00:57:33 He can't cover them in depth
821. 00:57:36 that it's kind of interesting because um
822. 00:57:39 I feel like everything I've read on procrastination this book and eat that frog
823. 00:57:45 Uh, and maybe I've read some other stuff and it just never jumped to the top of mind
824. 00:57:49 I'm sure I've read other things on the topic of procrastination
825. 00:57:52 But it seems like it always ends up talking about these ancillary things
826. 00:57:58 Like one of the things he mentions here on breaking anxiety and overwhelm is practice deep breathing meditation
827. 00:58:04 and I focused on that one because I just
828. 00:58:08 re-listened to
829. 00:58:10 Chris Bealee's audible original how to train your mind, which is all about the productivity benefits of mindfulness meditation
830. 00:58:17 Which is sort of what he's talking about here. Not exactly the same
831. 00:58:20 Chris does a phenomenal job in that three hour audible book
832. 00:58:24 and that's not a long audible book
833. 00:58:29 but it is
834. 00:58:32 significantly more in depth than
835. 00:58:34 The things that scott alan is talking about here and thinking back to the brine tracy book
836. 00:58:39 Also, I feel like that was a bunch of tactics as well in order to defeat procrastination
837. 00:58:45 Maybe procrastination is just one of those topics that doesn't lend itself well to
838. 00:58:50 Diving deep on on something, but it is really annoying to hear somebody say like oh, yeah
839. 00:58:56 Here's a really complex topic two sentences on it go figure it out for yourself
840. 00:59:01 Yeah, and I think it's partially because
841. 00:59:04 procrastination is so unique to each person
842. 00:59:09 And it's extremely unique depending on the task that you're procrastinating on
843. 00:59:16 Sure, I think that's part of it
844. 00:59:18 Like I have my tendencies and I have certain types of tasks that I will procrastinate much sooner than others
845. 00:59:24 But some of them I'll jump to right away
846. 00:59:27 Like it just depends and it can depend on how much sleep I got last night
847. 00:59:31 Like it's so variable that I feel like it's not something that you can easily
848. 00:59:36 Write a book about or discuss like it's so dependent on the person in the situation that you can't
849. 00:59:43 Especially in two sentences. You can't can't nail it down
850. 00:59:46 So you mentioned you have your tendencies are there four of them
851. 00:59:49 Oh, I just have one
852. 00:59:52 Okay
853. 00:59:53 Maybe that's maybe that's what we need is the more tendencies as it pertains to procrastination
854. 00:59:58 What is your procrastination type? Yeah
855. 01:00:01 Yeah, so that's part three and then we get to part four
856. 01:00:08 uh, which is do hard things every day and
857. 01:00:13 There are what is what is this a theoretical six chapters?
858. 01:00:19 Maybe seven depending on how you count the final thoughts thing
859. 01:00:22 Uh, this is do hard things for your health do hard things around your home
860. 01:00:26 Do the hard things around your workspace do the hard things in your personal relationships
861. 01:00:30 Do hard things for your finances and then final thoughts on doing the hard things first
862. 01:00:34 and
863. 01:00:36 This is this is basically examples of doing hard things things that are hard
864. 01:00:41 That you're going to do
865. 01:00:43 That's what this is
866. 01:00:45 And doing them in prioritize the order. Yeah, you may say doing them first
867. 01:00:50 I
868. 01:00:52 I I guess this is just a list of things
869. 01:00:58 To help you identify what the hard things are that way you know what it is you're fighting against
870. 01:01:04 I think I think that's what is intent is here
871. 01:01:08 It's just that it's just you know examples of hard things. That's that's really I mean
872. 01:01:14 That's what I put in the show notes basically examples of doing this
873. 01:01:19 I don't know what else to tell you about it. Just like you know, it's hard to exercise the first time
874. 01:01:23 So you're procrastinating on it. Why?
875. 01:01:26 He doesn't really go into that, but
876. 01:01:29 He already did he has a 22 step process for you to overcome that
877. 01:01:33 um
878. 01:01:37 But yes, there are examples here. That's that's really all it is. That's all I got out of it
879. 01:01:41 I
880. 01:01:43 This is my second favorite section of the book. I feel uh, I feel approach is the right one
881. 01:01:49 Uh, I agree with you
882. 01:01:51 primary for the most part with uh
883. 01:01:54 What what it actually reads as yeah, which is like oh, yeah, there's hard things in this area and there's hard things in that area and there's hard things in that area
884. 01:02:02 Yep
885. 01:02:04 It would be interesting in an alternate universe
886. 01:02:07 this book and the other nine in the series are related
887. 01:02:12 in the form of
888. 01:02:15 helping you live a life
889. 01:02:19 of intention
890. 01:02:20 and one of the first things you do in that is you identify the areas of your life that are important to you
891. 01:02:27 and then
892. 01:02:29 You do something like a wheel of life exercise to reach your current satisfaction with those different areas
893. 01:02:34 You pick the areas that are low and then you talk about this is what doing hard things in this area looks like
894. 01:02:42 And this is the benefit that you're going to get as a result from that
895. 01:02:47 I would also take the do hard things for your health. He has some questions here. I'm obviously biased towards questions
896. 01:02:54 I love me some questions
897. 01:02:56 Personal Socrates great book because of all the questions
898. 01:03:00 Yep, but what do I want my healthy life to look like? Why is my health important to me?
899. 01:03:05 What is my health plan what habit sabotage my health plan? What are my health strengths and weaknesses?
900. 01:03:09 What will this food do for my health? These are all great
901. 01:03:11 Not as in like follow this checklist when you are in this situation
902. 01:03:17 But just planting the seed of like hey consider some of these things and ask yourself some of these questions
903. 01:03:22 Because when you ask the right questions, maybe you'll get some better answers
904. 01:03:26 However, those questions don't exist for the other areas
905. 01:03:30 I do think there is some untapped potential in some of these sections
906. 01:03:38 So one section in particular that challenged me
907. 01:03:43 Is the do hard things around your home because he talks about how he tends to avoid
908. 01:03:47 the home improvement projects
909. 01:03:50 That's me
910. 01:03:53 So I actually have an action item
911. 01:03:55 To make a list of the things to fix around my house
912. 01:03:59 Whether those are like big remodeling projects that I'm going to hire out because someone else can do that and I don't know how
913. 01:04:03 Or just I got to change these light bulbs and I've been dragging my feet on it
914. 01:04:08 I actually want to to do that
915. 01:04:11 But there could have been a whole lot more around that
916. 01:04:17 I feel I don't have anything specific with that
917. 01:04:20 that section
918. 01:04:23 But when you think about the hard things in your personal relationships and finances specifically
919. 01:04:28 I feel there is some
920. 01:04:30 Opportunity there to give give people some more clarifying questions to help them identify
921. 01:04:37 What are the areas that are kind of
922. 01:04:40 Holding them back
923. 01:04:41 I kind of accidentally stumbled into that one about the hard things around your home
924. 01:04:45 Because the way he was describing it I could relate to that 100%
925. 01:04:50 But I feel like if he had a little bit more time and a little bit more creativity
926. 01:04:55 He could apply it in a couple different vectors and
927. 01:04:59 Make it make that same kind of reaction happen a lot more often in this section that makes sense
928. 01:05:07 Yeah, because that to be honest that one is the one that hit me the least
929. 01:05:10 Because I do massive remodel projects all the time. Yes, you do you've got a
930. 01:05:15 Woodbin storage thing that you made just to store your
931. 01:05:19 Extra wood scrap wood yep
932. 01:05:21 I had to burn a bunch of wood too because I just had so many of these little tiny things
933. 01:05:25 I had kept that wouldn't fit in this big massive storage thing I built so
934. 01:05:29 Yeah, I the whole home thing
935. 01:05:32 didn't strike me
936. 01:05:35 At all I understand that that is a lot of people though
937. 01:05:39 like the the concept of like
938. 01:05:42 If I if I mentioned something like taking out load bearing walls and putting beams in
939. 01:05:47 like
940. 01:05:49 Most of the population says who do I hire to do that?
941. 01:05:52 Like that is that is the first reaction most people have
942. 01:05:56 Uh, whereas my wife and I said, oh, well, okay
943. 01:05:59 Well, tear the ceiling down tear the wall out move all the electrical and then take those out and put beams in sure
944. 01:06:04 That's fine. We're not all crazy like you Joe be like yeah, we're insane. Absolutely insane
945. 01:06:09 Don't recommend that for most people. There are some people who are fairly handy that I don't recommend doing that too. So
946. 01:06:16 It it's not a thing for me, but I know that
947. 01:06:19 There are things around like health like that one struck me given my history with
948. 01:06:25 Lyme disease and mold and such
949. 01:06:27 Uh, you know that that one does stand out
950. 01:06:30 Uh things with relationships personal relationships
951. 01:06:33 You know, everybody's got some relationships somewhere that's strained in some form it seems
952. 01:06:37 And uh, so I mean there are hard things in those areas those resonate with me quite a bit more
953. 01:06:43 but
954. 01:06:45 I don't know that I need
955. 01:06:47 These lists and these examples to get there like I can get there pretty quick
956. 01:06:51 Exactly, but see that's the thing like I didn't write down anything for do the hard things personal relationships do the hard things for your finances
957. 01:06:57 Literally like that's just the only point in that whole branch in my mind node file
958. 01:07:02 There could be some additional stuff there that would be helpful for me
959. 01:07:07 I mean the entire book is a list of lists and do this in this order essentially
960. 01:07:11 Right, but not the health section
961. 01:07:14 Which is good because he can't say well you need to run three miles every day and you have to do a hundred push-ups
962. 01:07:21 And you have to eat these things. You can't be that prescriptive. So what does he do? He asks a bunch of questions
963. 01:07:28 I wish you would have asked those questions throughout the rest of the book
964. 01:07:32 Correct or at least the rest of the areas in this fourth part here
965. 01:07:37 So because what that does like what will this food do for my health?
966. 01:07:42 You don't have to tell somebody don't eat that chocolate bar. You need an apple instead
967. 01:07:46 You just give them that question and they if they ask the question they arrive at their own conclusion
968. 01:07:50 Yeah, the chocolate's not good for me or whatever it is, you know that you you tend to
969. 01:07:55 Your guilty pleasure because he talks about you know going all the way back to the beginning
970. 01:08:00 The reason we do stuff in the short term is because it is a release valve essentially. Well
971. 01:08:06 when it comes to health and in your
972. 01:08:09 eating habits that absolutely
973. 01:08:11 applies, but
974. 01:08:14 If you ask the right question, you don't have to tell people
975. 01:08:16 Don't do this and do this
976. 01:08:19 Which is what the rest of the book is
977. 01:08:21 And I find the questions are a lot more relatable to me and I want to engage with those a lot more than when you tell me to follow
978. 01:08:30 Things in a specific order
979. 01:08:32 Okay, I I kind of want to be done
980. 01:08:34 Do you have more do you want to say?
981. 01:08:38 Nah, that's good
982. 01:08:40 Okay
983. 01:08:42 uh
984. 01:08:42 action items
985. 01:08:44 I
986. 01:08:45 I have a qualified action item
987. 01:08:47 This this may or may not be one and it starts with a question to you which is
988. 01:08:52 dangerous territory whenever we're
989. 01:08:57 Talking about joe's and action items and then relaying to mic but
990. 01:09:00 If I were to
991. 01:09:04 Set aside time
992. 01:09:07 Every day to be available to people that's slightly more than half of the day. Does time blocking make sense
993. 01:09:15 Or is that
994. 01:09:19 Not enough to warrant doing it if we're only talking about three hours or so
995. 01:09:25 I would say that it's still worth doing and that's actually the ideal way to do it
996. 01:09:30 because
997. 01:09:32 if you're coming from
998. 01:09:34 not
999. 01:09:36 Not feeling like you can provide intention to your day
1000. 01:09:39 And the gold standard is I want to provide intention for every hour of my day eight hours for a working day or 16 hours
1001. 01:09:46 If if you want to do your your personal life as well like every hour of your day like I do
1002. 01:09:51 That's a big leap
1003. 01:09:53 And so being able to say well, I'm in a time block
1004. 01:09:56 The mornings, but the afternoons whatever happens happens
1005. 01:10:01 You don't have to feel bad about things going off the rails there. You don't have to even
1006. 01:10:05 Father to plan that out
1007. 01:10:08 That is uh making it a lot more attainable. It's kind of uh
1008. 01:10:13 Level one
1009. 01:10:17 And uh, that's
1010. 01:10:18 100% the the place to start with this
1011. 01:10:21 Wasn't the answer as after but i'll take it
1012. 01:10:26 Uh
1013. 01:10:28 I'll try answer is yeah, it's worth it
1014. 01:10:30 I'll try it. Okay, and I say that because
1015. 01:10:34 I'm in the middle of like changing up some timing
1016. 01:10:39 Of when I have people coming to help me do things
1017. 01:10:42 and I think
1018. 01:10:45 It makes it possible to where I could
1019. 01:10:49 Potentially have the mornings to where I could devote myself and kind of seclude myself to do two to three hours worth of
1020. 01:10:56 Scheduled work at those times and nail that down distraction-free
1021. 01:11:02 Uh, and then allow myself to be quote unquote distracted
1022. 01:11:07 All afternoon because I like part of my job is being available to people
1023. 01:11:12 I'm aware of that
1024. 01:11:13 So I can't be completely unavailable all day long. That's
1025. 01:11:16 Part of the issue with it. So i'm trying to figure out how that could pan out and this comes from
1026. 01:11:23 Really not anything in this
1027. 01:11:26 book
1028. 01:11:27 Uh, it comes from the collection of everything he's talking about and
1029. 01:11:31 He's got so many of these like rapid fire tips
1030. 01:11:35 That it just kind of triggered that so
1031. 01:11:37 I'll attribute it to the book somehow
1032. 01:11:42 Yeah, so I wouldn't actually call it distraction. I would
1033. 01:11:46 borrow terms from
1034. 01:11:48 Chris Bailey and hyper focus and what you're scheduling for your three hours. That's your hyper focus time
1035. 01:11:54 Yep, and then the other stuff. That's your scatter focus time
1036. 01:11:58 Scatter focus
1037. 01:12:01 Do you remember how you define those two? Yep. I remember now. Yep
1038. 01:12:05 Bouncy bouncy
1039. 01:12:09 Exactly, but if you're gonna try to hyper focus eight hours and day, it's not gonna work anyways. So
1040. 01:12:13 No, no, it's somewhere around three to four people can pull off in a day. Yep. So if you could do that for three hours
1041. 01:12:20 You're probably a pretty good
1042. 01:12:24 Pretty good chunk of the way
1043. 01:12:27 To where most knowledge workers who have complete control over the schedule can get
1044. 01:12:32 Great. Totally fair. All right. I'll try it
1045. 01:12:35 Uh, what are you gonna do? How many action items you have here five six
1046. 01:12:39 twelve
1047. 01:12:41 I have three
1048. 01:12:42 Whoa, I was not expecting that
1049. 01:12:44 Well, see that's what I do with books like this is I
1050. 01:12:48 Say I disagree with your conclusions, but you have a good idea here and I'm gonna make it my own
1051. 01:12:55 Yep, you do that with the books you don't like
1052. 01:12:58 It gets lots of action items the books you totally resonate with like building a second brain. You have nothing
1053. 01:13:03 Okay
1054. 01:13:05 I see how this works. Okay
1055. 01:13:08 All right, so
1056. 01:13:10 I don't have an order for these necessarily
1057. 01:13:13 I think the first one is to add a daily win
1058. 01:13:16 to my journal
1059. 01:13:19 I have the um
1060. 01:13:21 the daily questions
1061. 01:13:23 inspired by
1062. 01:13:24 Triggers by Marshall goldsmith. He's got another book outreach recently, which looks pretty cool by the way
1063. 01:13:29 the earned life
1064. 01:13:32 But I really like that that's the foundation of my journaling habit
1065. 01:13:37 And that all happens in obsidian. I got a video on that which I can add a link in the the show notes for that
1066. 01:13:43 But um, I've also been adding a section for
1067. 01:13:47 My journal entries a section for learnings and a section for gratitude
1068. 01:13:51 I'm gonna create another section for wins and I'm gonna try to put something there every day
1069. 01:13:55 I'm not gonna force myself to put something every single day. That's kind of the
1070. 01:13:59 The impetus behind my journaling habit is I do the daily questions every day
1071. 01:14:03 But I don't do all the other stuff if I miss some if I miss a few days of those, it's it's not that big a deal
1072. 01:14:08 um, so I'm gonna do that
1073. 01:14:10 And then I am going to build my quote book. He mentioned in passing
1074. 01:14:17 Quotes that you may want to remember
1075. 01:14:20 This was in part three the breaking negative behaviors
1076. 01:14:22 So it has absolutely nothing to do with anything that he was saying but I was like, huh
1077. 01:14:26 I haven't been able to figure that out yet the way that I like inside of obsidian yet
1078. 01:14:31 So I'm gonna try and figure that out
1079. 01:14:33 And then the one I mentioned from part four make a list of the things to fix around my house because there are
1080. 01:14:40 a handful of of things
1081. 01:14:43 So
1082. 01:14:44 I'm gonna do that and include on that list the long-term projects like putting a bathroom in the basement
1083. 01:14:49 That I want to do as well
1084. 01:14:52 Bathroom in the basement sounds really important
1085. 01:14:54 Well
1086. 01:14:56 You've been to my house. We have a walkout basement
1087. 01:14:59 My office is down here. The older boys bedroom is down here
1088. 01:15:03 And it would be nice to have a bathroom
1089. 01:15:06 In the base like on that same level
1090. 01:15:09 As well because there's one in the master
1091. 01:15:11 And there's one other bathroom in the entire house. So when it's bedtime
1092. 01:15:15 Four people are trying to use the bathroom at the same time the bathroom is like four feet by five feet
1093. 01:15:19 So
1094. 01:15:23 It would it would be nice and it's it's already
1095. 01:15:26 Stubbed for a bath. We just have to get somebody into do the rest
1096. 01:15:30 That that takes half the problem out. I should just call Joe Buelegan have him come on over and we'll put it in in a weekend
1097. 01:15:38 Super fun. All right. Well, I guess that brings us to style and rating
1098. 01:15:44 Uh, I kind of feel like two-thirds of this podcast have been about the style of the book
1099. 01:15:53 And uh, I would just add to what we've been saying so far is that
1100. 01:15:57 um, this needed an editor pretty bad
1101. 01:16:01 and
1102. 01:16:03 It it needed some stories
1103. 01:16:06 pretty bad
1104. 01:16:08 Like so many times I feel like we're talking about a book and it's like he's got they've got you know
1105. 01:16:12 A two or three page story that illustrates a point perfectly and they articulate it really well
1106. 01:16:16 And that seems to happen more often than not
1107. 01:16:21 Uh, this is a reason that like this this will show you why people do that because
1108. 01:16:26 There are some stories in here and he has
1109. 01:16:28 A number of them, but they're like a paragraph to two paragraphs long
1110. 01:16:32 You know a one and a half page story is the exception
1111. 01:16:36 So to what he's any he's explaining concepts for the most part
1112. 01:16:40 But he doesn't illustrate those concepts very well. So I think that adds to
1113. 01:16:46 Some of the angst that comes with trying to understand what's going on or why he's doing things
1114. 01:16:51 Uh
1115. 01:16:53 Some of that's because he's just trying to run things rapid fire it feels like
1116. 01:16:56 It almost seems like this is a
1117. 01:16:59 A dumping ground for all the thoughts around how to get stuff done that you don't want to do
1118. 01:17:05 Like that that's what this kind of feels like now. I say that and yet
1119. 01:17:09 There's a lot of good ideas in here
1120. 01:17:12 Just not packaged like this
1121. 01:17:15 You know that you know the concept of an 80/20 rule
1122. 01:17:18 Well, that's not a bad concept and applied correctly that can help you understand things and help you get some things done
1123. 01:17:25 Uh, you know put your put your time where it really needs to be
1124. 01:17:29 Um saying that 20 of the students out did the 80 percent
1125. 01:17:33 That that isn't the way to illustrate that principle
1126. 01:17:39 Things like put it on your calendar
1127. 01:17:42 You know things like, you know, if you're not gonna do it now
1128. 01:17:44 When are you gonna do it and decide when you're gonna do it and put it on the calendar?
1129. 01:17:47 Like that's not a bad concept
1130. 01:17:49 But you got to explain it in such a way that it makes sense and give us something that helps us understand when and how to do that
1131. 01:17:57 appropriately
1132. 01:17:59 Uh none of that's done. So again, these are it's rapid fire on these tips
1133. 01:18:04 But not explain super well. Um, I think I would actually discourage people from picking this one up
1134. 01:18:12 because I I feel like if you don't have
1135. 01:18:15 If you don't have a
1136. 01:18:18 strong base
1137. 01:18:21 on
1138. 01:18:23 Productivity in general. I feel like this could actually lead you down some rough paths
1139. 01:18:27 Like you you'd have to overcome some things and it could potentially start you off on some bad habits
1140. 01:18:31 That said, how do you rate this? Oh gosh
1141. 01:18:37 Part of me wants to just say 0.5 just to be a snot but
1142. 01:18:40 That's I don't think it's that bad
1143. 01:18:44 Uh, you know, it's got a lot of work that needs done
1144. 01:18:47 Uh to because I feel like this is a this feels like a rough draft to me
1145. 01:18:52 Like I feel like we're reading a first or second edit and it needs
1146. 01:18:56 So a lot of cleanup and and some rewrite and stuff so it needs a few more passes if not, you know
1147. 01:19:03 Another complete rewrite
1148. 01:19:06 Uh, that said I think
1149. 01:19:08 2.5
1150. 01:19:11 I'll put it in there
1151. 01:19:12 Just because I know there's some concepts in here that makes sense, but I I think it's done very poorly
1152. 01:19:18 Just my take on it. So anyway, I must say 2.5 Mike your turn
1153. 01:19:23 Uh, I don't like this book
1154. 01:19:26 They're done really wow
1155. 01:19:30 Shocker
1156. 01:19:35 Yeah, I shared a bunch of my nitpicks with it, but the biggest thing I think
1157. 01:19:40 Is if I were to summarize this I don't even know where I would start
1158. 01:19:45 Lists of lists of lists
1159. 01:19:48 Um, I've got some specific action items which are not related to uh, anything that he shared. It's just
1160. 01:19:55 He said something and I was like, oh, yeah, I want to figure out how to do that in obsidian
1161. 01:20:01 So I'm gonna I'm gonna mess with that all of my action items are obsidian related by the way
1162. 01:20:06 So I don't I don't credit him for any of those
1163. 01:20:11 Um, I do think there's some
1164. 01:20:14 Decent information in here. I don't want to rail on them too much about
1165. 01:20:17 Bringing other people's ideas in because I
1166. 01:20:23 Feel like I would probably take somewhat of a similar approach if I was writing a top a book on this particular topic
1167. 01:20:31 However, I would give him the same advice that somebody once gave me
1168. 01:20:34 That you should be willing to own
1169. 01:20:37 Your own ideas like it's fine to say that somebody said this thing
1170. 01:20:43 But then how can you internalize that and make it yourself and
1171. 01:20:47 And present it as your your own not that you're
1172. 01:20:51 completely
1173. 01:20:54 plagiarizing somebody's idea, but
1174. 01:20:57 There's there's nuance here. I want to make sure I I say this right, but the whole idea of like stealing like an artist
1175. 01:21:02 That doesn't mean just flat out copy what somebody else does
1176. 01:21:05 But take those things those ideas that you share in this book and then figure out what that means to you and put your own little spin on it
1177. 01:21:13 Kind of like my five sees of creativity sort of a thing, you know, like nothing there is like completely original
1178. 01:21:19 But when I mash everything up in my own brain, it comes out as something that is quote-unquote original
1179. 01:21:25 So I feel like there's opportunity to do that here
1180. 01:21:29 I'm going to join you at 2.5
1181. 01:21:32 And I don't think I would recommend this to very many people either
1182. 01:21:35 If you're looking for a book on procrastination, I think I would still recommend eat that frog by brian tracy
1183. 01:21:42 It's quite possible that that was one of the first productivity books that I read and if I go back and read it
1184. 01:21:48 I'm not going to like it nearly as much as I remember I do
1185. 01:21:53 I remember I think it was episode 50 when we picked our best books that we had not
1186. 01:21:58 Covered for bookworm or something like that. That was one of mine
1187. 01:22:02 Because it was so influential for me when I I read it and I recognize there's a good chance that it lands quite differently now but
1188. 01:22:11 I still feel like if you know what I mean or what what that phrase eat the frog
1189. 01:22:19 Means if you've heard that story before you probably don't need to go back and read it
1190. 01:22:23 But if you have internalized that and tried to apply that personally, you probably aren't looking for a book
1191. 01:22:30 To solve a problem on procrastination either if you still are
1192. 01:22:35 You know, then that's the one that I would I would go recommend that you
1193. 01:22:39 You uh, you pick up instead
1194. 01:22:42 I don't know. I mean
1195. 01:22:45 I feel like there's
1196. 01:22:46 Some good raw material in this book. I agree with you that having an editor would help
1197. 01:22:54 Maybe understanding the other nine parts of the series would help us
1198. 01:22:59 I don't know. Maybe he he talks about like closing open loops from a creative standpoint
1199. 01:23:06 You want to create open loops in people's brains so that they
1200. 01:23:08 Continue to engage with your content and find the answers, right?
1201. 01:23:12 So maybe he opened up a bunch of open loops and he closes them in books two through ten
1202. 01:23:17 But I got to tell you after reading this one. I don't want to read books two through ten
1203. 01:23:22 Yeah, I don't want to either. Let's let's skip those please
1204. 01:23:26 All right
1205. 01:23:28 I pulled up because
1206. 01:23:30 It was curiosity to me
1207. 01:23:33 You having you at 2.5 me at 2.5
1208. 01:23:36 We've done that one other time
1209. 01:23:39 Do you remember what it was? No, I was that
1210. 01:23:43 Episode number 27 out of our minds by Ken Robinson
1211. 01:23:46 Oh, yeah, I was thinking about that book the other day. Yeah, there was another one getting results the agile way
1212. 01:23:53 You rated it a three. I rated it a two oh
1213. 01:23:56 So combined it comes out of 2.5 and then the other one that
1214. 01:24:00 Combined comes out at 2.5 was zen in the art of motorcycle maintenance
1215. 01:24:04 That book came up by the way the other day in
1216. 01:24:12 my mastermind group, okay
1217. 01:24:14 and
1218. 01:24:16 Someone who as a Buddhist meditator for many many years
1219. 01:24:22 Said quote that book is overrated
1220. 01:24:25 So I feel somewhat validated by that rating totally fair
1221. 01:24:31 totally fair
1222. 01:24:34 Yeah, the other books that are in that territory are the art of asking
1223. 01:24:37 Pick three by randy succerberg crossroads of shid and must
1224. 01:24:41 Those those are all in that territory, but this puts it as far as combined rating it puts it put it at the bottom within the bottom four
1225. 01:24:49 Of bookworm so happy episode 150
1226. 01:24:53 Like we've been talking about one of the worst books that we've read
1227. 01:24:58 And for what it's worth
1228. 01:25:02 The way that i'm getting all of that is through this amazing bookworm stats website that's put together by one of our
1229. 01:25:10 Amazing fans so if you had a bookworm.fm/statts it'll do the redirect and get you there
1230. 01:25:17 But that's where I was pulling that from
1231. 01:25:20 Thank you joshua
1232. 01:25:22 Yeah, totally love that thing. I'm over there more than I probably should be
1233. 01:25:30 Super fun only that site had existed when I put together the trivia for you last time
1234. 01:25:35 I know I could have got somewhere with it. I could have like said
1235. 01:25:37 I spent hours creating a google sheet and plugging in the numbers from all of the episodes. Yes
1236. 01:25:45 Oh super fun
1237. 01:25:48 Uh upcoming books mike what's next now that we get to put this thing in the
1238. 01:25:53 on the shelf not the trash
1239. 01:25:58 Uh, the next book is a story of you by Ian Morgan crun and this has to do with the anneagram and
1240. 01:26:05 Um the heels of this one. I'm a little bit nervous
1241. 01:26:08 But I have been interested in the anneagram for a long time and i've heard that this is a good book about the anneagram
1242. 01:26:14 So at the very least we're going to have an entertaining discussion about another
1243. 01:26:19 Self-discovery assessment. I'll be at this time an ancient one per the book description
1244. 01:26:27 so
1245. 01:26:29 Do we need to take the test before we read this one? Is that how that works?
1246. 01:26:34 I don't know. I'm kind of I haven't opened this book yet actually. I do my goal tomorrow. So that's why i'm asking
1247. 01:26:42 Okay
1248. 01:26:43 Um
1249. 01:26:44 Yeah
1250. 01:26:45 I am kind of expecting that at some point in the first part of this book
1251. 01:26:49 They will point you to a resource to take the test because I know there's a bunch of places you can do it for free online
1252. 01:26:54 Sure, and then it will probably explain the different types because there's nine different types
1253. 01:26:59 So
1254. 01:27:02 Yeah, I don't know just talking out loud here. We haven't discussed this previously, but I think it would be kind of interesting to lean into uh
1255. 01:27:08 our types and the pros and cons of dealing with those types
1256. 01:27:13 Okay
1257. 01:27:16 That'll be fun
1258. 01:27:18 Well following that one
1259. 01:27:19 Mike and I had a discussion before we started because I had a different one on the list and it's like
1260. 01:27:23 I don't know if this is gonna work out well. So he kind of helped me find a different one
1261. 01:27:27 um
1262. 01:27:29 This is mind map mastery by tony bizan
1263. 01:27:32 I've had a fascination with mind map for mind mapping for a while, but i've never it's never clicked for me. Mike
1264. 01:27:39 I know this is something you do a lot of
1265. 01:27:41 at least for bookworm
1266. 01:27:43 and it's something that i've
1267. 01:27:45 Dabbled with in the past, but i've always felt like an outline served me better
1268. 01:27:51 than a mind map
1269. 01:27:53 so i'm very curious to see
1270. 01:27:55 the
1271. 01:27:58 Supposed inventor of mind mapping tony bizan
1272. 01:28:01 his viewpoint on it
1273. 01:28:03 Obviously he's for it, but how do you master mind mapping mike?
1274. 01:28:08 We're gonna find out
1275. 01:28:10 We're gonna get the answer
1276. 01:28:12 Very soon, but that's coming up after the story of you
1277. 01:28:15 How about gap books we got?
1278. 01:28:19 I have a book called emergence by steven johnson, which was recommended to me by nik milo of linking your thinking
1279. 01:28:27 and nik has this part of his workshop is this uh,
1280. 01:28:32 This levels of of idea emergence. It was one of the things that clicked for me when I went through his his workshop
1281. 01:28:39 And from looking at some of the other steven johnson books seems like he talks about ideas and creativity quite a bit
1282. 01:28:46 So I think this is a pretty fascinating topic of where ideas come from, but i'm not going to drag you through this one just yet
1283. 01:28:55 Well, we'll save that for another day. Is that what you're saying?
1284. 01:28:59 Maybe if it's good. Yeah
1285. 01:29:01 Well, i've got a gap book. I i'm
1286. 01:29:04 In the middle of i guess uh, and that is digital zettlekosten by
1287. 01:29:11 kadavi is this are you the one i've heard this from i was trying to place where i heard of this
1288. 01:29:17 I can't no one who recommended this one to you
1289. 01:29:20 Okay, I wasn't sure if that came from you or if i'd seen it through nik milo stuff or what it was but
1290. 01:29:25 It's interesting
1291. 01:29:29 Yeah, we're gonna have to talk about that one at some point. Okay
1292. 01:29:32 Maybe we need to do like a bookworm after hours and do an extra thing at some point, but i'd be game
1293. 01:29:39 So yes, that's that's what i'm in right now because i kind of hustled through this one to make it go away
1294. 01:29:45 So i can move on to something else i was like, oh, i got some time before the next one gets here. I'm gonna do this so
1295. 01:29:52 That's what i'm in the middle of
1296. 01:29:54 Cool
1297. 01:29:55 Super fun. Well, thanks to those of you who have joined us live
1298. 01:29:59 Super super glad to have have you guys here it always makes the makes the show
1299. 01:30:04 A little more fun. Well, we're recording not that it's not fun as it is
1300. 01:30:08 But we're also super grateful to those of you who are on our bookworm club membership list
1301. 01:30:13 Uh, if you haven't done that
1302. 01:30:15 Uh, yet you should go to bookworm.fm/membership
1303. 01:30:18 You can join the club for five bucks a month sixty a year and uh, it's a sixty a year
1304. 01:30:24 I'm drawing a blank on that this 50 discount. It's a 50 discount. Yep
1305. 01:30:28 and uh
1306. 01:30:31 Yeah, you get you get access to some cool stuff when you do that
1307. 01:30:33 Uh, we talk about it all the time, but you get access to mics my node files some
1308. 01:30:39 Special perks like a high res wallpaper and stuff
1309. 01:30:42 Uh, but yeah, always super grateful to have
1310. 01:30:45 To have you guys uh on that membership and we don't talk about it
1311. 01:30:49 Much, but you can get bookworm shirts yet
1312. 01:30:53 Like that's kind of an ongoing thing. We don't I guess we don't really say that a whole lot
1313. 01:30:58 But there'll be a link in the show notes. I can say that because I don't build the show notes
1314. 01:31:02 but
1315. 01:31:03 You can check the link and you can get
1316. 01:31:06 Uh a shirt or a sweatshirt. I know maybe there might be more than that too. I don't remember
1317. 01:31:11 You get a bookworm onesie if you want. Oh
1318. 01:31:14 I don't need one of those, but
1319. 01:31:18 I know that the sweatshirt is amazing. Like that is it's true easily my go-to sweatshirt
1320. 01:31:24 I don't know what it is
1321. 01:31:26 About that sweatshirt, but there's it's super comfy and warm. I like it a lot
1322. 01:31:30 This is not the time of year to buy a sweatshirt, but if you need a sweatshirt
1323. 01:31:33 That's the place to go
1324. 01:31:35 Caught the rom makes a good sweatshirt
1325. 01:31:37 Super good. Anyway, you can do that. We'd love to have you guys on board
1326. 01:31:42 All right, if you're reading along with us pick up the story of you by Ian morgan cron and we'll talk to you in a couple of weeks