Get It Done Here's a question for you. How good are you at getting things done? Could it be that you're a procrastinator? Or maybe you have trouble seeing projects through, like learning a new language, for example. All of these are things that need to get done, even when motivating yourself to do them can be kind of tough. Demands, distractions and worries, they're all part of life. And when they kick in, your motivation and your goals often get kicked to the curb. So how do you motivate yourself to pursue your dreams and desires when life is in full swing? And it's a completely different thing to actually see it through. Because you need to get from point A, so couch potato or 500 unanswered emails, God be with you. To point B, surviving 26.2 miles or seeing that big fat zero on your screen. And one of the most effective ways to stay motivated while you get from A to B is by keeping track of your progress. That's someone you could emulate on your way to achieving your goal. It really could be anyone, a friend, a parent, a teacher or a colleague, but it would be great if that person knew you existed. A great role model is someone who doesn't only set an example, but also helps set expectations for you. So I once had this professor who I really, really looked up to, and they kept giving me these tasks that I just didn't think I was qualified for. Trying to stay motivated and make serious progress in whatever you're trying to achieve in life can sometimes feel like an impossible task. But it doesn't have to be. There's a simple fix, and it just so happens to be in your control. It all starts with changing your circumstances.
Introduction
What’s in it for me? Unlock the secrets to getting things done.
Or maybe doing your taxes is just this item on your to-do list that never seems to get checked off. Since you picked this Blink, I reckon you struggle with it just as much as I do. Because I may not have a master's degree from any university, but I would surely call myself a master procrastinator and an enthusiastic project starter and not a finisher. And so, to start our common discovery at how to get better at just doing things, I want to start with a Baron Munchausen story. And if you've never heard of him, he's this protagonist in an old tale about a military man who's a master at telling lies. And one of his best-known stories goes like this.
One day, he's riding his horse across the countryside when all of a sudden, he finds himself stuck in a bog. And the horse starts to sink deeper and deeper by the minute. But instead of panicking, the Baron of Lies comes up with a cunning solution. He grabs his own ponytail and pulls himself and his horse out of the swamp. I mean, sure, the Baron's story defies the laws of physics, but its symbolism is clear. Self-motivation is key to moving forward.
And it just so happens that it's one of the main things that I need help with. And you probably need some help too, right? Because seriously, why does it take so much effort to start a new habit or actually finish a project? Tell me I'm not alone and boring life admin tasks can stay on your to-do list for months too because you think they will probably take hours and then when you actually sit your butt down and do them, it's all done in an hour? Why are we like that? I'm Jasmin.
I'm a producer here at Blinkist, procrastinator extraordinaire, and here to help us both figure out how to get over ourselves. You and I are going to find out how to just get things done, be it tasks or simply getting out of bed. I mean, that's the one thing you and I got done today, right? Unless you're listening to this while in bed. Maybe you've also pulled yourself through a major life change before, like ending an unhealthy relationship or switching careers.
Chapter 1 of 3
To reach the finish line, set compelling, specific goals – and have fun!
It all starts with choosing the right goal. When framed correctly, goals can be powerful motivational tools. And to set a goal that will pull you through the finish line, try to keep these three things in mind. First, frame your goal as the end in itself rather than the means to another goal. So, for example, that means, say your goal is finding a job rather than applying for a job. Because you want your goals to be exciting, not a chore.
Second, keep your goals abstract, but be careful not to be too vague. So, for example, the goal, improve my mental health is better than the goal to be happy because it points you towards your next step. In this case, perhaps that next step would be to start therapy. Third, focus on do versus don't goals. That is, set goals in terms of something you wish to approach like good health or success rather than avoid like sickness or failure. Goals like recipes, for example, tend to work best when they're quantified.
So setting a target that's challenging, measurable and actionable will pull you towards your goal and enable you to monitor your progress. Just make sure you're the one to set the target rather than someone else, because that's going to help you be more committed. And I know this list is getting longer and longer, but try not to pick targets that are overly optimistic. We all love an optimist like Ted Lasso. I mean, look him up. It's a great series.
But when you're too optimistic, that can lead to a bunch of fantasizing rather than you putting in the actual work. There are two types of numerical targets you need to take into account. One is how much. So, for example, you want to save $10,000. That's the one I'm going for anyway. And the other one is how soon.
So within a year, six months, two years, etc. So if you had vaguely thought of something like excelling at your new job or getting more sleep as your goals, try swapping that out for complete a work project by the end of the week and get eight hours of sleep every night. If you want to start running, set a target like run the next Chicago marathon in under five hours. Good luck with that, by the way, because that is no easy feat. And there's another item you should have in your self-motivation arsenal. Incentives.
They're a foundational element of behavioral science dating back all the way to Pavlov's salivating dogs. Incentives are basically forms of rewards and punishments. Rewards and punishments motivate action by creating immediate mini goals to your main goal. So let's go and grab a coffee at your favorite coffee spot for this little example. OK, here we are. How much is your latte these days or your flat white or whatever else you like?
Does your inside voice tell you this is too much? Because mine surely does. Expensive coffees have been demonized as the reason people are so obsessed with the idea of being able to do more. Some joke that lattes and avocado toasts are the reasons millennials can't buy houses. And yet here we are buying our flat whites and latte. You know why?
Because they feel like a reward. Whether it's for the sometimes arduous task of getting out of bed or for having a productive morning with a cup of coffee. I'm sure we can always find a good reason. And so to get the most out of your incentives, make sure that you end up rewarding the right action. Otherwise, you may risk the cobra effect. Actually, the cobra effect is a really wild story.
Look it up. It involves people in India breeding these cobra snakes. Only to then collect rewards for catching them. OK, rewarding the right action. That's easier said than done. And to stay on track, you need to be clear on an important distinction.
Does your incentive actually lead to progress towards your goal? Or is it just a useless target that's easy to miss? Let's say you're trying to get promoted, for example. Then rewarding yourself for the amount of time you spend at your computer is really not going to help you that much. But if you incentivize the quantity or the quality of your work, it will. You could, for example, set yourself the goal of creating one unprompted report for someone who's not even in the company.
That's really going to help your team in the next three months. Or you could work on pitching one good product idea every month in written form so you can keep track. But of course, we want to keep things exciting. And to do that, try to embrace uncertainty and hit pause on your incentives now and then. I'm just saying, take a break. Breathe.
It's not a race. It's a marathon. Hitting pause will also help confirm that you're pursuing your goal for your goal's sake. And that you're not doing it for the incentive alone, you know. The final, crucial ingredient to goal setting is fun. I know, I know, I know.
I just basically talked you through a bunch of homework you should do to get stuff done, and now here I am telling you to have fun too? Bear with me. We're going to Tom Sawyer land. In the book, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Sawyer notes that work consists of whatever a body is obliged to do, and that play consists of whatever a body is not obliged to do. That's basically another way of defining intrinsic motivation. Intrinsic motivation is when you do something just because.
Because you want to. Because you have fun doing it. Because it's your dream. Just because. Maybe there isn't even a proper reason, it just feels good, you know. And so, intrinsic motivation is the best predictor of engagement in any activity.
Let me unpack this real quick. So, what I'm saying is, when you set a goal for yourself, especially if it's one that you don't necessarily think is super fun to begin with, like work or exercise or vacuuming, you need to make sure that you can find some fun aspect in it. Because, if you're having fun, then you're intrinsically motivated, which in turn leads to success. There are, of course, I have to say this, exceptions. Like, what if you've been procrastinating on breaking up your relationship, but knowing how it'll make you feel in the long run. Maybe you'll feel freer, maybe you'll stop hurting yourself and or hurting your partner.
So, in these situations where it's hard to find joy in a task, just keep in mind why it is that you want to do something and associate the positive outcomes with it in your mind. But generally, the strategy here is simple. Make sure your goals are fun. And one way to do this is through temptation building. That means that you could, for example, put on your favorite show while you work out. This is most effective if you only allow yourself that little temptation while you're pursuing your goal.
Another thing that you can do is to try and notice any feelings of fun and joy that you already have. If you're trying to get into running in the mornings, for example. You could try to notice that short feeling of euphoria right after you're done with your run. It's one of the best. Any runner will know what I mean. Or that feeling of your heart and skin warming up when you've got the sun shining and the wind blowing through your hair.
Or that feeling of your heart and skin warming up when you've got the sun shining and the wind blowing through your hair. When your breath starts getting into a rhythm. And when the world in the morning is super calm and you're surrounded by people walking their dogs and other people taking that time for themselves. Just breathe that in. Find some joy in that. It's one thing to set a goal like running a marathon or achieving inbox zero.
Chapter 2 of 3
Maintain momentum by monitoring your progress and tackling the “middle problem.”
And tracking your progress actually increases your motivation because it intensifies the commitment to your goal in two ways. One, it boosts your confidence in believing that yes, you can achieve your goal. You've made it this far, right? And two, you confirm to yourself that your goal is worth it. Simply because the sheer amount of time and effort that you've already put in. And so while making progress is important, how you monitor that progress, that also matters.
The question is, should you focus on how much you've already done? Or how much do you still have left to do? The short answer is both. Here's a good example for this. I'm sure you've gotten these little loyalty stamp cards before, right? Where you get a free coffee or a smoothie or a slice of pizza or whatever after you've already had 10, right?
And so in the beginning, you probably don't care too much about that card. But then, after you've collected a few stamps, you may find yourself standing in line to buy coffee or smoothies or a pizza more often. Ha! Because the closer you get to your free slice, the more you crave it. Our brains are really funny that way, no? This, by the way, this is called the goal gradient effect in motivation science.
It just means that the more progress you've made, the more excited you are to continue. Basically, it's a glass half full motivator. However, the glass half empty point of view can also help you. Okay, here's another example because I'm full of those. Imagine you're doing yoga at home on your mat. And while you're in downward dog, you come eye to eye with a giant dust ball.
And maybe that's the last straw. Maybe it's the point that you realize it's actually been forever since you've last cleaned. And so you get up and you whip out the vacuum cleaner right now. In this case, actually, your sense of falling behind has just motivated action. Ta-da! But of course, neither strategy is necessarily better or worse.
But it is useful to be able to know when to implement one over the other. Here's a bit of advice from the book. If you're new or uncertain about a commitment or a new task or project or whatever, you could try and stay motivated looking at it with a glass half full mindset. But if you're an expert and you already know that you've committed to a goal, it's actually the glass half empty mentality that may just push you over the finish line. What I'm saying is, if you're new to the gym, start counting the days that you've gone. How awesome is that?
Maybe you've made it to the gym three times last week. But if you're a real fitness buff and you kind of feel like you fell out of your routine, think about all the days that you've missed. Let that little taste of guilt do its thing, you know. In any of these scenarios, tuning into how you feel will let you know how to best track your progress. Basically, when you feel good, you'll know you're progressing on your goal. And when you feel bad, you'll know you're lagging.
But regardless of how you track your progress, you'll notice that staying motivated is easier at the start and at the end of your journey. I am pretty much an expert at this, because I've started so many hobbies that I've lost count. Playing the guitar, painting, knitting, learning a new language. And at the beginning, it's all easy and fun and I'm super motivated and I can't stop talking about it. My friends all roll their eyes. And then a month later, it's like it never happened.
Can you relate? The reason that's the case is that there are special Clearly Mark programs that are designed to help you stay motivated. It's when you start doing something for longer that it becomes harder to maintain that enthusiasm. This is also called the Middle Problem. And the Middle Problem can be explained by the Small Area Principle. Bear with me.
So, to stay motivated towards your goal, you'll likely compare your next action to whichever is smaller. Be that the progress you've already made or the progress that you have yet to make. In other words, at the beginning, you'll look back at what you've done. And past the midpoint, you'll look ahead at what's still missing. And every time you look, you're motivated. But when you're in the thick of it, in the middle, it seems that either way you look is just as long.
Whether you look back or ahead, no area looks smaller than the other, right? And that means that there's little motivation to get the goal done or to do it right. To be totally honest with you, this may be my biggest challenge. So now I'm just wondering, how can I avoid getting stuck? And it turns out that the solution is right there in front of us. Basically, we just need to keep the middle short.
And the way to do that is, ok, let's say we've got some sports goal, right? The way to go about this is to have a weekly exercise goal rather than a monthly one. Or let's say we're talking about a huge work project with a deadline that's really far away. Then you could try and break it down into small weekly assignments. That might be a bit easier. And here's another hack.
Try and frame the present moment as the beginning or an end to something. That means, for example, if you think of lunch to be something that happens at the beginning of the afternoon rather than the middle of the day, you may just eat more healthily. That's a thought. Finally, think about the times that you've been successful and unsuccessful in achieving your past goals. Thinking about successes can be kind of easy, right? But we all messed up at one point.
I know I have. I've tried, I've failed, I've tried, I've failed again. I'm really good at this. So how about learning from those failures? If you're someone who struggles to lean into your mistakes, you're not alone. But you are missing out on a bunch of important information.
Famous playwright Samuel Beckett, he once wrote, Try again, fail again, fail better. And Serena Williams, who many think is the world's best tennis player, and let's be honest, she knows a thing or two about achieving your goals. She said, I've grown most not from my victories, but setbacks. Both of them are pointing out something that's really important. Basically, whatever you are trying to achieve, whatever goal you have, there is no way to guarantee your success or failure. But the one thing that is guaranteed is that you can learn from it.
Being someone who is really good at failing and then starting again, I can confirm that the best way to learn from failure is by cultivating a growth mindset. That means try to really internalize and understand the fact that your abilities, your intelligence, your skills, they can grow and improve. That you can always get smarter through focus, dedication and perseverance. Actually, it's proven that if you do have that growth mindset that I was just talking about, you'll increase your resilience when you face challenges or frustrations. And a nice little side effect is that when you master that, that growth mindset, negative feedback will stop feeling like a personal attack. But instead, you may start to think about it as a way to learn that you've misstepped and might need to work a little bit harder.
I find it pretty cool to know exactly what it is that I may need to work on, instead of just guessing. And I want to tell you about this one last strategy to stay motivated even when you're really bad at something and you are failing at it. And yes, it is kind of counterintuitive. Basically, when you're failing at something, just dish out a bunch of advice. Yep, even when you think you're not good at it, I totally get it, maybe you don't think you're qualified to dole out tips regarding something you haven't even mastered yet. For example, controlling your temper or saving money.
But actually, when you give advice, you're tapping into what you've learned to do or maybe not to do when you are trying to reach your goal. And when you give that advice, you may just be reminded of how knowledgeable you actually are. But not only could you be the one giving advice, you could also start to look for a possible role model.
Chapter 3 of 3
Use – and help – those around you to achieve personal and shared goals.
And when I said, hey, I don't think I can do this, I'll probably need a little bit of your help. They said, Jasmine, I wouldn't give you these tasks, if I didn't believe you'd be able to do them and to do them well. After all, I don't want to see you fail, but I think you could do much more than you're already doing. And until today, having a role model who believed in my abilities more than I did at the time was the best motivator I could ask for. I worked my butt off for that professor. And I kind of reached my goal, and I was really happy with that.
And I kind of reached my goals. They continue to be somewhat of a mentor up until today. There are also anti-role models, and they can be just as important to your success. Anti-role models basically practice behavior we definitely don't want to pick up. I mean, how many times have you heard that phrase, I don't want to become like my mom or like my dad. And when you have cases like these, it may motivate you to basically complement their behavior with yours, which in turn could support your goals.
Another really good ingredient to that recipe that lets you reach your goal is to have a sense of community. It can really boost your motivation to be surrounded, I mean, physically surrounded by other people. In fact, researchers found that people who cycle in a race against other people are faster than those who just race against the clock. This phenomenon, meaning you wanting to work harder when others are watching, is called social facilitation. You could also use it to your advantage by, say, working in a public space like a cafe. And if you're a bit of a hermit with lots of aspirations, there is still hope, because our brains are really funny.
Even when you have a proxy for somebody else's presence, like a picture of a loved one, or, and this one's a bit creepy, you could have a picture of just staring eyes. That too could help you put in that extra effort. Here's the key message you and I can take away from these blinks.
Conclusion
Final summary
Most importantly, you need to define your goals. You need to pay attention to maintaining momentum. Stay focused when you've got a billion other things on your plate. And get your friends and family involved. And when you make your behavior and environment work for, rather than against you, your goal of getting that raise, or that strong, healthy body, or that tax return form sorted, or, I mean, let's finish on a lighter note, that new language learned, that goal will be yours in no time. And here's some more actionable advice.
Try to get rid of the middle problem with the so-called fresh start effect. People tend to work harder immediately after a temporal landmark. Basically, that's a day in your calendar, like a Monday, a birthday, or a new year. And you can use that fact to your advantage. For example, if you want to get through the dreadful middle slump, this is the trick. You can frame that present moment as a memorable fresh start.
If you want to start working out on, let's say, June 23rd, let that be a new kind of birthday for you. And then, when you do that, you'll be more motivated to keep pursuing your goal. That's right, I know, it's kind of cheesy, but getting over the middle problem could be as easy as, yes, telling yourself that today marks the first day of the rest of your life. Well, cheers to that, folks!
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