By Jenny Wood | published Feb. 28, 2023
The Problem
You've wasted time today on activities that don't bring you closer to your goals: landing that dream job, finding your life partner, buying your first home. Let's call it some combination of procrastination, distraction, and multi-tasking.
The Big Small Thing
Pretend everything is minus 2.4.
Today is the last day of the month: February 28th.
The average month has 30.4 days, so the difference is between 30.4 and 28 is 2.4 days.
Scarcity breeds focus.
Treat each month like you have less time than you do. Treat each day the same.
Ever notice you get things done at the 11th hour? That's because time was running out! Parkinson's Law — that work expands to fill time available — might feel like old news. What's can be new for you next month is how you mitigate this temptation.
Manage your time in ways that create scarcity.
How This Helps You Get What You Want
To get what you truly want: career, relationship, or financial success, you need to manage your time with precise intention. Here's how you can do it:
Oh, and Also
Nir Eyal is one of my favorite people to follow on LinkedIn for tips on distraction. In his bestselling book, Indistractable, he shares how the opposite of traction is distraction.
Here's to more traction for you in March.
Let's do this,
Scarcity reduces wasted time
... and gets you closer to your goals.
My tip for overcoming procrastination
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• Time block. Schedule meetings for one part of the day and deep work for the other. If you have a 30-min meeting, 30 min work time, 15-min meeting, 30 min work time (rinse and repeat), the big goals you are chasing will suffer.
• Use the Pomodoro method. Set a timer for 80 minutes to focus deeply on a task. I wrote this email on Jan 3 while batch writing my Q1 biweekly newsletters – a meta version of time blocking above! The timer is currently at minute 34:36 and counting down. Four newsletters are written, and I have two to go. I'm on a roll given the intentional focus on one important task.
Make a To (Not) Do list. You likely know what behaviors are unproductive, but that doesn't make it easy to stop them. Doom scrolling on social media? Create a “To Not Do” list under jot down, “doom scrolling." Implementation intentions (aka writing down a goal) makes you 40% more likely to do – or not do – something.