TOP 10 PRACTICAL LESSONS FROM THE BOOK “START NOW. GET PERFECT LATER”

1. You are not alone

We all procrastinate. You are not alone. If you are struggling, ask for help.

What you are going through, we all are, and there are others who’ve solved your biggest problem. Asking for help is a sign of strength, not weakness.

2. Your work is not your worth

Have a clear wall of defence between you and your work.

The world can judge your work, but that does not define who you are. You are capable of decisiveness, clarity and greatness.

3. The pain & paradox of perfection

Perfectionism can be a curse and a veil to protect your self-worth to avoid the fear of failure and being judged.

Strive for excellence instead. ‘Start Now. Get Perfect Later’.

4. Pre-crastination

Pre-crastination is the illusion of busyness we create by ‘getting things ready’ before we start.

Save your faffing, checking and moving things from one place to another for your first break, where you can reward yourself with some procrastination.

5. Active procrastination

Beware of ‘active procrastination’: being busy for the sake of feeling busy.

Catch yourself out, break the pattern, and do a high-value task or make an important decision now.

6. Don’t put off until tomorrow…

Do not put off until tomorrow what needs to be done today. ‘Start Now’.

Do. Not. Delay. A decision to do nothing is still a decision, and that all-important task will get nastier and bigger and hairier until you sort it out.

7. Don’t dwell on the past…

Live in the moment.

Allow it to play out with curiosity, and don’t ruin it by bringing your baggage into the present.

Let go. Forgive yourself and others.

Don’t dwell on the past…fail forward fast.

8. What other people think of you

People will judge you no matter what you decide or do, so do the thing that is best for yourself and those you care about.

Be yourself and you will find those who like you for who you are, not who you are pretending to be.

9. Think BIG, start small

 The bigger the task, the harder it is to start. Chunk it down to the single, easy first step, and start walking. Before you know it, you’ve run a marathon or eaten an elephant.

10. What NOT to do

It can help knowing what you should be doing by knowing what you should NOT be doing.

Minimize all low-value and time-wasting tasks, and conversely leverage out high-value tasks that others can do better than you, to get your task list down.