Do It Today: Overcome Procrastination, Improve Productivity, and Achieve More Meaningful Things

“Wow, that sounds like too much planning to me.”
No problem. Plan less. There’s always a counter-movement
for everything. People who do the exact opposite and
advocate an anti-productivity lifestyle. You know, folks who
claim they have empty calendars don’t care about anything
in life.

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People who pretend they are always “enjoying” themselves.
They like to go with the flow and daydream. You know what
that reminds me of? Those kids in school who always said,
“Ah dude, I didn’t have time to study for this class,” but
always ended up getting straight A’s. People just want to
make you believe they don’t work hard. It’s a facade. And
when they do well in life, it seems like it came easy.
As far as I know, achieving meaningful things is hard. I don’t
think there’s anything cool about pretending it’s easy. Nor
do I believe that it’s cool to work yourself to death.
I often think of this question: Are you an amateur or
a pro?
It’s Steven Pressfield’s famous analogy, from his book The
War Of Art, for getting work done. The amateur only works
when inspiration strikes. The pro sits down every day and
puts in steady work. The key is steady. Not irregular or
extreme.

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I Stopped Working Out Daily.
Here’s What Happened.
For the past three years, I’ve been setting a yearly focus for
my life. In 2014, I wanted to work abroad and travel as
much as I could. In 2015, I wanted to read more than 100
books in a year. And in 2016, I wanted to work out every day
of the year.
I’ve done those things. I love setting a yearly focus because
it gives you a clear idea of what you want to do with your
time. You’ll be surprised what you can do in a year if you put
your mind to it.
This year, my focus is to write more books (even though it’s
not going great, I’m still working on that). But at the same
time, I also don’t want to stop reading and working out. 
However, that’s sometimes more complicated than it
sounds. In January of this year, I got the flu. And when I
came back to our family business, I underestimated how
much work I had to catch up with. I also wanted to keep
creating new content for my blog and online courses. I
thought to myself: “I can’t do everything, so I’m going to cut
back on daily exercise.”
BIG MISTAKE
Here’s what happened.
Instead of daily exercise, I went to the gym 2–3
times a week. And I ran once a week. (this was by
the end of January)
For the first few weeks, nothing was wrong, and I
felt good. I was also productive.
But by the end of February, that changed. I started
feeling tired by the end of the day. Something that

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never happens to me.
I also started writing less. I had a big buffer of
articles, so I did post 2 articles a week.
By March, I was at a productivity low. Fortunately, I
always stick to my productivity system. I managed
to get the minimum amount of work that’s
necessary done. But I stopped creating.
I started watching Netflix in the evening. I even
watched an episode of a TV show called 12
Monkeys. It was complete shit. I much more prefer
to read a book before bedtime.
So I got frustrated that I wasted my time.
And when I’m frustrated, I start journaling and
reflecting more.
I looked at my habits. And I noticed I felt tired and
got less work done.
Why? The answer was: EXERCISE.
Actually, a lack of it.