Many times, we know the next step to take but can't quite bring ourselves to get it done.
As a result of that, year after year, we have our dreams in our planner but not many of them are becoming reality.
In this episode, Dr. Una shows you how to overcome procrastination.
Let's stay connected, join the Private FB community.
Subscribe to The EntreMD Podcast
iTunes
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-entremd-podcast/id1487988101
Spotify
https://open.spotify.com/show/2i4F0s1eMAj5yhKQGEhTsw
Additional Resources:
When you are ready to work with us, here are three ways:
To get on a call with my team to determine your next best step, go here ...
Many times, we know the next step to take but can't quite bring ourselves to get it done.
As a result of that, year after year, we have our dreams in our planner but not many of them are becoming reality.
In this episode, Dr. Una shows you how to overcome procrastination.
Let's stay connected, join the Private FB community.
Subscribe to The EntreMD Podcast
iTunes
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-entremd-podcast/id1487988101
Spotify
https://open.spotify.com/show/2i4F0s1eMAj5yhKQGEhTsw
Additional Resources:
When you are ready to work with us, here are three ways:
To get on a call with my team to determine your next best step, go here ...
speaker 0: 0:00
hi docks. Welcome to the entree, Andy. Podcast where it is all about helping amazing physicians, just like you embrace entrepreneurship so you can have the freedom to live life on practice medicine on your terms, I'm your host, Dr Yona. This'd is Episode five of the entree MD podcast Super Pumped toe have you here is always. And today we're gonna be looking at something that is critical on would be a game changer for you. And that is seven ways to overcome procrastination. Now, this is one of the biggest Steelers distracters Disruptors, like, completely ruins our lives is procrastination. So this is going to be really helpful to help you become so much more productive and get so much more done in less time. Now my journey with procrastination or fixing procrastination started after I read a book by Brian Tracy Someone that I love called Eat That Frog is 21 ways to overcome procrastination. It is a very good book. If you haven't read it, you want to get it? I'll post the link in the show notes And in that book he made a statement he had been you know, he didn't complete high school definitely didn't go to college. Um, when about doing odd jobs, doing all kinds of things and found himself where he was older, not successful, Didn't have any money. And I mean, like, really, really broke. And at some point, he had some kind of ah ha moments where he was like, You know what? This is not the rehearsal of my life. This is actually my life. I get one shot at this and this is done. So I'm going to kind of have to figure out how to learn the things that successful people know and start doing them. And that's statements stuck with me, right? This is not the rehearsal. This is the real life. So the things that I know I should be doing today that I'm putting off till tomorrow, it's not like I'm gonna live forever, right? Like at some point, I'm gonna have to leave and I want to leave. Having done everything that I could have done become everybody, I could have been just live the life that I can write. So we're going to look at seven ways. Of course. A lot of the things that I'm going to talk about. I learned from Brian Tracy because he's just like the King of Productivity. And, you know, we're just gonna go through them things I've used over the years to make sure that every 90 days I so much different from high was before that. And you can have that where you've learned so much, you could now do more things. You could do stuff faster. You could do stuff better. Um, and that that would be my goal for you. So number one way you overcome procrastination is you plan every day in advance. You want to start treating treating 24 hours as if it were a gift because it is is not guaranteed people younger than us. We're no longer here. Um, you know, it's not. It's not a guarantee, and you don't waste years. You don't waste weeks, you waste days. Okay, The only way for say 2020 to be a great year is if you utilize and squeeze out everything you can get out of the days in 2020. That's the only way that that happens. You don't waste a whole year. You waste a day is like, you know, you spend it that day. You were, you know, kind of surfing the web and, you know, having meaningless conversations and stuff here like, yeah, all those important things that I know I should do. I'll do them tomorrow, right? And then tomorrow, do them tomorrow. Because you know what? Tomorrow is not a day of the week, right? Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, tomorrow. No, Someday is also not a day of the week is not some day. Monday. Tuesday, right. So you want to plan every day in advance and you want to treat your day the way maybe you treat money where you have a budget and you spend it on paper before you actually spend it, Okay? And this doesn't have to be complicated, depending on what would work for you. Logistically, you can say, um, before you leave the office, right, you sit, and you quickly plan your next day you will take you 10 minutes. 15 minutes, tops. Right. You plan the next day plug, plug everything where it should be, and then you're ready to go or in the evening after you're done with data and all that stuff, you just plan your day and you put it you know, you put that away and tomorrow you get ready to chase the day. Now, depending on the kind of person you are, if you are the kind of person that plans and goal setting and all that energizes you, you definitely don't want to do it just before you go to bed because you won't be able to go to bed. You want to do it earlier, right? So plan your day in advance, and what that does is your very clear on the vital things that you need to get done. It prevents you from wasting as much time because you know you don't have time when somebody says, Hey, let's just go to the mall and hang out And you know that you have three critical things that you need to get done that day. It's so much easier to say no, right, So plan your day in in advance. The second thing is, apply the principle of one touch, and what that means is, if you pick up something that you can do, don't put it down again and say, Oh, I'm going to do it later. Get it done. You get toe work. They hand you a form that needs to be filled. And maybe you just need to check the patient's name and date of birth. And then I signed the form and give it off. Don't put it down and say, Oh, I'll do it later. You've touched it. Be done with it. That way it doesn't even make it to your to do list. Just be done, right. If you start off a project, sit on it and finish it. Okay? If you are working your business, maybe you have a talk that you need to do. And you do. Once fighter, you walk away. You do half a slight or you walk away. No, just sit. At least be done with your outline. The next time you're touched, you touch it. Be done with your first draft. The next time you touch it, be done with your first edit. But you see what I'm saying, like is the principle of one touch. So you don't have one thing that you've touched seven times. You're still not done with it. Okay? The principle of one touch touch things just one time. The third principle is apply. The 48 12 principal Now, this is a beautiful principle. And what? What? What that means is, for every hour, right, 60 minutes while you're working. So this is whether you know when you're working in your job or when you're working in your business, you take 48 minutes. Put your head down. 100% focus. No other tabs open. Not checking. Facebook. Not texting. Not doing not talking to the colleagues. Just put your heads down, get your work done. And then the last 12 minutes you can come up for air. You can kind of look around. You can kind of decompress if you will, and then put your head down for another 48 minutes. If you will do this, this will make you so productive because you have that most of the time you're not multi tasking. Most of the time, you're 100% focused on what you need to do now. This is especially critical if you're not working a job, right, cause if you're if you're seeing patients, you're going from one to the other to the other. There's really not too much room for you to not do stuff, right? But if you are working a business. Now you're your own boss, right? And this is where discipline comes in. If you are supposed to be writing pieces or if you are supposed to be going to get referrals or if you're supposed to be finding new clients is so easy to take off. And oh, while I'm added, I'm just going right this when I'm added, I'm gonna tweak my website while I'm added and you end up having a day where you were busy all day. But you didn't really get significant stuff done. And you don't want that to happen to you. So especially if you are not working a job. You're not working a place. I requires that you follow a set standard. You want to apply this rule, you want to put your head down, get stuff done, get it out of the way 48 minutes 12 minutes 48 minutes, 12 minutes. Put your head down for 48 minutes. You'll find out that you are so much more productive if you will do that. Number four apply the 80 20 principle. So the 80 20 principal I'm sure you've heard about and it's also called the writer law. And what it is is that 80% of your results will come from 20% of your actions. Okay? You have to be crystal clear on what those are. All right. So, for instance, if you have a business and your business has the same problem a lot of business had businesses have, which is obscurity, right? Many people don't know that you exist. Then your priorities is making sure that people know that you exist. And the most critical waves of doing that would be things like speaking, um, networking. So strategic networking, right? Strategic networking, referrals, centers of influence, stuff like that. Um, email is really, really, really important, but probably not more important than these social media is very, very, very, very important. But maybe not more important than these, right? So but these are all important these air, all critical things, choosing the pain on the wall and choosing, you know, the color for your website. And, um, those kind of things. Maybe not as not as critical. Right? Making sure some faxes were sent out that somebody else could do for 12 bucks an hour. Maybe not as critical. So you have to define what those critical roles are, what that 20% is, and you need to stay focused on them. Now when I do my, um, coaching programs, I teach a principle about your RG ace, right? Your RG is being your revenue generating activities and the print. The thing is, you pick 3 to 5 things that you know. These are the things that when I do, they them, they directly affects my bottom line, and you need to commit to do them every day, right? They need to be really clear. So if there's anything else you feel like is great for you to do, you want to make sure it's on your to do list. But these 3 to 5 things get done every day, so apply the 80 20 principal. What is that? 20%. That gives you 80% of your results. What are the things that you do? Let's say you owned a cash based practice, right? What are the things you do that gets your phone ringing right for appointments or gets people through the doors? Let's say you're a speaker. What are the things you do to get those speaking gigs right? So let's say you do online courses you do coaching. What are the things you do that get you clients? And it's easy. Just look at what's worked before or ask people who are in the same filled issue and then you want to commit to make sure you're doing that. Okay, Because the thing is this you're never gonna have enough time to do everything you should do. So you need to make sure that the most important things get done. If anything is, you know, falls through the cracks. It can't be the most important things. That can't be the 20%. Okay, so that's number four. Number five Number five is Consider the consequences. Consider the consequences of not overcoming procrastination. Consider the consequences of not taking the action of not starting the business of not scaling the business of not serving the clients. Think of those consequences Now, as an entrepreneur, I have had to do so many scary things. Not when I say so many scary things. I mean so many scary things. I am. I am was I consider myself now recovering introvert doesn't mean I'm not an introverted just means I don't use being an introvert as my crutch anymore, Right? So speaking, not a thing I would naturally do. Talking to people, asking them for referrals and asking them for reviews. Not at the that I would typically dio air, in my opinion, in public like I'm doing on this podcast. Definitely not something that I would be doing. So those were things that were all scary trying to start a second business in 1/3 business, Not things that I would normally dio. But there's something I'm more scared off. I am more scared off another 20 years from now, another 40 years from non 80 years old. And I'm looking back at all the things that I could have done, But I didn't do because I let my fear stop me And you know what I I know now You know, when I look back in high school or college, I'm like, If I could talk to my younger self, I'll tell my younger self dare your fears and do it anyway. Become everything you can be learnt every skill that you know you can learn become the best version. Okay, embrace business, embrace a young That's what I would tell myself So I know my 80 year old self will have a lot to tell me. Now, on one of those things would be Don't be afraid. Do it. If you don't do it, you're going to regret it like just do it, you know? So consider the consequences. Think of the business that you could have. But you don't because he haven't taken action. Think about, you know, five years from now, you could maybe take a month or two off a year because that's just what you want to do. But you won't be able to because you didn't take action. Now think about the legacy. You could leave your kids. Think about the people that you could have donated for their college tuition to have been paid off. Think about the missions trips You could have gone on because you have financial freedom, which you're not gonna have because you didn't take action. Now the fear of that is greater than the fear of stepping out. Considered the consequences. Now I had a mentor who always used to tell me that the pain off regret is so much bigger than the pain of discipline. Okay, Is painful to be disciplined. You have to give up stuff. You have to do things on a schedule you have to do them. Whether you feel like them or not is painful to be disciplined, right? It's painful to call clients is painful to be consistent. Asking for referrals is painful. Oh, my gosh is like painful toe asked for reviews. It's painful to put your business out there, and somebody comes and is is You know, the haters common. They're saying all kinds of stuff because your business is like your baby, right? Those things are painful, but the pain of regret is so much bigger. So he used to say that if the pain of discipline, you know, weighed £1 the pain of regret weighed one time one time. So get rid, get rid of all that considered the consequences of not taking action right of doing the things that you know. You should dio and then just do them. All right. OK, Number six. Now this one is a little hard for us because we are physicians and we are perfectionists because that's the way we're trained. And it's excellent training. We should be, Um, but we need to learn to delegate. Okay? So if you're going to start a business, if you're gonna branch out into something completely new, um, you're gonna have to give up some stuff and you're gonna so that means you're gonna have to delegate them. And one of the things about delegation is that the person you're delegating it to may not do it exactly the way you would want it done. They may not, you know, do it in the exact same way. And they may need training right to things we don't want to hear. So you're gonna have to train somebody. So abdication is different. That's just handing off to them and not carrying and not giving feedback and not checking, not monitoring or anything like that. But delegation, you explain. This is how I want it done. They do it. You give feedback, tweak this a little bit right? Sometimes, like aw, forget that. I'm just gonna do it. No, you're not just going to do it. If you do that, you can't embrace new things. If you're gonna embrace new things, you have to give up some old things. Okay? So, delegate now for you That may mean maybe I have to get a virtual assistant on board. Maybe I have to delegate my social media and we can talk about that in different podcast. Maybe I have to delegate some things that I do at home, so I can use that time to chase my business. Um, you know, So if there is stuff that you do that somebody else could dio and that will cost a lot less than you doing it, then you should delegate it. Okay, So delegation, you definitely want toe embrace that one numbers seven. This is my favorite. You have to become action oriented, OK? And that what that means is you don't want to see learning or information as an end in itself, because it's not okay. So let's look at it critically if I learn about how to successfully market a business and you don't But I don't do anything with what I learned. Guess what? My business is not going to do any better. Your business is not going to do any better. We actually have the same results, even though I learned something. But this is where it's worse. You learn something, So you know what's possible, right? But you're still not going to get the results because there was no action. So he's actually really frustrating. It will frustrate you more to learn and not dio right is almost better if you didn't learn, but that's awful. So So maybe learn and do. Right? So you want to be that person who takes action. Now, if you're gonna be in action oriented person, it means that you're gonna need to let go off a few things. One of those things is you're gonna need to let go Perfection, right? So when you do your action, it may be messy, and that's okay, so think about it. First time you rode a bike, you fell a lot. It was okay. Is part of the process. First time you started driving, I'm sure you wondered how people could drive in text at the same time because these air to very complex actions. But now you can. But you don't write because you obey the laws, right? So you don't drive in text. Um, so you're okay with Messi? Action, right? So stop looking for perfection. If you're gonna be an action taker, you need to be progress oriented, not perfection oriented. So take lots of actions. Take it even though it's messy. Okay, The second thing is, take it even though you are scared, okay? You have done things scared your entire life. You were scared going into kindergarten like Oh, my God. I'm going to the big boy Ger Big Girls School. You were scared, but your mother did not accept that as an excuse. She sent you there. Okay? You were scared. Getting some med school. You were scared getting to residency. You were scared on your first day as an attending. Um, you were scared when you got married. You were scared when you had your first kid and you were responsible for this life. You've done all these things scared, and business is just one of them. Okay, so take action. Take it frequently. Take it messy. Take it. Scared. Okay. You want to be action oriented. When you learn something, you just go ahead and apply. Okay? All right. So these are my seven things. Seven things you can do to overcome procrastination. And I want you to start applying these right away. Okay? So apply it. What? You could do is you could share this episode with the buddy, another physician entrepreneur, and you guys can do it together, right? We're gonna plan every day in advance. We're gonna apply the principle of one touch. We're gonna play the 48 12 principle, the 80 20 principle. We're going to consider the consequences. You guys can actually have a discussion about that. Like, Hey, you know, is the year 2020 40 and were 60 years old. And we're like, Oh, my gosh. What if we don't do this? What would we be thinking? You know, you guys commit to delegate. You guys considered make up a list of what we're gonna what? We're going to delegate and, you know, commit to follow through with it and become action oriented. OK, so share the episode with the buddy you guys can do together as always. Of course, there's a V i p Facebook community for the on tram de family. You just need to goto entree, m d dot com slash join and join us over there. Okay, so I want you to think about the New year coming up. Imagine if you apply these things and all of a sudden you have two times the productivity. Two times a productivity. What would that look like for you? Right. You could be 10 times. It could be five times. It could be 100 times. But imagine if you were that person who acts on ideas. Imagine if you for most of the days next year that you plan every day in advance and executed. Even if it's to 80%. Imagine how huge that would be. Okay, so I want you to do this. Thank you so much for being on here as always. I'm here. I'm rooting for you. I believe in physicians. I believe in physician entrepreneurs. And I can't wait to hear your story of what you've done with all the valuable content you're getting. And I would love to celebrate you, so just let me know. Okay. I so see you. Same place next week for another amazing episode of the country. And Isha, if you love this podcast, please take a moment to subscribe, share and get it on iTunes as you go about your week. Remember, you're not just a man being You're an entree. Andy. Don't forget to tune in next week for another great episode. Until next time