Moment 140: The 2 Minute Trick That Beats Procrastinating For Good: Ali Abdaal

[0] Did you know that the DariVosio now has its own channel exclusively on Samsung TV Plus?

[1] And I'm excited to say that we've partnered with Samsung TV to bring this to life, and the channel is available in the UK, the Netherlands, Germany and Austria.

[2] Samsung TV Plus is a free streaming service available to all owners of Samsung Smart TVs and Galaxy mobiles and tablets.

[3] And along with the Dyeravisio channel, you'll find hundreds of more channels with entertainment for everyone all for free on Samsung TV plus.

[4] So if you own a Samsung TV, tune in now and watch the Dyer of a Cio channel, right now what have you learned from your experience on YouTube about the importance of consistency and also from what you kind of what typically happens with viral videos is just there's it's so impossibly hard to predict the outcome right so a lot of people like a lot of people on YouTube will make videos called how to make a viral video and in marketing it's all like here are the secret source here are the secret principles but in reality you can only you can how you can guess a kind of couple of principles, but the outcome is hard to predict.

[5] So what have you learned about consistency, but then also being able to predict the outcome?

[6] Yeah.

[7] When I was listening to your compounding chapter, I just found myself like nodding along like an absolute maniac to everything you were saying.

[8] I think it applies so much to YouTube.

[9] These days, I teach people how to how to be part -time YouTubers.

[10] And the thing I say is that if you make one video every week for two years, then I 100 % guarantee it will change your life.

[11] I can't put any numbers on it.

[12] I can't tell you'll have 100 ,000 subscribers or how much money you'll be making, but I can 100 % guarantee it will change your life at the very least in terms of the skills and the experience and the contact and the friends you're going to make through that process.

[13] But you have to put out one video a week and you have to do it for at least two years.

[14] Um, just ask on that then on that point there.

[15] What is it that would make someone do that?

[16] Because I mean, that's like, fucking clean the floor every day for two years and I promise you'll work out for you.

[17] It like, people don't seem to be able to do those kinds of things without some kind of intrinsic driver.

[18] So I'm like, I'm curious, because you could say that to a million people.

[19] You could broadcast that through a tonne way and 95 % plus will still fail.

[20] So what is it that makes people from your experience, but also, yeah, from your own life, makes them do the work without guarantee of outcome?

[21] Yeah, I think, again, I feel like this bit of a cop out because this is stuff that you talk about, like enjoying the process.

[22] And this is kind of the theme of the book that I'm writing around how, you know, it's actually quite hard to show up week after week, not see any results, not see the views and the subscribers going up and stuff particularly quickly.

[23] But the thing that makes it bearable, the thing that makes it fun is actually enjoying the process and shifting away from outcome -oriented goals, like a certain number of views, a certain number of subscribers, and more towards goals that are 100 % within our control, like, I just want to make two videos a week.

[24] and if I'm happy with the video then it goes out and in fact even if I'm not happy with the video it goes out anyway and everyone I know who has succeeded on YouTube has had that kind of attitude at some point I just have to get that video out every Tuesday without fail it's not an option it's going to get done and you know like you say and when we talk about compounding that that video on day one isn't going to do anything the video on day two or day three or day 24 is not going to do anything but you find when you're on day 300 and day 600 oh actually all of this stuff has been compounding very very slow And then the results happen really, really, really slowly.

[25] And then all at once, as soon as you just get that one video that goes viral.

[26] That is, I think that's the chapter where I talk about the eighth wonder of the world.

[27] Yeah, that's it with Warren Buffett and my dog, Pablo, being the opposing investor.

[28] And I genuinely, I think I learned that lesson when I wrote the book.

[29] When I looked back on my life and I thought about all the things that compounded in my favor, whether it was like, my, honestly, it's going to be, keep it facts with you.

[30] My teeth had some problems with my teeth.

[31] And I thought, do you know why?

[32] And I probably referenced this in the book.

[33] Like, I hadn't been brushing one of my teeth properly.

[34] And it never mattered today or tomorrow the day after.

[35] But there I was in that dentist chair, but having my teeth fucking pulled out.

[36] And then my Instagram was the same.

[37] Health and fitness at the moment, the same.

[38] My business was the same.

[39] And it just goes to show that it's not those key critical, big decisions we make to drop out.

[40] It's that like, yeah, it's the compounding small, almost irrelevant decisions.

[41] Yeah.

[42] Yeah, but people don't, because I heard you started working out.

[43] I did, yeah.

[44] And then you stopped.

[45] So I've had a personal trainer now for the last kind of eight months or so.

[46] There you go.

[47] And, you know, I've been going on and off with the workout thing since the age of 18 and never done it properly until I got a personal trainer where now I'm having to show up.

[48] I'm paying someone 30 quid an hour to basically just be with me while I'm doing stuff.

[49] And that has been the thing that's given me the most results.

[50] So I think whatever, like I, I, I find in my life, for things that I actually care about where I'm like, okay, I actually care about becoming a happy, sexy millionaire or whatever, let me try and figure out ways that will remove my own need for discipline and willpower from that equation.

[51] And instead, get an accountability buddy or get a coach or pay a friend 100 quid if I don't do the thing.

[52] This was what my brother and I did when we were trying to motivate ourselves.

[53] I was doing songwriting.

[54] He was doing stand -up comedy.

[55] Like, right, if we don't do this every Thursday for half an hour, we're going to pay each other 50 quid um things like that to remove the choice the motivation the willpower the discipline that all the more of that can be outsourced to someone else or removed completely the more i find i actually get stuff done and then i don't have to worry about it because i'm like okay this is taken care of i just show up i guess you're removing you're moving the motor as opposed to like removing it you're moving it to another pact like near iL refers to it as what you've described there as a financial pact where now your motivation is to not lose 50 quid it's like because that is that's a greater motivating force than you have within yourself to work out.

[56] Is that sustainable?

[57] No, it's not.

[58] It's not.

[59] This is all the stuff that I'm researching for the book at the moment.

[60] And you talk about this as well, like in intrinsic and extrinsic motivation.

[61] And the way that I think of it, when I think back on my life, is that everything that I've done sustainably has been because of intrinsic motivation.

[62] I've genuinely enjoyed the thing.

[63] But you can genuinely enjoy a thing and still find it really hard to get stuff.

[64] I think that's where the biggest procrastination comes in for all of us where it's actually just showing up to the gym.

[65] That's the hard part.

[66] Once you're there, it's kind of easy.

[67] It's writing those first 10 words.

[68] Because once you've started writing the first 10, it's kind of easier to enjoy the process of writing the rest of them.

[69] And so the way I think about it is to get over that hump of procrastination, that activation energy to get started.

[70] At that point, I will use every tool that in my arsenal to just get me to do the thing for two minutes.

[71] Because I think once you do the thing for two minutes, it becomes so much easier.

[72] to actually enjoy the process and sustain it.

[73] And you're so right when it comes to procrastination, like that getting started point.

[74] I've again just learned this from podcast guests.

[75] I've had, Nioia Riala, and I refer to him.

[76] He said to me one day on this podcast, he was like, people procrastinate usually because there's a great deal of psychological discomfort surrounding starting the task.

[77] And a lot of the time, especially with a gym or even an essay, that psychological discomfort is like, you don't have the answers.

[78] So I don't know how to use the machines at the gym or I don't actually have, I don't feel competent enough to even write this essay, so I'm just going to do the fucking dishes.

[79] Yeah.

[80] It's like, I'm going to hoover the whole house and anyone else's house.

[81] That needs hoovering today.

[82] Exactly.

[83] You made a video about procrastination, didn't you?

[84] Yeah, yeah.

[85] Break that down for me. What's in the video?

[86] So the video is called How to Stop Procrastinating, right?

[87] Yeah.

[88] So the way I think about procrastination, basically, procrastination is a problem with getting started.

[89] kind of this law of inertia Newton's first law that if something is at rest it will continue to stay at rest but if something's moving it will continue to move without needing an external force and so the key to overcoming procrastination is that little that little nudge at the start towards actually getting started and all of the techniques around that like in the whole psychology research around this is just around making make it as easy as possible so reduce all of the friction to doing it if you want to learn the guitar then have the guitar by your sofa rather than in the wardrobe where you're never going to see it and if it's out of sight it's out of mind never going to do it there's like the external environmental friction towards doing the thing but then there's also the internal friction it's like those narratives that we tell ourselves the oh the psychological discomfort of going to the gym that i don't want to see how other people are going to see me the even even having having the wrong sort of goal like if my goal in writing the book is i really want to hit the new york times best seller list then it's really, really hard to bring myself to write anything because now every single word I have to write has to be a New York Times best -selling word.

[90] Whereas if the goal is, to be honest, I just want to write a book I'm proud of that's fun to write.

[91] That's actually within my control, and it becomes so much easier to get started at doing the thing.

[92] So to overcome procrastination, we need to eliminate external friction, i .e. the environmental staff.

[93] We need to try our best to get rid of the internal friction, like the emotional side of it, the mindset, the perfectionism, the fear, the discomfort.

[94] And then if we still need help, there are a few hacks.

[95] The one that I use all the time is the two minute rule, which is where I will genuinely convince myself, I'm only going to do it for two minutes.

[96] And if I want, I'm allowed to stop after the two minutes because two minutes is better than nothing.

[97] But like 95 % of the time, I decide to continue because two minutes is all you need to change your life.

[98] Yeah.

[99] I should tweet that.

[100] That's really good.

[101] And that two minute thing is fascinating to me because one of the things that I see as another psychological barrier to starting is people view it as like they view the challenges Mount Everest.

[102] Whereas, like, they've got to, I'll say it in another way, they view the challenge as moving Mount Everest.

[103] And really, if they viewed it as just like moving one pebble at a time, it becomes such a simple task.

[104] Yeah.

[105] And I get this a lot when entrepreneurs ask me, they say, see if I want to start a business, where do I start?

[106] And you can hear in the question that they see it as moving Mount Everest.

[107] And I'm like, well, today, all you have to do is think of a name.

[108] Just think of like 50 names, make a short list of names.

[109] And then we'll revisit it tomorrow.

[110] And then tomorrow, maybe think of, you know, go and check if the website's available.

[111] And then we'll revisit the day after.

[112] Yeah.

[113] And when it becomes that and when it becomes sort of really small itemized one small step at a time and you're not having to get from stair zero to a thousand immediately, it becomes so, you know, the psychological discomfort fades away.

[114] It feels achievable.

[115] And that your two -minute rule is doing a similar thing where it's saying, well, today, I've only got to do, just if I can open the word document and write the title and then we're done.

[116] You know, and that's fascinating.

[117] What about, you were going to say something else there?

[118] Yeah, I mean, just to your point there.

[119] Have you come across the blog, wait, but why?

[120] No. Oh, it's incredible.

[121] You should definitely interview Tim Urban when you're in America.

[122] Oh, do you know what?

[123] I literally yesterday went on his Instagram and sent him a DM.

[124] Oh, great.

[125] Yeah, he's awesome.

[126] Any podcast he's ever been on, I've been like, oh, this is so sick.

[127] He has a great blog post series about overcoming procrastination.

[128] And the way he refers to that that point you just made is that there are a lot of tasks that are very, like vague and icky and you have to be able to unikify a task and something like start a business is icky something like learn to code is icky because like what the hell does that even mean like where do you even start whereas brainstorm 10 ideas for a name and pick one of them is a very clearly defined next action step and so i get this with students all the time where people are like oh i don't have the motivation to study for my chemistry exam it's like what's on your to do list study for my chemistry exam that's never going to happen reach chapter one and answer questions four to five are a reasonable thing, a reasonably defined next action step.

[129] And so what I do is any time I find myself procrastinating from something, I think, okay, am I procrastinating because I actually, the task is too icky.

[130] I don't know what I have to do.

[131] Because once I know what I have to do, I can then do it for two minutes and it gets done.

[132] Did you know that the driver's CEO now has its own channel exclusively on Samsung TV Plus?

[133] And I'm excited to say that we've partnered with Samsung TV to bring this to life, and the channel is available in the UK, the Netherlands, Germany, and Austria.

[134] Samsung TV Plus is a free streaming service available to all owners of Samsung Smart TVs and Galaxy mobiles and tablets, and along with the DiRivaccio channel, you'll find hundreds of more channels with entertainment for everyone all for free on Samsung TV Plus.

[135] So if you own a Samsung TV, tune in now and watch the DiRiver's CEO channel right now.