Do It Today is one of the best books on handling procrastination. This book is about knowing the reason behind procrastination and overcoming it, improving productivity without being stressful and achieving more meaningful things in life. Darius Foroux, has written seven books out of which ‘Think Straight’ and ‘What It Takes To Be Free.’ are best-sellers. Darius also writes articles related to investing, productivity, Stoicism, and more on his blog. His aim is to help people who are looking to become wiser and wealthier.
Book summary
“You cannot escape the responsibility of tomorrow by evading it today.” – Abraham Lincoln. The author says that we all have an explanation for not completing our tasks. We all have a bad habit of procrastinating our dreams. we often blame our external environment like office, old laptops, disturbance in the surroundings for not achieving our desired results. We find answers in productivity apps to boost our productivity whereas our real progress depends on us not on external factors. When our task requires us to move out of our comfort zone, we feel resistance and we get distracted by other things. The author says that “In research done by Gloria Mark of the University of California, Irvine, it showed that it takes an average of 25 minutes to return to the original task after an interruption.” As per research Procrastination often leads to depression, negative beliefs, low self-esteem, and stress. It gives you short term pleasure, but it is harmful in the long run.
The author has given tips on overcoming procrastination in this book. Having a fixed routine and system is very important to avoid procrastination. Many people avoid having fixed routine because they want freedom. If you do not have any fixed routine, you will start wasting your time. It happens many times that you start with the task with full enthusiasm and then you think of checking your email for one minute, then scroll down the reels on Instagram, YouTube and news and in this way your hours are wasted. You feel frustrated and decide this is the last time you are wasting your time but next day it happens the same. The author says that “I have a set of daily habits that help me to be in control of my life. I journal, read, set daily priorities, and don’t consume useless information.” When the author started blogging, he used to check his stats for no reason then he released that there is no outcome in checking. He has kept his checking minimum by deleting all news and social media apps on his phone. He doesn’t have email on his phone, to avoid checking emails all the time. He says ” Read and exercise every day. And: Close the day every evening by setting your next day’s priorities.” You need to have self-imposed deadlines, healthy diet, minimum 30 minutes of exercise and intrinsic motivation to increase your productivity. The author says, “The recipe for a good life is simple: Get clear on what you want and eliminate everything else from your life.”
The authors writes, “To improve your focus, boost your serotonin activity. Research shows that exercise can do that. But something else, that’s equally effective, and a lot easier is a simple mind-exercise. All you need to do is remember positive events that happened in the past. ” If you are feeling bored to do any task, try to remember the positive events associated with a task. It will release serotonin in the mind which will help to complete the task. The author used to remember good comments that he received on his blog while writing article. He used to think about how good he would feel after publishing the articles. He also suggests avoiding multitasking. Always do 1 thing at a time and disable notifications when you are doing deep work.
The author suggests taking breaks in between your work. This will increase the quality of your work and you will get time for reevaluation. Sometimes, you find out that a little extra effort is needed for you. In contrast, working continuously without taking a break can lead to loss of focus in the work. 5-minute breaks are essential after every 30 minutes of work. Use breaks as rewards. You can walk, do some stretches, drink a cup of coffee or do some relaxing activity in your break. With this you will have a pleasant feeling with the work you have done.
These were some major takeaways from the book. Hope you like them.
Quotes from the book
“Make your life so simple that it’s a breeze to live.”
“acknowledge that I have a problem that needs a solution.”
“If you don’t measure your time, it’s tough to stop procrastination or improve your productivity.”
“It wasn’t because I lacked skills. It was because I didn’t trust in my ability to figure things out.”
“You are not your job, you’re not how much money you have in the bank.”
“The single most important factor in our long-term happiness is the relationships we have with our family and close friends.”