Kick Monday’s Ass: eating an elephant (March 15, 2021)

It’s time to kick Monday’s ass…

I want to give you a number.

It’s 5. As in 5%.

This is fresh in my head as I look at my to-do list and realize that I’ve got a 77k+ word manuscript to edit. Every time I find a few hours in the schedule to sit down and get it done, my brain gets overwhelmed by the sheer enormity of the task and instantly thinks of a million other things to do.

(Funny how doing laundry and cleaning out your car’s glovebox become OMG URGENT when faced with doing something that seems too big to be possible.)

So I tried my favorite go-to hack when I recognize I’m putting off something important… I put on some chill music, lit a smell-good candle, and set a timer for one hour.

It was like flipping a switch – I sat down with this book, determined to get through as much as I could in the hour I’d given myself. And when the timer finally went off, I’d made it through about 5% of of the entire book.

That might seem like a tiny number on its own, but it amounts to around 4,000 words, or roughly 15-16 pages. If I commit to 5% a day, this book will be fully edited in just a matter of weeks… suddenly the task doesn’t seem so daunting. If I commit to 5% in the morning and throw in another 5% in the evening? I’ll be through this draft by next week.

So if you’re staring down the barrel of a big project, and finding new and inventive ways to put things off (I promise, the glovebox is clean enough)… maybe it’s time to figure out what your 5% looks like. Sit down, set a timer, and get it done. That little bit of forward momentum is gonna feel like such a relief, vs continually putting it off until you have to rush through it in a fit of panic.

Today I challenge you to find your 5% and commit to it. And if you need an extra dose of kick-ass to get you pumped up to produce… don’t forget to check out the podcast (listen and subscribe here)!

Speaking of numbers and getting pumped up, let’s jump into this week’s video…

Kick Monday’s Ass: Remember the Name

 

Pardon the towel on my head – I shot this video when going to the gym was still a thing. When this happened, I spent all my post-gym shower time consumed with what I would say as soon as I got to my computer. And I didn’t want to risk losing that thought with all this getting-dressed-and-getting-coffee nonsense.

So you get it straight from the tap – what I realized when a heart-pounding, blood-pumping song I hadn’t heard in years popped up in my playlist.

If you’ve got it in the back of your mind to do your own creative thing or start a business, this one is important. (If you want to hear the song, scroll down to the bottom of the post!)

Badass of the Week

Today I want to celebrate Yo Yo Ma, the famous cellist who, after getting vaccinated, decided a little impromptu concert was in order.

It’s a stressful time and we’re all itching to get out into the world again. It’s not unreasonable for a person to want to go do their own thing and relax after waiting to be stabbed with a needle so they don’t contribute to the spread of a pandemic. And yet Yo Yo decided to make the wait a little more pleasant for everyone else.

Such a small act that probably made a big difference to a bunch of people.

(If you know someone who should be featured as my Badass of the Week, leave a comment and tell me!)

On Repeat This Week…

 

This one’s called Remember the Name by Fort Minor.

This is the song I mentioned in this week’s video, in case you want to get all fired up.

_______________

Forget Mike, nobody really knows how or why he works so hard
It seems like he’s never got time
Because he writes every note and he writes every line
And I’ve seen him at work when that light goes on in his mind

It’s like a design is written in his head every time
Before he even touches a key or speaks in a rhyme
And those motherfuckers he runs with, the kids that he signed
Ridiculous, without even trying, how do they do it?

This is ten percent luck
Twenty percent skill
Fifteen percent concentrated power of will
Five percent pleasure
Fifty percent pain
And a hundred percent reason to remember the name