Greg McKeown (most famous for Essentialism), on the Tim Ferriss podcast:
What I have learned is this strange law of inverse prioritization: The most important thing in our lives at any given time is the least likely thing to get done. Because it’s so important, the risk of failing at it is much higher than anything else in your life, so it adds to this procrastination feeling.
Procrastination as ego protection, shielding us from the emotional weight of identity-defining tasks.
McKeown argued:
- Explore and Eliminate: Determine what is truly essential and eliminate everything else.
- Make Execution Effortless: Design systems to make doing the right things easier, even on bad days. Additionally, pre-define what done means.
- Intentionality: Decide consciously, don’t just react. As in, don’t succumb to the tyranny of the urgent over the important.