4 Daily Habits To

Learn to do hard things to become your most effective self.

Jari Roomer

Truth is, if you want an extraordinary life, you need to learn how to get yourself to do hard things.

If you continuously procrastinate on the tasks and habits that could have a positive impact on your life — whether exercising, learning, building skills, or working on your business — you’ll stay stuck in the exact same place for months or even years.

Bottom line is, you won’t move forward in your personal life or career if you don’t take consistent action.

Fortunately, learning to do hard things — even if you don’t like it — is both a mindset and a habit you can develop.

That’s why, in this article, I share four daily habits to conquer procrastination, become a true action-taker, and get the hard things done each day.

Use The Chunking Method

As Mark Twain said, “The secret of getting ahead is getting started. The secret of getting started is breaking your complex overwhelming tasks into small, manageable tasks, and then starting on the first one.”

And that’s what the Chunking Method does best — breaking complex tasks into small, manageable sub-tasks so you can get simply get started without feeling overwhelmed.

You see, most people keep their tasks too ambiguous and intimidating. Our brain doesn’t like this, so it will find all kinds of excuses to take the path of least resistance—aka, procrastination.

But, when we chunk those big tasks or projects into smaller, bite-sized tasks, they will no longer be intimidating — and thus mental resistance decreases significantly.

For example, this is how most people describe their tasks and projects:

• Write for my book
• Study for upcoming exam
• Prepare work presentation
• Work on personal finances

No wonder you’ll procrastinate when you formulate tasks this way. First of all, it’s too vague. Second of all, these tasks are too intimidating since each of them has dozens of sub-tasks before they can be completed.

This is why we need to chunk these complex, intimidating tasks into much more precise sub-tasks.

For example, studying for an upcoming exam turns into:

• Read chapter one
• Make detailed summary of chapter one
• Read chapter two
• Make detailed summary of chapter two
• Study both chapter summaries for at least one hour
• Etc. etc.

The more precise we define our sub-tasks, the more we decrease mental resistance towards it and the easier it gets to take action.

Instead of having one big and abstract task, it’s divided into specific sub-tasks that are much less vague and intimidating than ‘study for exam.’

Besides, we get a sense of pride and accomplishment once a sub-task is completed, fueling further motivation to keep moving forward.

All in all, by chunking big, intimidating tasks into smaller sub-tasks, we can steadily work towards completing our biggest objectives without getting overwhelmed or discouraged.

Practice The 15-Minute Rule

The 15-Minute Rule consists of three simple steps:

1. Pick one task you’ve been procrastinating on
2. Set a timer for 15 minutes
3. Get started and work until the timer rings

The power of the 15-Minute Rule is that it makes the ‘getting started’ part much less intimidating. In any task, getting started is usually the hardest step that triggers the most mental resistance.

But, anyone can work for just 15 minutes, right?

It doesn’t trigger nearly as much mental resistance as telling yourself to work for two, four, or eight hours.

The advantage of the 15-Minute Rule is that, once the 15 minutes are over, you’ve already started. The biggest obstacle has already been conquered.

Now, you’ve got some momentum going — you’re already in motion — and it’s much easier to keep going. It requires a lot less mental energy, self-discipline, and willpower to continue working once you’re already moving forward.

This is one of the most powerful productivity rules: Once you’re already in motion, it’s much easier to stay in motion.

So, whenever you don’t feel like writing, set a timer for 15 minutes and just get started. Don’t feel like studying? Set a timer for 15 minutes and get started.

The 15-Minute Rule helps conquer the most challenging step of any task — getting started. And once you’ve conquered this step, you can ride a wave of momentum to keep moving forward.

And even if you stop after the timer rings, you’ve still started. You’ve still done something. You’ve still sparked some momentum.

That’s better than nothing.

Seek Social Accountability

Truth is, when alone, most of us find ways to bullshit ourselves. We come up with all kinds of excuses why it’s okay not to exercise, study, or work on our goals today. We actually believe these excuses. And since there’s no one checking in on us, we get away with these excuses.

Tomorrow, we might do it all again. And again. And again.

Yet, when others are ‘looking’, we tend to be the best version of ourselves. All of a sudden, our excuses don’t seem that valid anymore. We train heavier. We work harder. We give more effort.

This is because we are social creatures (yes, even the biggest introverts) who do anything to increase our social status.

When others are watching our actions, we tend to be our best selves because we don’t want to lose face. We want other people to think highly of us. We don’t want to be perceived as lazy, unmotivated, or unreliable.

Of course, you should do things because you want to and because it’s your life — not merely because of increasing your social status.

However, you can use social accountability to your advantage to keep you from procrastinating on the goals you desire most. Here are a few ways to create social accountability:

• Tell one or more of your most motivated friends to regularly check in on your progress and habits (aka, they become your accountability partner)
• Join a mastermind (business, self-improvement, finance) where you regularly have to show your results to like-minded people
• Hire a personal coach or trainer that gets paid to check in on your progress and results
• Pursue goals together with people (e.g. get a workout- or study buddy)

In my experience, when you stop doing things alone and start surrounding yourself with winners who hold you accountable for your actions, you will become the most effective version of yourself.

Win The Morning

Winning the morning creates powerful momentum that you carry throughout the rest of the day. By starting the day productive, positive, and focused, you’re much more likely to create an effective, positive, and focused day.

Likewise, if your morning is chaotic, negative, and lazy, this tends to lead to messy and unproductive days. All in all, the way you start the day sets the tone for the rest of the day.

For example, if you start the day by:

• Reviewing your long-term goals
• Eating a healthy breakfast
• Drinking enough water
• Getting some movement
• Making a detailed action plan for the day (making a schedule + list of top priorities)

You’ll have an entirely different start of the day than someone who spends their first 30 minutes snoozing, followed by scrolling through social media and checking fearmongering news. These distractions leave them no time to prepare a healthy breakfast, plan the day, or focus on their own goals.

You see, most people start the day by reacting to all kinds of external fluff — emails, opinions of strangers on social media, or fearmongering from the news — instead of proactively carving out time for their goals, priorities, and health.

This low-quality start of the day creates a negative ripple effect that leads tomore stress, distraction, and procrastination.

All in all, win the morning by following an empowering morning routine. Your morning routine doesn’t even have to take you more than 30 minutes — a simple routine can be highly effective too.

What matters most is that it sparks positive momentum, helps you stay focused on your goals, and gets you into a motivated frame of mind to tackle the rest of the day.

Closing Thoughts

Of course, these productivity hacks all help to conquer procrastination and make it a little easier for yourself to take action.

But, sometimes, you also have to learn to suck it up, stop feeding your excuses, and stop feeling sorry for yourself.

Yes, these productivity hacks all help, but they can’t make you take action.

It’s still your responsibility, your choice — and yours only.

Want to upgrade your productivity? Check out the Peak Productivity Planner. After years of researching productivity, I’ve designed this planner to help you stay focused on your priorities, get more done each day, and achieve your long-term goals. Click here to check it out.