PROCRASTINATION: THE ART OF GETTING THINGS DONE

E89 PROCRASTINATION_ THE ART OF GETTING THINGS DONE

Transcript

Dalton Anderson (00:01.966) Welcome to Venture Step Podcasts where we discuss entrepreneurship, industry trends, and the occasional book review. Look, we've all been there. That nagging to-do list that never gets done, new items being added all the time, and the oldest items aren't being worked on. It's too big of problem for this weekend, push it to next weekend, and it just keeps getting pushed along and punted. Classic procrastination. Recently, during a Toastmasters speech, I had a talk about

procrastination and how to deal with it. And in that speech, I only had 45 seconds to discuss the topic. But in my conversations and my thought process of talking about that topic in Toastmasters, I thought about it a little bit more in a little bit more detail and wanted to provide some input. I know we touched on this topic a couple of times because I think it's one of my standout skills. Not saying that myself, other people tell me that.

one of the observations that my friend have, my friends are a friend, I've got more than one friend, come on, I'm not that weird. basically the gist of it was out of any of my friends that I know, you're the only person that you can say you're gonna do something and then you just do it. Like it's crazy. His example was I was gonna fix my style, I'm still working on it, but I've made

massive strides in the right direction. And I told them that I was going to do that. And then I did it like literally a couple of days later, a week later, all I had rearranged my outfit, my outfits looked better, et cetera, et cetera. Or if I say I'm going to do something pretty much consider it done because I'm going to do it. And a lot of people say they're going to do stuff, but the execution of doing that or the sacrifices that you have to take on to do those things.

Typically the follow through is not there and well, then that means that you don't get the stuff done that you wanted to get done or said you were gonna do. So in this episode, we're gonna be discussing procrastination and how to deal with it. And it's basically piggybacking on the topic that I had in my Toastmasters. Before I do that, my name is Dalton Anderson. I'm your host. I like to run, read.

Dalton Anderson (02:26.914) books, do this podcast. I've got a technical background and I work in insurance. And if you like this show, I've been saying this more often than not, because Spotify is on my back about it. But if you like the show, can you like it, follow or subscribe? It really helps me out. And of course, if not, no worries. Don't worry about it. So. I think one of the first things about procrastination is.

forming habits that are not aligned with your baseline or goals. So if you are a listener of this show, I talked about how I got really sick in June of 2025. I had to check the year. I'm like, are we almost done with 2025? But in 2025, June, I'd gotten deathly ill from some weird virus and

I had to go to the hospital. lost 30 pounds. My hair is falling out. It's growing back, but a lot of it has fallen out, which is quite sad. So I got to figure that one out. That's one of those next challenges. But in a general sense, I just couldn't eat food. And once I was well, I went weeks like eating rice and applesauce was what I was eating all day. So I wasn't getting enough calories when I was eating food. And then when I wasn't eating food, I just wasn't eating. And so that was pretty difficult.

But in that journey, I picked up some habits that weren't so good. So when I was sick, I was actually too sick to look at screens because I would get nauseous, I'd vertigo. And so you can't look at any screens. But once I was well enough, I started looking at screens and going on my phone at night in the morning, reading stuff or listening to things. And I immediately recognized that this is off baseline and this is not

normal. This is not something that I want to support, nor is it something that I condone. And I've got to nip it in the bud right away. Because this is a bad habit for me. And it's changing the dynamic of the day of every day that I live. And it's going to be a daily influence. So we've got to fix that. And so what I did was I downloaded one of those screen

Dalton Anderson (04:53.814) screen protecting apps or screen monitoring apps, not really screen protector, but screen monitoring app. And I used stay free. Yeah, stay free. So stay free. really liked because it was free and it has a web app. It has a Chrome extension. It has a mobile app. so you can, you can monitor

your situation at any machine. You can monitor on your phone, on your web browser, on your computer. And so you can have full analytics on your screen time of how you're using your devices. And another thing that they can do that if you recommend doing it, or if, sorry, if you do that, I recommend that you think about it is you can enable

stay free to block YouTube shorts, reels and TikTok and short form videos on X. And so if you have a problem with these TikTok like videos and you have a hard time not scrolling on them and wasting a lot of time, and or if you get just too sucked into the doom scroll and you forget about time, then you could set limits or you could just

full out block it. But if you're doing that, you've also got to recognize that that app has access to your data and knows what you're looking at. Right. Because the only way for it to know that you're looking at a YouTube short on YouTube is that it's got to be monitoring your, your, whatever you're looking at. So it does have access to your data on those apps, just calling out that if you're not comfortable with that, then

Well, there's really no way to block these types of content. Unfortunately, the apps don't allow you to do that. these are these third party solutions to do so, but it does come with some privacy concerns and like who knows what they're doing with all of it. But hey, I was like, I don't care. I'm good with it. unless you are, my perspective is,

Dalton Anderson (07:21.526) Unless you are fully locked down on encrypted emails, encrypting your web traffic, bouncing it around to different parts of the world, and then you don't have anything location based on your phone, or your phone's location is completely turned off and not accessible to anyone or anything, then yeah, then probably care about

them looking at your shorts and these different things. if you're just a normal person and you're not that concerned about the security and your data privacy, then don't worry about it. That's my opinion. Because unless you're doing all those things, you're not really saving anything, right? Like you're not preventing people to accessing your private information. It's just

It's just easier, right? it, it, as I talked about it in the last episode, there's no right or wrong approach. This is just a different, different perspective. And you valuing your data privacy is great, but unless you're going all out, you're only as strong as your weakest link when it comes to security and David privacy. So regardless, I like, I like stay free. I tried a couple different apps. I enjoy stay free.

I haven't used it as of recently, but I used it for months after I got sick. So I wouldn't look at reels or or TikToks. And I like having reels and stuff blocked because once again, in YouTube shorts, because it doesn't allow you to view that stuff or sorry, doesn't allow you to remove your viewability of that stuff within the app, unfortunately. So you're stuck with it.

Okay, so nipping things in the butt, right? Viciously attacking things that are gonna put you off track. And another thing is just remove yourself from the situation. So I have really always done this, but before I got sick, I would charge my phone, and it's a little different because I lived and worked in one room, so.

Dalton Anderson (09:41.998) I didn't necessarily have a separate place because I lived with my grandma member when I was remodeling her house. So all my stuff was in one room. But now that I live by myself, I charge my phone outside of my bedroom in the morning and at night. My phone is not in my bedroom. I don't have my phone in my bedroom. I don't use my phone in my bedroom because

you can get into the habit of going on your phone in bed, because your bed's nice and warm, it's cozy, you like it there, it's very nice, and you go on your phone. And you can easily go on your phone for an hour, because where you're at and the way you're positioned is very comfortable. So the easiest way to prevent that from happening is just to remove yourself from the situation. So in this instance, you can just have your phone charging outside your bedroom.

If you're concerned about people calling you that something important, just have it outside your bedroom and have the ringer on on loud, or you can have a smartwatch or something like that and answer the phone call or the vibration will wake you up for phone calls.

It's easy as that, right? Everyone, think, on this podcast that's listening right now, they have been like, man, on a Saturday or Sunday, they're like, man, I just spent two hours on my phone. It's a nice day out. I could have been outside. What? Hey, you live, learn. And that stuff consistently happens where you accidentally lose track of time. You're on your phone in your bed, either at night,

or in the morning, nothing that you see is gonna change the game, most likely. So just leave it outside. You don't need it in your room. Your room is for sleeping and other nighttime bed activities. That's it. That's all you gotta worry about. I think that's just one thing, is nipping bad habits right away and then...

Dalton Anderson (11:50.8) Another thing is just, if you have trouble doing this, removing yourself from the situation is the best option. Like if you have trouble not drinking too much, don't go out with your buddies. Don't go out with the girls. Simple, simple, just go to dinner, have a drink, or don't have any drinks, or don't go to Mimoso Brunch.

a ramosas brunch and then don't go out clubbing or to the bar late night. Simple. It's so simple. Just don't do it. And then you don't have the opportunity to mess up. If you don't trust yourself and you don't think that you're capable of, capable is the wrong word, capable is very strong take. If you don't trust yourself and

you don't want to put yourself in that situation, don't do it. It's just very, very simple. But I think that what I talked about earlier was people have a hard time executing on these things because it's just fundamentally difficult. Like it's not cool. You have peer pressure. You have all these other things. Like, for instance, people wanted me to go out last night.

I knew that I had to do these podcast episodes and get ready for my travels. And so I told them, no, I'm not going. Here's why. And they're like, you can do that whenever blah, blah, blah. And if you don't have this question set that we'll talk about later in your repertoire, then you're just going to get convinced to do a lot of things that you shouldn't be doing because one, they might put you in situations that you don't want to be in.

or two, they take you off track of where you wanna go. Those are kind of the two routes.

Dalton Anderson (13:52.091) So after you're nipping things in the bud that are bad and you are taking yourself out of situations that are not optimal, the next thing that you'd want to do is create a baseline, your baseline minimum for the week. So for me, since I was sick and very sick, I don't necessarily have an established baseline and that's why I was so worried and cognizant of new habits.

popping up because I don't have a baseline. just moved, still figuring out things and I was super sick. So my body just straight up just cannot handle doing all the things I used to do right now. And that's just the simple fact of it. I'm getting way better and I feel really good. I feel great today. And I think you've been hearing it in these recent episodes, just the energy, the impact, the, the enunciation of the voice and filling the room of your ears or something like that. But

establishing a minimum, right? So your minimum might be, I wanna do, and we're gonna do just like extra curriculars right now. So we'll say, okay, I wanna attend my son or daughter's soccer practice once a week. So she has two practices a week. I need to make sure that I go to one of them. And then during that practice, I'm gonna walk around the field and see my son or daughter play.

then I want to have two workouts a week. And then I want to do the book club reading with my partner or something like that. And that's your minimum. And then everything else is extra. So me coming back from my sickness, some of the things that I established as a minimum was long run. So I was doing a long run consistently, like every weekend, like 20 mile run, which is, quite far and don't recommend you do that.

because it puts a lot of strain on your body. for me, that was my minimum. And I did that for a couple of weeks and I feel good, right? Like I feel better. And that's what made me feel like I was getting stuff done. I was progressing every week. It was getting easier. So it wasn't as hard. And another thing that's part of my minimum is one podcast episode. So I do a podcast episode every...

Dalton Anderson (16:19.564) week. The only time that I've missed a week and I've missed three weeks, so I still owe you three episodes is when I was super sick and in the hospital, which I think is excusable. Like I physically could not shower and eat food. So I think I have an out there. I have a pretty good excuse that I missed the episode, but I've done episodes with the flu, the COVID.

like a random infection that I got from Mexico City, all sorts of stuff. I have gotten through the episode.

And it was brutal. It wasn't fun. And I was like, wow, this is why you want to have episodes in the bank. But that's, that's the problem. You have to have minimum expectations for yourself that you're getting it done no matter what. And so at the end of the week, and if I ever record an episode, guess what? Guess who's staying up late to get that episode out? Me. Guess who stole that?

opportunity of good sleep and the free time of that day, me. And so it's very clear that if you have a minimum, you're doing it no matter what, and those are your expectations of yourself, and you're holding yourself accountable, then the next thing is asking yourself these questions, like having a question set that helps you.

Right? So I talked about there's two paths of either you're being put on a path that is not optimal or sorry, put in a situation that's not optimal that takes you off your path or you are just not doing things like you're legitimately procrastinating. So the first question that you want to ask yourself is,

Dalton Anderson (18:23.213) Are you stealing from tomorrow? So a question that I ask myself consistently, when I don't wanna do something and I'm like, I really, really don't wanna do it. Like I've got a headache or I'm not feeling well or blah, blah, blah. Whatever the reason is. I ask myself, darling, are you too tired or sick?

to complete the task of today and are willing to steal from the you of tomorrow.

and would the Dalton of tomorrow be disappointed that the Dalton yesterday didn't do it? And it hits home. It hits home where you're like, okay, well, I already have these plans tomorrow and then for me to fit everything in, I'd either have to cancel my plans or push back what I need to get done further and steal from another Dalton. And so if you're constantly stealing from yourself,

It kind of hurts. It's not very nice. If you're stealing from your friends consistently, your friends wouldn't like you. And so if you can frame it in that way, and maybe it's a psychological thing to where, hey, I don't want to steal from my friends. myself of tomorrow is my friend. And I don't want to be the person who stole from that day. I don't want to steal from the future me.

That helps with I don't feel like it, right? And another thing is like the time is going to pass anyways. So why not now? Why not now? Like how much time do you legitimately have left with your friends and family and the world? Like, who knows? Like these things are not for sure answers. Like you're there's no guarantee that you're going to retire. There's no guarantee that you're going to live the rest of your life with your girlfriend or wife or whoever.

Dalton Anderson (20:31.185) It's just there isn't any guarantee. So you might as well start what you wanna do now. it's just that it's eventually gonna have to get done no matter what, because this is what you are expecting of yourself. And so you might as well start now. Another thing I do like to look at is like how much longer I have to live. It's a little morbid, but there is this website.

that you just plug in your birthday and your year and it tells you how many weeks that you've lived and then how many leaves you have left. And it really puts in perspective how long you only have and you're like, wow, that's it? Are you kidding me? These weeks are flying by. Like last time I checked, I had this number and now I've got this. Like it's just like, man, I really have to make the most of it. And it's not to be in this way like, everybody's gonna die soon so it doesn't matter.

It's more of like...

living

Living with a sense of urgency to live, right? Where you are consciously making decisions that create the best life for yourself and your friends and your family, given that you don't have that long.

Dalton Anderson (21:57.158) And I think when you recognize that things just look a little different. Like they have a little bit of they have a little bit of extra shine and warmth to them where you're just trying to make the best situation for everybody. And little things don't necessarily bother you as much like where it's just a small, minute problem. You only have enough consciousness to deal with what

you need to deal with. you allow everything to be significant, then nothing is significant. And so you have to have your minimum, you work on your minimum, and then you slowly make progress towards those things in a social, professional or self-worth capacity. And then you move on, right? Like some person who skipped you in line or is rude, who cares? Like have a great day. I hope you find love. Okay. Like go away. Like it's just fine. Thank you.

These things don't matter because you've got other important things to worry about. And if you're taking these things off your minimum or your expectations, then it's distracting you. You're getting distracted by these things that aren't.

Dalton Anderson (23:12.463) Okay, so.

Dalton Anderson (23:17.007) That's how I've dealt with procrastination and it's really helped me. And another thing that's also part of procrastination is it's not ready yet. It's not good enough. I'm not good enough. I can't do it. Look at everybody else and they're comparing themselves to somebody who's been doing it for 20 years. Like get real. Get real with yourself. You're not gonna be good. You're not gonna be good the first time you do it. No one's good the first time they do it. If you go back and look at my first

three episodes, four episodes, they are garbage. They're garbage episodes. But you know why they're good? Because I put them out there. They're good enough in that moment. And you've gotta be good enough in your mind to submit these things because you have to have that mindset of, okay, I need more at bats. For me to get better, I need to get more playing time. For me to get better at speaking, I need to speak more. For me to be a better podcaster, I need to...

have more episodes and it's simple. It's simple. And that's another form of procrastination where people are like, I'm not a good enough coder because, you know, I look at all these other people's stuff on GitHub and they've got amazing projects and look at my projects. And you have this comparison of what other people have done or they've devoted 10 years of their life to the craft or something like that, or this singular project. And you're using that to

as a measuring stick to what your efforts are. But your efforts are incredible on themselves. Like you have a different perspective. You have a different way of approaching the problem. And sharing that with the world gives you the opportunity to express yourself and get better. It's the other day. It's all about you. It's not about everybody else. It's you. And so I talk about that in the podcast episode, episodes of the podcast is that this podcast,

very grateful that people listen to it and people find enjoyment and think that the topics are interesting sometimes,

Dalton Anderson (25:22.885) But it's fundamentally about improving myself, making myself a better speaker, better person, more interesting person. And then that should all circle around to becoming a better and...

Articulate host.

expanding my lexicon by speaking all the time. And me becoming a better speaker fundamentally helps me with many things in my life where it's professional, personal, social aspects is pretty important with this age of AI because AI is gonna be able to do a lot of stuff for us. So you'll need to pick up certain skills and I think.

Being able to speak has always been important and will always be relevant.

And so there's these two types of procrastination. There's the one, I don't want to do it. I don't have time for it. And then the other one is it's not good enough. Both of those are.

Dalton Anderson (26:30.309) Both of those are difficult to overcome, but if you ask yourself questions like, hey, are you willing to steal from tomorrow? The you of tomorrow. If you're willing to do that and you're too sick, fine, that's all right. If you feel that your work or your craft is not good enough to publish or to move forward, then...

Why? How are you gonna get better if you don't put anything out there? How are you gonna get better if you don't have feedback? Like the fastest way to get better at something is to open yourself up to criticism. To allow people to criticize your work and the show and what you're doing and that's the way that you could progress faster. Having this iterative high feedback loop allows you to progress faster than the other people.

It's not a competition, it is about you, but if you wanna get better and be more confident, and that confidence should resonate to other aspects of your life, then you have to put yourself out there in any regard. If it's just art, content, sports, anything, you've gotta put yourself out there, relationships, and meeting your minimums.

Right? Where I've been doing this besides when I got sick every week for over a year. And I talked about it in prior episodes where it's just, I've been in some of these meetings with executives and people don't know who I am. And they're like, why is this kid here? Who brought the kid? is it? Take a kid to work day. And then I speak about the topics that are asked of me and they're like, okay, that's why he's here.

Okay, understood.

Dalton Anderson (28:32.697) And these things are really cool to be part of because it's like, dang, that was incredible.

And the podcast helped me do that because the podcast allows me to speak in a way that is compiling technical information and hopefully in a concise manner, sometimes, sometimes not.

But this circular approach affects everything in my life where the podcast helps me improve. keeps me disciplined. keeps me curious and it adds interesting skills and knowledge base that I can have in conversations and also makes me an excellent speaker. Sometimes I still have trouble wearing the mask and pretending to be somebody else. That's slowly coming off. I think it hasn't come off after I got super sick because that my friend was a battle of battles and I had to reach into

places that I haven't had to in a while. And yeah, it was fun, but also hard. And I'm just really happy to be here and to bring you the energy that I am today.

But of course, wherever you are in this world, good evening, good afternoon, good morning. I appreciate you listening into this episode and I hope that if you have trouble dealing with Prask Nation, this episode helped you out. And if not, offer some advice to your peers because they're probably searching on this topic and on a similar journey as yourself. So of course, have a great.

Dalton Anderson (30:15.154) day and I hope you listen in next week. Until then, goodbye.