1
00:00:03,080 --> 00:00:07,560
Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio.

2
00:00:08,560 --> 00:00:09,120
Speaker 2: Good Morning.

3
00:00:09,440 --> 00:00:13,760
Speaker 1: This is Laura, Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. This

4
00:00:13,800 --> 00:00:17,200
Speaker 1: is the second episode in my five part series on procrastination.

5
00:00:18,160 --> 00:00:21,200
Speaker 1: Today's tip is to conquer a task you've been resisting

6
00:00:21,720 --> 00:00:23,799
Speaker 1: by breaking it into very small steps.

7
00:00:25,079 --> 00:00:27,160
Speaker 2: There's been a lot written about success over.

8
00:00:27,000 --> 00:00:29,520
Speaker 1: The years, but I think one of the most profound

9
00:00:29,520 --> 00:00:35,279
Speaker 1: insights is this small things done repeatedly truly do add up.

10
00:00:36,280 --> 00:00:40,920
Speaker 1: As the poet Avid once put it, dripping water hollows stone.

11
00:00:42,200 --> 00:00:46,400
Speaker 1: Later writers added their addendum to this quote, not by force,

12
00:00:47,040 --> 00:00:50,920
Speaker 1: but by persistence. If you think about it, the Grand

13
00:00:50,960 --> 00:00:53,680
Speaker 1: Canyon is the result of a river subtracting just a

14
00:00:53,680 --> 00:00:57,240
Speaker 1: little bit from the hills at a time. Lots of

15
00:00:57,320 --> 00:01:01,360
Speaker 1: little steps can yield big results. Say you want to

16
00:01:01,360 --> 00:01:04,880
Speaker 1: write a book, well, write five hundred words a day,

17
00:01:05,480 --> 00:01:09,120
Speaker 1: four days a week. Five hundred words isn't much of anything.

18
00:01:09,440 --> 00:01:12,520
Speaker 1: The script for this episode is longer than five hundred words,

19
00:01:13,000 --> 00:01:15,760
Speaker 1: But two thousand words a week gives you fifty thousand

20
00:01:15,800 --> 00:01:19,360
Speaker 1: words in six months. You'll get seventy five thousand words

21
00:01:19,640 --> 00:01:22,640
Speaker 1: in nine months. I write books for a living, and

22
00:01:22,880 --> 00:01:26,639
Speaker 1: I don't come anywhere near that level of output. Learning

23
00:01:26,680 --> 00:01:30,000
Speaker 1: a language seems like a huge undertaking, but it's not

24
00:01:30,040 --> 00:01:34,520
Speaker 1: an endless undertaking. According to the Foreign Service Institute, an

25
00:01:34,520 --> 00:01:37,600
Speaker 1: English speaker could reach general proficiency with a language such

26
00:01:37,600 --> 00:01:41,480
Speaker 1: as Spanish, French, or Italian in about six hundred hours

27
00:01:41,959 --> 00:01:44,800
Speaker 1: over two years. That's less than an hour a day.

28
00:01:45,760 --> 00:01:48,560
Speaker 1: Working with a language app during your commute and then

29
00:01:48,600 --> 00:01:51,200
Speaker 1: meeting a native speaker for lunch once every other week

30
00:01:51,600 --> 00:01:55,720
Speaker 1: could get you there. This insight is important for procrastination

31
00:01:55,800 --> 00:01:59,200
Speaker 1: because often when we resist a task, it's because it

32
00:01:59,240 --> 00:02:04,680
Speaker 1: seems big and nebulous, or possibly scary. This insight is

33
00:02:04,720 --> 00:02:08,400
Speaker 1: important for procrastination because often when we resist a task,

34
00:02:08,880 --> 00:02:13,000
Speaker 1: it's because it seems big and nebulous, or possibly scary.

35
00:02:13,800 --> 00:02:16,360
Speaker 1: Get a new job, go back to school, start a business,

36
00:02:16,480 --> 00:02:20,400
Speaker 1: start a nonprofit, meet someone special. All of this might

37
00:02:20,440 --> 00:02:24,200
Speaker 1: be amazing, but life's pretty busy right now, all about

38
00:02:24,200 --> 00:02:28,480
Speaker 1: next year or the next decade. One way to conquer

39
00:02:28,520 --> 00:02:31,840
Speaker 1: this resistance is to break the task down into tiny,

40
00:02:32,320 --> 00:02:37,840
Speaker 1: doable steps. Let's say you're procrastinating writing a report. Break

41
00:02:37,880 --> 00:02:40,880
Speaker 1: this down into tasks so small that you feel no

42
00:02:41,080 --> 00:02:44,480
Speaker 1: resistance to them, like write the title.

43
00:02:45,320 --> 00:02:46,640
Speaker 2: Okay, that's not so hard.

44
00:02:46,680 --> 00:02:49,240
Speaker 1: I mean, who's bent out of shape by typing the title.

45
00:02:50,080 --> 00:02:52,960
Speaker 1: Then maybe another step is writing down the main point.

46
00:02:53,000 --> 00:02:56,519
Speaker 1: You want to make one sentence, what is this report about?

47
00:02:57,240 --> 00:02:59,919
Speaker 1: Hopefully you know, because that's how you're describing it to people.

48
00:03:00,480 --> 00:03:04,840
Speaker 1: So you write that one sentence down, just one sentence

49
00:03:05,520 --> 00:03:08,880
Speaker 1: that wasn't bad at all. Then maybe another step is

50
00:03:08,919 --> 00:03:11,079
Speaker 1: including three data points you know are important.

51
00:03:11,480 --> 00:03:12,720
Speaker 2: Okay, we'll get those in there.

52
00:03:13,040 --> 00:03:15,000
Speaker 1: Oh and then here's something interesting we could say to

53
00:03:15,000 --> 00:03:17,640
Speaker 1: connect the main point in those data points. Oh and

54
00:03:17,639 --> 00:03:19,079
Speaker 1: by the way, I know, this is how I want

55
00:03:19,120 --> 00:03:22,240
Speaker 1: to sum up and explain those data points. And next thing,

56
00:03:22,280 --> 00:03:26,040
Speaker 1: you know, the momentum is there and the report is

57
00:03:26,080 --> 00:03:29,680
Speaker 1: pretty much written. And here's the crazy thing. If you

58
00:03:29,760 --> 00:03:32,520
Speaker 1: start early enough, you don't even have to do all

59
00:03:32,560 --> 00:03:35,320
Speaker 1: of this on the same day. It never has to

60
00:03:35,360 --> 00:03:37,280
Speaker 1: be unpleasant, and you never have to feel like there's

61
00:03:37,280 --> 00:03:39,960
Speaker 1: too much to do because all these steps are small

62
00:03:40,080 --> 00:03:42,280
Speaker 1: enough that you just don't feel like it's a big deal.

63
00:03:42,880 --> 00:03:44,680
Speaker 1: If you do feel like it's a big deal and

64
00:03:44,680 --> 00:03:48,000
Speaker 1: you start feeling that resistance, back up and make the

65
00:03:48,040 --> 00:03:53,600
Speaker 1: step smaller. But I promise that progress is inherently motivational.

66
00:03:54,400 --> 00:03:56,720
Speaker 1: We overestimate what we can do in the short run,

67
00:03:57,200 --> 00:03:59,640
Speaker 1: but we underestimate what we can do in the long run.

68
00:04:00,360 --> 00:04:04,360
Speaker 1: Even a nebulous project like meeting someone special could be

69
00:04:04,400 --> 00:04:07,440
Speaker 1: done in small steps. You aim to go on one

70
00:04:07,600 --> 00:04:10,520
Speaker 1: first date a week. That's not so bad. I mean,

71
00:04:10,600 --> 00:04:12,960
Speaker 1: just one coffee date. It's not too much of an

72
00:04:13,000 --> 00:04:16,520
Speaker 1: investment of time. But for every four first dates you

73
00:04:16,600 --> 00:04:18,400
Speaker 1: might meet someone you want to go on a second

74
00:04:18,440 --> 00:04:21,719
Speaker 1: date with, maybe one out of every three second dates

75
00:04:21,760 --> 00:04:24,880
Speaker 1: turns into a third date. In a year, you would

76
00:04:24,880 --> 00:04:26,680
Speaker 1: have met four people you were willing to go on

77
00:04:26,720 --> 00:04:29,520
Speaker 1: three dates. With the odds that one of those turns

78
00:04:29,560 --> 00:04:34,159
Speaker 1: into something bigger is pretty good. So today, think about

79
00:04:34,200 --> 00:04:37,560
Speaker 1: some task that you've been putting off. Think about how

80
00:04:37,600 --> 00:04:40,799
Speaker 1: you could break it up into tiny steps. Think about

81
00:04:40,839 --> 00:04:43,360
Speaker 1: making those steps so small that they're really just a

82
00:04:43,400 --> 00:04:46,760
Speaker 1: little better than nothing. If writing five hundred words a

83
00:04:46,800 --> 00:04:49,440
Speaker 1: day is too much, right two hundred. I bet you've

84
00:04:49,480 --> 00:04:52,160
Speaker 1: sent two hundred words of emails by eight thirty am.

85
00:04:52,720 --> 00:04:58,160
Speaker 1: But almost nothing isn't actually nothing, and a little bit

86
00:04:58,200 --> 00:05:03,200
Speaker 1: of something, done over and over again can move mountains

87
00:05:03,640 --> 00:05:07,800
Speaker 1: over the long haul. What big project have you broken

88
00:05:07,800 --> 00:05:11,080
Speaker 1: into tiny steps? I'd love to hear about it. You

89
00:05:11,120 --> 00:05:16,000
Speaker 1: can email me at Before Breakfast podcast at iHeartMedia dot com.

90
00:05:16,720 --> 00:05:20,760
Speaker 1: In the meantime, this is Laura. Thanks for listening and

91
00:05:20,839 --> 00:05:28,560
Speaker 1: here's to making the most of our time. Hey, everybody,

92
00:05:28,720 --> 00:05:30,840
Speaker 1: I'd love to hear from you. You can send me

93
00:05:30,839 --> 00:05:34,520
Speaker 1: your tips, your questions, or anything else. Just connect with

94
00:05:34,520 --> 00:05:38,960
Speaker 1: me on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram at Before Breakfast Pod.

95
00:05:39,600 --> 00:05:44,880
Speaker 1: That's b E the number four then Breakfast pod. You

96
00:05:44,920 --> 00:05:48,360
Speaker 1: can also shoot me an email at Before Breakfast podcast

97
00:05:48,440 --> 00:05:51,800
Speaker 1: at iHeartMedia dot com. That Before Breakfast is spelled out

98
00:05:51,839 --> 00:05:52,600
Speaker 1: with all the letters.

99
00:05:53,240 --> 00:05:53,800
Speaker 2: Thanks so much.

100
00:05:53,800 --> 00:06:02,039
Speaker 1: Should I look forward to staying in touch. Before Breakfast

101
00:06:02,080 --> 00:06:06,120
Speaker 1: is a production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio,

102
00:06:06,600 --> 00:06:10,560
Speaker 1: visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen

103
00:06:10,600 --> 00:06:17,000
Speaker 1: to your favorite shows.