Chapter 1. Stop Thinking, Just Execute

The art of following through is something that allows you to create

the life that you actually want instead of settling for the life you

currently have.

It can be said to be composed of four parts: focus, self-discipline,

action, and persistence—all equally important.

However, it’s not just as easy as knowing you have to do it and thus

doing it. There are powerful reasons we don’t finish what we start

and follow through very often. These reasons can generally be split

into two camps: inhibiting tactics and psychological roadblocks.

Inhibiting tactics are the ways we plan against ourselves without

even realizing it. They include (1) setting bad goals, (2)

procrastination, (3) indulging in temptations and distractions, and

(4) poor time management.

Psychological roadblocks are the ways we don’t follow through

because we are unconsciously protecting ourselves. These include

(1) laziness and lack of discipline, (2) fear of judgment, rejection,

and failure, (3) perfectionism out of insecurity, and (4) lack of selfawareness.

Chapter 2: Staying Hungry

How do we stay hungry and motivated? By delving deep and really

asking what internal and external motivators you have at your

disposal—a task that is rarely performed.

External motivators are when we leverage other people, places, and

things to push us into action. For the most part, these are when we

want to avoid negative consequences involving other people,

places, and things. These methods include accountability partners

and groups, putting money down upfront, and self-bribery.

Internal motivators are when we look at how we stand to benefit

and improve our lives. These are universal needs, drives, and

desires that are easy to lose track of. The easy way to find these is

to answer a set of questions that directly asks things such as how am

I going to benefit from this and how does my life stand to improve

from this? It’s only through answering these questions that you

realize what you are neglecting.

Anything we want to accomplish has an associated opportunity

cost. We must sacrifice, even if we are sacrificing our ability to lie

on the couch and watch television. We can deal with this mental

obstacle by playing with the cost-benefit ratio so the cost is

minimized or the benefit is maximized.

Motivation has been shown to work best when we are reminded of

it—otherwise, out of sight, out of mind. Thus, you should have cues

you’re your motivations all around you—but make sure to keep

them distinct and memorable, use all five senses (even taste), and

make sure to change and switch them periodically to avoid growing

used to them and forgetting them.

Chapter 3: Create a Manifesto

A manifesto is nothing more than a set of rules to follow every day.

We might hate rules, but rules take the guesswork out of our days

and give us guidelines to follow. They make matters black and

white, which is helpful to following through because there is simply

no other choice.

Rule 1: Are you acting out of laziness? If so, is this a

characterization you want about yourself?

Rule 2: Three major tasks a day, maximum. Differentiate between

important tasks, urgent tasks, and simple wasted motion.

Rule 3: Create daily limitations and requirements for yourself.

These keep you within the bounds of what you know you need to

do. These are also the building blocks of good habits.

Rule 4: Sometimes we lose sight of what we want to accomplish.

Thus, reaffirm your intentions by stating “I want,” “I will,” and “I

won’t” statements.

Rule 5: Try to look into the future, 10 minutes, hours, and days at a

time. Do you like what you see when you consider not following

through? Is it worth the benefit to the current self at the expense of

the future self? Probably not.

Rule 6: It’s just 10 minutes, right? So if you want to quit, it’s just 10

minutes. And if you need to wait, it’s just 10 minutes.

Chapter 4: Follow-Through Mindsets

Following through is 100% mental, which means it’s probably a

good idea to talk about the mindsets you attempt to embody.

Mindset 1: It’s all worthwhile. If you feel that your hard work will

get you somewhere, you belong and are as good as anyone else, and

you feel impact toward your overall goals, execution is easier to

stick with.

Mindset 2: Become comfortable with discomfort. Everything you

want to do will have elements of discomfort, unless you just want to

watch television all day by yourself. Thus, becoming used to this

feeling allows you to tackle what you want without fear.

Mindset 3: Without following through, there is no learning. Only

when you finish something can you evaluate yourself and correct

your errors. Embody an information-gathering mindset.

Mindset 4: The detrimental power of stress and anxiety can’t be

overstated. Even being in a poor mood is dangerous to your

productivity and follow-through. Be aware and take proactive

measures to modulate your stress levels.

Chapter 5: The Science of Smashing Procrastination

Tackling procrastination is similar to pushing Sisyphus’s stone. You

can beat it back for a bit, but it’s so natural that you will never be

fully rid of it. The problem is typified by time inconsistency, where

we comprise two selves that don’t have overlapping desires—one

wants gratification in the future and the other wants it right now.

Temptation bundling is an effective method to battle

procrastination. It consists of combining your unpleasurable tasks

with something pleasurable. This mainly works because you are

battling time inconsistency and giving both selves what they want

simultaneously.

Start easy and small. Procrastination thrives off inertia. Therefore,

you need to make the path to motion and action as easy as possible.

Then eventually you can gain momentum—the opposite of inertia.

Sometimes beating procrastination just requires a kick in the pants.

Fear and productive paranoia can do that to you—if you are so

fearful of the negative repercussions you will face, then you will

certainly be spurred into action. But this is not a method to use very

frequently.

Chapter 6. No Distraction Zone

Minimize your distractions in your environment. It turns out that

out of sight is out of mind with distractions, so don’t keep anything

stimulating near your workstation otherwise your willpower will

slowly deplete itself.

Create default actions wherever possible. This is where the easiest

and lowest resistance past for you is the path you want the most.

This is also done through curating and designing your environment

for productivity.

Singletasking is an important concept because it definitively proves

the flaws of multitasking. When you switch from task to task, you

create attention residue. This means it takes a while for you to

adjust to each new task, even if you were already familiar with it.

You can eliminate this by singletasking, and also by batching,

which is when you do all similar types of tasks together to

capitalize on your mental efficiency.

A don’t-do list can be just as powerful as a to-do list because we are

rarely told what to ignore. As a result, these distractions or sneaky

time-suckers can invade our space without us even knowing we are

being duped. Include tasks you can’t move forward on, make

progress on, or help.

The 40–70 rule is when you beat inaction through the amount of

information you seek. If you have less than 40%, don’t act. But if

you have 70%, you must act. You’ll never have 100%, and chances

are, 70% is more than sufficient—the rest you learn along the way,

anyway.

Finally, you might want to do nothing from time to time. This is rest

and relaxation—but you should think of it as mental recovery. What

does an athlete do between races or matches? You got it—they

recover so they are primed to work again when necessary.

Chapter 7: Deadly Pitfalls

Pitfalls to following through and finishing what you start? Too

many to name. But a select few in this chapter are stronger and

more dangerous than most.

False hope syndrome is when you expect that you will be able to

change or improve to an unrealistic degree. When you inevitably

fail to meet this mark, there is a very real backlash that results in

you being even less motivated and disciplined than before you

started. To beat this, set proper expectations based on your history

and understand the difference between goals and expectations.

Overthinking is sneaky because it feels like action and it even feels

productive. But it’s not. Overthinking is when you fixate and can’t

seem to take the first step toward action. Zero in on the details that

matter, deliberately ignore everything else, and you’ll feel much

more clarity.

Worrying is when you fixate on something and inevitably start

drawing out the negative scenarios and pitfalls. However, worrying

is also when you fixate on things you can’t control while ignoring

what you can control—the present. The solution is to focus on what

you can do right now and only right now.

Do you know yourself? Well, what about in terms of productivity

and how you work and produce the best? You can consider time of

day, environment, setting, and so on. But you should consider that

knowing yourself is also the ability to look at yourself and

understand why you may have failed or come up short. It is the

ability to self-diagnose and be self-aware.

Chapter 8. Daily Systems for Success

Systems are sets of daily behaviors. It doesn’t have to be more

complex than that. Systems stand in stark contrast to goals because

goals are one-off accomplishments, while systems emphasize

consistency and long-term success.

Keep a scoreboard for everything large and trivial. This keeps you

motivated and striving toward growth and progress.

Manage your time better by understanding how long things will

take in reality and accounting for your own quirks and

inefficiencies.

Lower your transaction costs by making undesirable behaviors

inconvenient and unwieldy while making desirable behaviors

convenient and easy.

Gather all of the information and materials you need all at once and

before you get started. This allows you to work interruption-free

and gather moment.