Everyone has ‘To do lists’. And on this list, there are always activities that people ‘have to’, ‘must do’ and’ should do’.

As human beings, we are drawn to pleasure and do our best to avoid pain and discomfort.

By changing the words ‘must do’ to ‘get to’, we can create a paradigm shift that enables us to see a more significant benefit in the activities that we might put off.

For example, an action such as ‘I have to research what our customer’s pain points are’ becomes ‘I get to understand how our customers really think and how I could look at ways to improve their lives.

Or for those who have kids, ‘I have to give the kids a bath’ becomes ‘I get to play with my kids while I get them clean’.

Using the ‘Get to’ words also shifts our mind towards gratitude. For example, I get to cook dinner (when so many people worldwide do not have access to food or clean water). Or, I get to run a problem-solving session (how many people get paid to solve real-world puzzles?).

The more benefits you think of behind doing the tasks, the more motivation you can create behind wanting to complete the job.

I use another 3-words - ‘Why it’s important’ to take it one step further.

The ‘Why it’s important’ is used for each of the ‘Get to do’ actions.

Let’s use my two previous examples:

Get to cook dinner: It’s important because it means I can cook a really nutritious meal that keeps my family and me healthy. It ensures the family workload is evenly distributed. Hence, my partner is happy, meaning I get to have a fun meal with the family straight after cooking and feel content with the day.

Get to run a problem-solving session: It’s important to eliminate the bottleneck that has been causing so much frustration for customers, it will free up our team’s time having to continually respond to customer issues, and it will enable me to demonstrate my leadership skill and team facilitation skills, and I’ll feel happy having conquered a challenging problem, boosting my self-esteem.

If a task is likely to be avoided, it’s worth investing more time in the ‘Why it’s important’ description.

Typically, my client’s ‘Get to’ list has 2 columns, the first with the “get to” task and the second with the ‘Why it’s important’ description.

So now you can ‘get to’ use this productivity hack to help you eliminate your procrastination.

Good luck with the technique, and please let me know how you go with it by responding to this email.

I read every email :)

Cheers,

Nils