 Hi everyone, my name is Matthew Gaddy and I am your Engineering Productivity Coach. One downfall, the dark side to productivity is that it can be used as a method for procrastination. All the planning and the time blocking and the structuring of our days, we can get too engrossed in the preparing to be productive and never get into the actual doing of being productive. So this is what we want to talk about today. Are you using productivity as an excuse for procrastination? And if so, how can you fix that? So I have a couple questions that I want you guys to be honest with yourself about and just some other talking points for you to think about as you go through your productivity journey to make sure that you're not using productivity as a method of procrastination. So the first thing I want you to think about is are you planning to take action or are you planning to avoid action? Is the planning that you're doing going to support you? Are you in your journey or are you doing it so you don't actually have to start? A good example of this would be preparing to climb a mountain. Are you assembling your gear and are you getting everything together so that when you go on the mountain, you know where everything is, you have all your equipment? Are you continually to put your gear together so you never really go up the mountain? Think about that. One other thing to think about that can kind of support you in this question is how adverse is the task that you're planning about? How adverse is that particular task? Is it something where you're planning because you're like, I don't really want to do this. Are you planning to get it out? Are you avoiding that task with the planning? Once again, is that procrastination? And another things you can think about is are you planning to get through this adverse task or are you planning to keep yourself from it? And be honest with yourself about it. Being honest with yourself when you ask yourself these questions is very, very important because the person that will help the most is you. And just remember that not only in productivity but in life in general, these questions will help you out the most. Another thing to think is how critical is it for you to have the entire plan mapped out before you start? One key element to productivity that is often looked down upon is done is better than perfect, but I completely stand by that. It's better for you to have something on the page than for you to have the perfect plan. Something planned is better than nothing planned. And the best part about that is once you get something written down and once you begin to start checking through it, you'll begin to see where areas need to be refined. It's much easier to edit a plan, a bad plan into a good plan than it is for you to create a perfect plan on the first try. So just start, jump in, sketch out an outline of what you need to do, but above all make sure you're starting first and then you can refine later. One other thing, the last thing I want you guys to remember is that you learn more from mistakes. You learn more from mistakes because they hurt and they typically give you immediate feedback and a reminder of what not to do. So if you're in a case where you're trying something new and they don't have anyone to ask or gives advice over whatever is going on, go in. Don't be afraid to make mistakes. Own the mistakes that you make and make sure that you don't have them happen again. Mistakes are affected because they hurt and we have this plain pain pleasure complex in our brains. We try to avoid pain and we run towards pleasure. So use that to your advantage. If you make a mistake, feel the pain, understand where the pain came from, understand how to transition this pain into pleasure, which is how do I learn from this problem so that I can move from it being a pain to this situation bringing me pleasure. And remember that and continue to do that the next time you start. Never run away from the problem, never run away from the mistake because if you run away from the mistake, you will miss the lesson and you will be keen to make that mistake again. The most difficult thing for you to do sometimes and one thing that I am being more intentional about as well is when you're making a mistake, admit you make the mistake and just live with the consequences because it's better for you to make the mistake, acknowledge it and get it right and fixed than it is for you to avoid acknowledging the mistake, never learn the right way to do it and continue to make that mistake over and over and over and over again because the more that mistake is made, the bigger the ramification, negative ramifications of the mistake that you made is. So if you really want to learn something quickly, outline a plan to make as many mistakes as possible. You will learn more from experience and failure than you ever will from a success because success, you have gone through the program once you've only seen one option but as you know in life, options are like a tree, a tree branch kind of where the option split off into multiple different directions and when you're making mistakes, you get to see as many of those branches as possible. So just make sure that you're making as many mistakes as possible, learn from them and make sure you're not using productivity principles to aid you in your procrastination. Get out there, get started, plan to do, don't plan to avoid and ask yourself what am I trying to run away from and tackle it head on. Go ahead and start and we'll figure out a plan as we go. So this is our video for today. If you have any questions, leave them down below and I will see you guys in the next video.