 Hello, I'm Neil Mossy, welcome back to the Happy Hut. I am a development producer. I help other people like creators and performers and executives to get ideas out of their heads to make people laugh. Most of the time, intentionally, I have done it a very long time. Look back when I even had hair, but I've got two secrets that I want to share with you in this video. The first secret is that I put off making stuff. I am really good at putting stuff off. And that's me being modest. I think, no, I know that I am one of the leading procrastinators in Britain today. I'm putting off stuff right now, even while I'm talking to you. Look at this wall. Look how much I'm putting off right now. That's all me. So for this procrastination buster video, you are in really good hands. My second secret is this. I think I have got the world's best technique for how to stop procrastinating. It's so good that I procrastinate from using it that if I even start using it, I always follow through with what I want to do, which is the thing that I'm putting off. I call it experimental nano-chunking. Nano-chunk. See, making that jingle meant that I could put off making this video just that little bit longer. You know, make the process just that little bit more complicated. Leave a comment below. I'd love to know how your brain sabotages you. I'm going to walk you through experimental nano-chunking, and it's come from me putting together two ways to stop procrastinating. The first came from this guy, Tony Robbins. I'll put a link down below in the description. But in here, it's a thick book, he proposes an idea called chunking, which is all about breaking down a big task down into manageable chunks. So writing a book might be a thing that you want to do today, but that is too big and overwhelming so that you'll always put it off. He proposes chunking, which is breaking it down into chunks like write a chapter of a book or do some research. But even with that, I end up with just lists of tasks. I carry these around with me. It's like a big stream of guilt. I call it permafrost of tasks because I can't chisel away at it. To get around this, I took chunking to an extreme and I combined it with two other ideas to create experimental nano-chunking. And I'm gonna show you how it works, that it all started with this over here. This is a hook that I use to hang up my bag. It's a really important thing because I put my equipment in here and take it home each night. And it was really annoying me that it was on the floor. For whatever reason, I wasn't putting up this hook. And this is the actual list where I created the technique of experimental nano-chunking. I wish I could remember who said it. It's a really beautiful single line. Treat everything like it's an experiment. I'll say it again, treat everything as an experiment. The problem we have is that we want things to be perfect and we want the outcome to be ideal. That just stops us from doing stuff. We put up these blocks to protect ourselves because if we do something and it doesn't come out right, deep down we feel like our life is under threat, even though it's not. It's a thing called the resistance. This is a brilliant book as well. The War of Arts by Stephen Pressfield. Again, I'll put the link below. But he described the resistance, which is this thing within us that stops us from doing the stuff that we really want to do. And the great thing with experimental nano-chunking is that it gets you around the resistance because you are just treating everything like it's an experiment. It means that you can just try stuff out. And this is what I tried out. I wrote down, what if I have my pad here and write out every what-if as it occurs? Well, I did that task already so I could instantly cross it off. Then I wrote out, what if I were to put off worm-mates until after the next what-if? Now that was the online distraction of the day. And that actually made me laugh. And I think that is the secret of experimental nano-chunkings. You've got to write down these chunks in ways that are so stupidly small that it makes you laugh. It actually makes you laugh out loud. But I realized that I had chunked down the task of putting up this hook for my bag down to the tiniest possible chunk. And so I'd given birth to the nano-chunk. Nano-chunk. Which meant that I could now do the next tiniest possible nano-chunk. What if I were to hold my bag up to the wall to see where a hook might go? And I did that. And I hadn't died. So I could cross it off the pad. I realized with experimental nano-chunking that you have to do the smallest possible task and not cross it out and move on with your life until you've done it. I'd already done more about this hook in two minutes than I had in two months. What if I get a pencil? I couldn't move on until I had got a pencil. What if? And I love that I wrote the next one with the pencil. What if I mark the midpoint with the bag? Brackets, I might have to OCD a tape measure. Now that's good. I could already see how I would over-complicate this nano-task and I pre-empted it and actually wrote it out. What if I go to the garage and fetch the drill box and bits? Now here's how procrastination works. Already, because I'm making progress, my mind is flipping out all over the place and I'm throwing in all these other ideas and tasks. So I just wrote it out as the next line. As the next nano-chunked task. What if I text Rob to tell him about J. MacGage or Core? That has absolutely nothing to do with me putting up a hook for my bag on the wall. I wrote it down and I did it and then I crossed it off the list. It's really important not to write more than one nano-chunk at a time. The really dangerous thing with this system is that you can instantly think of lots and lots of little tasks and write them all down to work through. But as soon as you get more than one task, it falls apart every time. You have to do it one line at a time. What if I mark the thing on the wall? Now here, the list ends and goes on to other tasks because I actually carried on and put the hook up. This system of experimental nano-chunking works. It's just a what if. It's not an order or a task. The other thing I found is that it helps to write the what if as a process and not an outcome. So the what if is about doing something instead of how it turns out. And I'll show you that on these two examples. I managed to film myself back in January trying to get over making my video about a head shaver. And again, last week when I made my DIY T-shirt face mask video. For both of those, I really wanted to make the videos. But everything in my brain, the resistance was telling me don't do it. You probably do this too. Leave me a message below if you do. It's either the head shaver video is gonna be rubbish. So I don't want to start it yet or the other extreme. The DIY face mask video is really good. So I don't want to start it yet and mess it up. That's chronic procrastination. So let's see how I use experimental nano-chunking to do the things that I want to do. Okay, here's a, there you are. This is a really good example. I've been putting off making a video about a new head shaver. And I really want to make it because it's really difficult finding a good head shaver. And there's some things that I think I want to say about, is it called elective baldness? I don't know, I'm kidding myself because I am bald, but I also shave my head. There's something funny in that. I want to explore that. I've got the system here and I'm just starting to do the system. I thought, why don't I turn the camera on and record the process of using the nano-chunking experiment to actually crack a creative project that I want to make and put out into the world. So here's the list right here. But the first thing I wrote was, what if I go and get the key and plug in the heart? Yeah, there wasn't any power on, so I've plugged in the heart. So I've got power now. What if I get all the gear I can? So I did that and I crossed it off. And I'm writing these one at a time, but I've just skipped ahead with this one. What if I warm up the hut to more than 13 degrees centigrade? So I've got the fan going, you can probably hear that. What if I get the tripod? Well, I can do that now. There, I've got the tripod. So now I can cross that off the list. So what would the next one be? The next one would be, what if I put up the tripod? Because I've got an idea for this video to have two cameras. And I've got my setup here so that I'll put one camera. Whoa, there goes the tripod. I put one camera there, and then I can put this tripod up with these arms to get a second camera looking down. Even if it's a rubbish video, and I think this is gonna be a terrible video, it's worth me doing this to have a new system for shooting two camera videos. My videos might be a little bit better. And I think that's why we stopped doing these things, because we know we're gonna get a little bit better at something. Anyway, let's put the tripod up. So it's a bit difficult to do this one handed. Now I've got my setup done. I'll take a look at the temperature over here. It's now gone above something where I've threased my toes off, so I can turn the heater off now. And even better, I can cross that to do item off my nano chunked list. So I'm now up to date. I can still carry on writing one at a time. I find it helps to speak to myself like I'm five. So I keep the language very, very blunt. What if I go and get the shaver? I love this system because it means I can devote myself completely to one single task. I've only got one task right now, and that's to get the shaver from over there to over there. That's all I need to do. There's the shaver, yoink. With the shaver. And I've got the camera in place now. I've got a second camera to slightly out of shot so it can film the table. And I think, I think I'm set. Except I'm not, as you can probably hear, the sound's a bit rubbish, so I need to go and get the microphone. I can cross this off. Now write what if I get my microphone. Out of go again. Slippery. So now I've got the microphone. Oh, I need to check that. So now I've got the microphone. I can cross that off my list. Off that goes. I need to get things ready in here. What if I open, no, close the blind. Oh, and plug the microphone in. So I've written that on the list now. I can now plug this in. So that now works. Hopefully that sounds better. Make sure this is switched off. I need to take my coat off and get ready. Kind of on a point of no return. And that's the thing with this nano-chunking system is that you do reach a point where you're kind of all in and it suddenly becomes a hassle to write down every nano task. Sometimes I help for it to keep going, to keep them super small so that you don't just suddenly stop. But I think I have now got absolutely everything in place for a task that I didn't want to do, even though I really wanted to do it. I haven't actually taken action to get started with it. And now I've got everything in place. I've got my second camera. I've got my microphone. I've got the hut looking sort of how I want it to. It's still not perfect. I think the lighting isn't just right yet. I'm not entirely happy with how this second camera looks. It's hit record on that, so I can show you. This isn't quite how I'd want it. I think I want the shot a bit wider, but I've got everything here that I need. So then I hit record and made the video about the hair clippers. I honestly thought that nobody would watch it. Little did I know that two months later, the international catastrophe, emergency conditions, the entire planet has to stay at home and cut their own hair. Suddenly the views of this thing go up 10-fold and my video actually starts helping people to find the right hair clippers. If this video is helping, why not hit the like button to help other people find it or the subscribe button to help me get to 10,000 subscribers. Really appreciate it. Anyway, here's the next example of nano-chunking. It's actually the opposite kind of procrastination where I actually wanted to make something because I thought it was actually quite good. Okay, so this is a tough video to shoot. I'm stuck and it's quite difficult to admit that I'm stuck and I'm gonna put the light on. So I'm stuck on this. Let me look over here. Make a CPAP mark, not CPAP, make a face mask or the T-shirt. It's a really simple, dumb idea. It's something I really want to do. I really want to make a mask and I really want to make a video. Why can't I just make a video of me making a mask? I've completely turned it into something bigger than it is but I'm stuck and I've been sitting on this idea for about two weeks now. So what I've decided to do is to get the camera out and make it even more complicated. Make a video about the video, about the face mask. It's not because it's not a good idea. It's the exact opposite. It's because I know it's a really good idea and something that I really want to do and the more I want to do it, the more I seem to block doing it. The resistance is that thing that when you have a good idea, everything in your brain and body will conspire to stop you from doing it. And there's all kinds of biological reasons why we're programmed this way. Basically by doing something you really want to do that represents change and change biologically represents death because you might change something and it might not work out and then you will die. That's how we're wired. So I'm gonna use this system now to free me from this block. Hope it frees me from this block. At least it's a thing to do while I'm not doing the thing. I've done some free writing just to bring my brain. Look, six pages of things in my head got to the nano chunking list and this is my first nano chunking task. I'm gonna break down all the tasks down to the absolute tiniest level. Open the t-shirt script in Google Docs. So I'll do that now, scripts in here. I've got one document where I put all my YouTube ideas into and my block is basically going through them and choosing them, making a decision. And I still don't wanna make a decision. So what I'm gonna do now is everything except make a decision. So I can do all this other work and move it forward without having yet to make a decision. I'm gonna make that as smaller thing as possible. It's really important when you're nano chunking to only write down one thing at a time. Only one tiny, tiny, tiny task and cross it off. It's a little achievement for each step. So my next step would be print out what I've got. I'll write down print out t-shirt ideas. So I've got all my t-shirt ideas here. Then the next step would be to read them. That's all just read them. So I'm gonna get a nice drink and just read through them and I don't have to do anything else. All I could do is just read what I've got. That's my one, tiniest, smallest task that I can think of right now. Apart from sit down and get a pen. Can I just say, cause I know I'm recording here, I so didn't want to read through these that I've ended up actually writing. I'm actually writing the script instead of doing what I should be doing, which is reading these, but that's okay because I wanted to read these to get to this. But what I've now done is to avoid this. I'm now doing this. Sort of works. Sometimes this happens. You get started on the nano chunk task, which was for me to sit down with a nice drink and to just read through what I've got. And then all these other things pop into your head of all these other things you should be doing. But if one comes up like I need to get my glasses, what I do is I do write that down as another task, do it quickly and then cross it off there and then. So if other things start popping into your head, like, or just need to check that or need to get that, write them down as nano chunks and do them in order. And then you'll have to go back to the nano chunk that triggered all these other thoughts. So you're still nano chunking. Don't move away from the nano chunking, make the tasks even smaller, even smaller, even more ridiculous. Get my glasses. Okay, so here's an example now of the kind of stuff that will come up. Let's just stop you from doing what you're doing. I'm on a point now where I want to find a clip that I want to put into the video. And I know I've got that clip on an email. So I've gone into email and I've just seen an email from my accountant and I've just spent 20 minutes reading it and replying to it. So I've been thrown off the nano chunking horse. What I should have done is to write down as a nano chunk, open the email and do that afterwards. So I have the impulse, I do it. So I've fallen off the horse. It's okay, don't give yourself a hard time, but write down as soon as you can onto your list and then cross it off. So I'm now gonna do what I'm supposed to do, which is to look up a link for a video that I want to put into the script. I don't know why I write some things on the nano chunk as capital works out some kind of anger or something. Another good tip for the nano chunking is to write down nano chunks that aren't very difficult. So instead of write three pages of script, I put something a bit more easy, which is to just do writing for 25 minutes. That's just right. So it doesn't matter what the outcome is, it's just the process. If you can make your nano chunks about the process, rather than the outcome, you'll find it even more easy to do. There, I've done it. I've actually written this one, two, three, four, five pages of script. I, if my task had been write five pages of script, I just would not have done it. Thanks to nano chunking. Nano chunk. Thanks to nano chunking. The task was, and I quote, open the t-shirts document in Google Docs. That's all I had to do, just open the document. And then when you've done that, well, you could just do the next nano chunk task. And when you break down the tasks down to the tiniest, tiniest nano chunk, just do that chunk. And before you know it, five page script. So now I'll need to nano chunk the next task, which is filming it. I even ended up shooting the video. That's how powerful the nano chunking is. Respect the nano chunking. Not only did I end up making the video, two days later, BBC News got in touch. They wanted to use a clip for the six o'clock news bulletin that night. So people can make them at home using anything from old t-shirts to bedding sheets. Two of these guys are gonna get the chop, quite literally. This dad from Hampshire tried making a t-shirt mask for himself on his YouTube channel. My ears aren't coping very well with the elastic bands. If I hadn't have made it and made it right now, that would not have happened. It's another reminder of make your stuff now, because it turns out we need it. I've put all of these videos into this playlist. It's called make your stuff now at the moment. There's a link up here if you click on the I or down in the description. If you've reached this point, I hope this has helped. If it has, why not hit the thumbs up, which will help other people to find this video or hit the subscribe button, which will help me get to 10,000 subscribers on about one and a half at the moment. So it feels like a really big mountain. Leave a comment below. Be lovely to hear from you, just say hi. And I hope this video has helped you to make your own stuff. Can you please help my daddy get 10,000 subscribers? Just click on his face. Thanks, bye. All right, this is gonna be the proper one, mate.