I recently finished reading the book Do It Today by Darius Foroux.
“You cannot escape the responsibility of tomorrow by evading it today.”- Abraham Lincoln
This quote sets the tone for the entire book that aims to give actionable tools to help one beat procrastination.
Part 1 of the book deals with overcoming procrastination.
Darius attempts to make the reader understand that the attitude that nobody cares if one puts off something for later is fatal. He highlights an inner resistance we feel when we want to achieve something; something that makes us procrastinate. He makes a reference to the Steven Pressfield’s book, 'War of Art', where Steve calls this inner enemy Resistance. In the productivity community, the statement- “people fail, systems don’t”, is not one that is new. Darius declares that he too relies on a system to lead a productive, happy and purposeful life.
The author gives two actionable steps that one can take if he/ she is unable to focus.
The first step is- eliminate, eliminate and eliminate.
The second step involves a biological hack that helps release a hormone that helps you focus no matter where you are!
These 2 steps are capable of making a shift in the way you lead your life!
If you are interested in grabbing a copy of this book, read on and I shall guide you to the Amazon link to purchase this title from my website.
Then Darius gives a 3-step formula to help one stop wasting his/ her time and increase personal effectiveness. This formula is a modified version of an exercise from 'The Effective Executive' by Peter Drucker. What a beautiful and easy formula to grab the reins of your chariot of life and guide it in the direction that you wish to.
Darius lists out 10 habits of highly unproductive people that he doesn’t want the reader to copy. Some of the ones that intrigued me are- working too much, saying yes and hating rules. He explains why one must eliminate any of these habits with concise explanation.
Among the habits that he encourages the reader to develop is his 30 minutes evening ritual. The 30 minutes is divided into 4 slots. The first two being for 10 minutes each and the last two being for 5 minutes each. I found this ritual extremely useful to hit the bed on time so that I get enough sleep to wake up at 5:00 a.m. the next day.
Darius also goes into rationalizing as to why disconnecting from the internet improves one’s focus. This is a subject that many are aware of but the perspective Darius offers motivates the reader to disconnect from the web.
Darius reveals what is the single biggest reason that most people procrastinate. Upon reading that chapter I realized it is simple. We procrastinate when we have to do things we do not love. The author borrows from the book ‘I will teach you to be rich’ by Ramit Sethi. Ramit states in his inimitable style that work and passion can go both ways. He says that when we get really good at our job, we often become passionate about it. This statement reveals that mediocrity is the single biggest enemy of passion. We may not always find things to do that we love but Ramit’s insight helps us love what we do even if we are not fond of doing that at the outset.
Another hack offered by Darius is the use of an ancient habit that will maximize the reader’s focus- The use of a mantra. A mantra is a sacred utterance, a numinous sound, a syllable, word or phonemes, or group of words in Sanskrit believed by practitioners to have psychological and spiritual powers. This online definition is used by the author in the book. The mantras are used to enhance concentration and bring calm and peace to the person chanting them. The author adopts the same idea and has a personal mantra- Let’s go. Darius explains how this simple phrase can immediately get the reader into a worry- free zone.
Darius concludes Part 1 with how people have gotten it all wrong in improving their focus by attempting to manage their time instead of managing their attention.
“Beware the barrenness of a busy life." - Socrates
Darius explains how being busy is not a good thing. He says that busyness and distractions go hand in hand. He explains it beautifully in his book.
“There is never a time when new distraction will not show up.” - Seneca
This is profound. Distractions will always exist. So Darius suggests that the reader train himself/ herself to better manage his/ her attention and not time.
I found this book to be immensely impactful for me. This website that I had been putting off for later is here because this title prodded me to not procrastinate.
If you wish to change your life too, just click on the buy now button at the end of this blogpost and change the course of the journey of your life!
Stay tuned for my blogpost on Part 2 of the book! Meanwhile, grab a copy of this book and change the way you live your life!
