Your Cheat Sheet For Getting Shit Done
How-to do what you said you were going to do...
“How do you just get shit done?”
I get asked this often. This isn’t to say that I get a lot done. I do what I say I’m going to do. If you want to be someone who gets shit done or if you finally want to stop lying to yourself about what you’re going to do, there are a few rules that you have to follow.
This is for everyone whos sick and tired of making bold statements about what they want to accomplish without ever following through. You know you have it in you to get more done, but you don't know where to start. You’re embarrassed by constantly talking about what you’re going to do without showing any results.
How do you become someone who does what they said they would do? Here’s my cheat sheet for getting shit done.
Rule #1: Don’t agree to everything and anything.
Many people don’t do what they said they would because they agreed to do too many things.
The biggest issue with getting things done is figuring out the right things to focus on. I love this blurb on it from Derek Sivers in “Hell Yeah or No”:
“Most of us have lives filled with mediocrity. We said yes to things that we felt half-hearted about.
So we’re too busy to react when opportunities come our way. We miss out on the great because we’re busy with the mediocre.
The solution is to say yes to less.
If you’re not feeling ‘Hell yeah, that would be awesome!’ about something, say no.
It’s an easier decision. Say no to almost everything. This starts to free your time and mind.”
You can’t do everything. You can do one thing at a time. You set yourself up to get nothing done when you agree to everything.
You’re saying no to your most important goals when you say yes to everything. I realize this can seem a bit corny, but it’s as practical as it gets.
Think twice before committing to something to ensure you want to do this. You don’t have to do everything. You don’t have to try to be superhuman.
In my condo, I often make small talk with people in the elevator or hallways. One common theme in the summer of 2022 was people complaining about all their social obligations. They had agreed to too many things, and these social obligations were cutting into their goals.
Newsflash, you’re allowed to say no to things. An invite isn’t an invoice. You don’t have to agree to every offer. You don’t have to explain yourself, either.
How do you say no more often?
It takes practice, so try it out. Don’t get me wrong; it’s going to be extremely uncomfortable the first few times you turn down an invite for a gathering or don’t agree to do something that you don’t have the time for.
Rule #2: Be brutally realistic with yourself before agreeing to anything.
I know that I can agree to meet you at the gym tomorrow. I also know that this workout would have to be in the afternoon because I’m not a morning person. I couldn’t meet you at 6 am for one of those hardcore workouts. I would either be groggy or couldn’t wake up at that time. I can’t even remember the last time I saw six in the morning without still being up.
You have to know yourself and what you can do. You have to be brutally realistic and self-aware. You must know what you can accomplish and what isn’t in the cards. You’re only going to set yourself up for failure if you make ridiculously ambitious plans that you can’t follow through on.
For example:
You can commit to three workouts next week. You can’t commit to 6 days of training at the crack of dawn.
You can commit to adding more protein to your eating. You can’t commit to cutting out all sugar and all junk for the next month.
You have to know yourself and your limitations to ease into your goals instead of setting unrealistic expectations.
Rule #3: Focus on consistency.
I can’t repeat this enough. You don’t need perfection. You need consistency. You need to take imperfect action daily on ONE thing.
When I write, it’s not pretty (sometimes even the final product isn’t pretty). I focus on writing anything that I know that I can at least go back and edit. You can’t edit the words that you didn’t write.
Being consistent with weightlifting will make you stronger over time. You can’t be consistent on five different things. You have to focus on one thing consistently.
When in doubt, take a small action to keep the habit alive so that you’re making some sort of progress, even if it doesn’t feel like much.
“Instead of starting big and then flaring out with nothing to show for it other than time and energy wasted, to really get essential things done we need to start small and build momentum. Then we can use that momentum to work toward the next win, and the next one and so on until we have a significant breakthrough—and when we do, our progress will have become so frictionless and effortless that the breakthrough will seem like overnight success.” — Greg Mckeown in “Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less.”
Rule #4: Be specific with what you want to accomplish.
“Vagueness generates vagueness, so you must be specific when describing your desired results.” – “The Gap and the Gain.”
It’s essential to get specific about what you want to get done. If you don’t have specific goals, you’re just going to work on random things. It will never feel like you’re getting anything done.
Rule #5: Have the right resources on your side.
You always need the right resources on your side, or it will be an impossible journey. You’re not going to get better at something if you’re not around better people.
There’s no way around this rule. You can’t go at it alone. You have to be willing to do what it takes to get yourself around better people to have the best resources on your side.
How do you do this?
Have some skin in the game. Spend the money on the best coaching possible, or join a high-quality gym. Invest some money to show yourself that you’re serious about this.
Have a mentor or someone who will hold you accountable. We all need to be accountable to someone we don’t want to disappoint.
Set stakes. There must be consequences for your lack of effort or failure to follow through. If there’s nothing at stake, then you’ll never take the goal seriously. This is why friendly bets often work.
What’s Next?
Stop talking about what you’re going to do, and let your results do the talking.
You either do it, or you don’t. I know people who love to ask questions and make grandiose announcements on social media about what they plan on doing. They solicit everyone for advice. They make bold announcements for all of the social media to see. They always have something big in the works. But we never seem to see any results. You don’t want this to become you. You don’t want to lie to yourself. You don’t want to be known as someone who doesn’t do what they said they would do.