Moment 140: The 2 Minute Trick That Beats Procrastinating For Good: Ali Abdaal

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0:32What have you learned from your experience on YouTube about the importance of consistency? And also from what you kind of, what typically happens with viral videos is just there's, it's so impossibly hard to predict the outcome, right? So a lot of people on YouTube will make videos called How to Make a Varyl Video, and in marketing it's all like, here are the secret source, here are the secret principles, but in reality, you can only, you can, you can guess a couple of principles, but the outcome is hard to predict. So what have you learned about consistency, but then also being able to predict the outcome?

1:08Yeah, when I was listening to your, your company chapter, I just found myself like nodding along like an absolute maniac to everything you were saying. I think it applies so much to YouTube. These days I teach people how to be part -time YouTubers. And the thing I say is that if you make one video every week for two years, then I, say 100 % guarantee it will change your life. I can't put any numbers on it. I can't tell you you'll have 100 ,000 subscribers or how much money you'll be making, but I can 100 % guarantee it will change your life at the very least in terms of the skills and the experience and the contacts and the friends you're going to make through that process, but you have to put that one video week and you have to do it for at least two years.

1:43I just asked on that then on that point there, what is it that would make someone do that? Because I mean, that's like, if I can clean the floor every day for two years and I promise you'll work out for you. People don't seem to be able to do those kinds of things without some kind of intrinsic driver. So I'm curious, because you could say that to a million people. You could broadcast that through a ton of it and 95 % plus will still fail. So what is it that makes people from your experience, but also from your own life makes them do the work without guarantee of outcome? Yeah, I think again, I feel like there's a bit of a cop out because there's this stuff that you talk about, like enjoying the process.

2:29And this is kind of the theme of the book that I'm writing around how, you know, it's actually quite hard to show up week after week, not see any results, not see the views and the subscribers going up and stuff particularly quickly. But the thing that makes it bearable, the thing that makes it fun is actually enjoying the process and shifting away from outcome oriented goals like a certain number of views, a certain number of subscribers and more towards goals that are 100 % within our control. Like I just want to make two videos a week. And if I'm happy with the video, then it goes out. And in fact, even if I'm not happy with the video, it goes out anyway.

3:02And everyone I know who has succeeded on YouTube has had that kind of attitude at some point. I just have to get that video out every Tuesday without fail. It's not an option. It's going to get done. And, you know, like you say, when we talk about compounding, that video on day one isn't going to do anything. The video on day two or day three or day 24 is not going to do anything. But you find when you're on day 300 and day 600, oh, actually, all of this stuff has been compounding very, very slowly. And then the results happen really, really, really slowly. And then all at once as soon as you just get that one video that goes viral.

3:34That is, I think that's the chapter I talk about the eighth wonder of the world. Yeah, that's it with Warren Buffett and my dog Pablo being there. The opposing investor. And I genuinely, I think I learned that lesson when I wrote the book. When I looked back on my life and I thought about all the things that I'd compounded in my favor, whether it was like my, honestly, it's going to be completely keep it facts with you. My teeth had some problems with my teeth and I thought, you know why? And I took a, probably references in the book. Like I hadn't been brushing one of my teeth properly. And it never mattered today or tomorrow, the day after.

4:05But there I was in that dentist chair, having my teeth fucking pulled out. And then my Instagram was the same. Health and fitness at the moment. The same. My business was the same. And it just goes to show that it's not those key critical big decisions we make to drop out. It's that like, yeah, so the compounding small, almost irrelevant decisions. But people don't, because I heard you started working out. I did, yeah. And then you stopped. So I've had a personal trainer now for the last kind of eight months or so. There you go. Amazing. And you know, I've been, I've been going on and off with the workout thing since the age of 18 and never done it properly until I got a personal trainer where now I'm having to show up and paying someone 30, 30 hours to basically just be with me while I'm doing stuff.

4:48And that has been the thing that's given me the most results. So I think whatever, like I find in my life for things that I actually care about where I'm like, okay, I actually care about becoming a happy sexy millionaire or whatever. Let me try and figure out ways that will remove my own need for discipline and will power from that equation. And instead get an accountability buddy or get a coach or pay a friend 100 quid if I don't do the thing. This was what my brother and I did when we were trying to motivate ourselves. I was doing songwriting. He was doing stand -up comedy. I'm like, right, if we don't do this every Thursday for half an hour, we're going to page other 50 quid.

5:26Things like that to remove the choice, the motivation, the willpower, the discipline, all the more of that can be outsoiled to someone else or removed completely. The more I find I actually get stuff done. And then I don't have to worry about it. I'm like, okay, this is taken care of. I just show up. I guess you're removing the moat. It's basically removing it. You're moving it to another pact. Like, near IEL refers to it is what you've described as a financial pact. Where now your motivation is to not lose 50 quid. It's like, because that's a greater motivating force than you have within yourself to work out.

5:57Is that sustainable? No, it's not. It's not. This is all the stuff that I'm researching for the book at the moment. And you talk about this as well, like in intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. And the way that I think of it when I think back on my life is that everything that I've done sustainably has been because of intrinsic motivation. I've genuinely enjoyed the thing. But you can genuinely enjoy a thing and still find it really hard to get started. I think that's where the biggest procrastination comes in for all of us, where it's actually just showing up to the gym. That's the hard part. Once you're there, it's kind of easy.

6:31It's writing those first ten words, because once you've started writing the first ten and it's kind of easier to enjoy the process of writing the rest of them. And so the way I think about it is to get over that hump of procrastination, that activation energy to get started, at that point, I will use every tool that in my arsenal to just get me to do the thing for two minutes. Because I think once you do the thing for two minutes, it becomes so much easier to actually enjoy the process and sustain it. And you're so right when it comes to procrastination, like that getting started point. I've again just learnt this from podcast guests I've had, Neil, I can refer to him.

7:04He said to me one day on this podcast, he was like, people procrastinate usually because there's a great deal of psychological discomfort surrounding starting the task. And a lot of the time, especially with a gym or even an essay, that psychological discomfort is like, you don't have the answers. So I don't know how to use the machines at the gym or I don't actually have, I don't feel competent enough to even write this essay. So I'm just going to do the fucking dishes. I'm going to hoover the whole house and anyone else's house that means hoovering today. Exactly. You made a video about procrastination, didn't you?

7:36Yeah, yeah. Break that down for me. What's in the video? So the video is called How to Stop Procrastinating, right? Yeah. So the way thing about procrastination, basically, procrastination is a problem with getting started. Kind of this law of inertia, newtons first law, that if something is at rest, it will continue to stay at rest. But if something's moving, it will continue to move without needing an external force. And so the key to overcoming procrastination is that little, that little nudge at the start towards actually getting started. And all of the techniques around that, like in the whole, like psychology research or research around this is just around making make it as easy as possible.

8:17So reduce all of the friction to doing it. If you want to learn the guitar, then have the guitar by your so far, rather than in the wardrobe, where you're never going to see it. And if it's out of sight, it's out of mind, you're never going to do it. There's like the external environmental friction towards doing the thing. But then there's also the internal friction. It's like those narratives that we tell ourselves, the psychological discomfort of going to the gym, that I don't want to see how other people are going to see me. The even having, having the wrong sort of goal, like if my goal in writing the book is, I really want to hit the New York Times bestseller list.

8:49Then it's really, really hard to bring myself to write anything, because now every single word I have to write has to be a New York Times bestselling word. But whereas if the goal is, to be honest, I just want to write a book I'm proud of that's fun to write. That's actually within my control. And it becomes so much easier to get started doing the thing. So to overcome procrastination, we need to eliminate external friction, i .e. the environmental stuff. We need to try our best to get rid of the internal friction, like the emotional side of it, the mindset, the perfectionism, the fear, the discomfort.

9:17And then if we still need help, there are a few hacks. The one that I use all the time is the two minute rule, which is where I will genuinely convince myself, I'm only going to do it for two minutes. And if I want, I'm allowed to stop after the two minutes, because two minutes is better than nothing. But like 95 % of the time I decide to continue, because two minutes is all you need to change your life. Yeah, that's really good. And that two minute thing is fascinating to me, because I, one of the things that I see as another psychological barrier to starting is people view it as, like, they view the challenges Mount Everest.

9:48Whereas, like, they've got to, I'll say it in another way, they view the challenges moving Mount Everest. And really, if they view it as just like moving one pebble at a time, it becomes such a simple task. And I get this a lot when entrepreneurs ask me, they say, see if I want to start a business, where do I start? And you can hear in the question that they see it as moving Mount Everest. Yeah. And I'm like, well, today, all you have to do is think of a name. Just think of like 50 names, make a short list of names. And then we'll revisit it tomorrow. And then tomorrow, maybe think of, you know, go and check if the website's available.

10:20And then we'll revisit the day after. And when it becomes that, when it becomes sort of really small itemized, one small step at a time, and you're not having to get from stair zero to a thousand immediately, it becomes so, you know, the psychological discomfort fades away. It feels achievable. And that you're two minutes rules doing a similar thing, where it's saying, well, today only I've only got to do just, just, if I can open the word document and write a title as long as we're done. You know, and that's fascinating. What about, you're going to say something else there? Yeah, I mean, just, just to your point there, have you come across the blog, wait, but why?

10:54No, it's incredible. You should definitely interview Tim Urban on your America. Oh, I know right. I literally yesterday went on his Instagram and sent him a DM. Oh, great. Yeah, he's awesome. Any podcast he's ever been on, I've been like, this is so sick. He has a great blog post series about overcoming procrastination. And the way he refers to that point you just made is that there are lots of tasks that are very like vague and icky. And you have to be able to un -ickify a task. And something like start a business is icky. Something like learn to code is icky because like, what the hell does that even mean?

11:25Like, where do you even start? Whereas brainstorm 10 ideas for a name and pick one of them is a very clearly defined next action step. And so I get this with students all the time where people are like, oh, I don't have the motivation to study for my chemistry exam. It's like, what's on you to do list? Study for my chemistry exam. That's never going to happen. Reach chapter one and answer questions four to five are a reasonable thing, a reasonable thing, a reasonable thing. And so what I do is anytime I find myself procrastinating for something, I think, okay, am I procrastinating because I actually, the task is too icky.

11:55I don't know what I have to do. Because once I know what I have to do, I can then do it for two minutes and it gets done.

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