Start your RPM plan

                                 

Step 1: Capturing – write it all down

Humans aren’t designed to keep everything in their heads; we can only keep track of somewhere between five and nine things at a time. Seriously, that’s all our short-term memories can handle. Try to keep everything in your head and stress will follow.

Have you ever had a big project but no idea where to start? Chances are you walked away and did something else, putting it off and continuing the procrastination cycle. But frequently we don’t reach goals because we’re overwhelmed by all that needs to be done, not because we lack the ability. How to stop procrastinating? Write down the things that are a must for you to get done, whether it’s the things you really want or situations that demand your attention. Write everything you have to do for, say, the next week or two. All of it. This is the first stage of chunking.

Step 2: Start chunking

Chunking is how to turn a lot into a little. You’ll group things into a few like categories, creating fewer containers for your brain to try and grasp. This way they can be used effectively to produce the outcome you want without stress or shutdown. Chunking also lets you know the order you’re going to accomplish tasks because you’ve already decided in advance what’s most important.

Fast fact: When most people are learning, they tend to remember the things that come in groups of three. Anything above three often becomes too much for us to remember easily. In other words, most people tend to get overwhelmed after three difference pieces – or chunks – of information.

Look at your list of musts for this week and start to find what they have in common. Start to chunk items that fall in the same categories together; maybe there’s a group for relationships, another for finance or work. Write out your items under their master category so that you can easily tell what goes where.

Step 3: Create your RPM blocks

Now for the fun part. Pick an area that is of most concern to you and create an RPM Block for that area. Here’s how to get started:

• Name your block with the category and list results you want. We’ll stick with the example of losing weight here.
• Now write down the purpose behind that result – why is it so important to you? Here’s where you put your compelling reasons from the questions above. Again, these reasons are the key for how to get motivated.
• Lastly, create the sequence of priority actions that will lead to your result.

Congratulations – You’ve made your first basic block. Continue with your other desired results to make more blocks.

Curious about how to turn your blocks into action items and start getting your results? Dive into The Time of Your Life and use priorities, duration and leverage to build out your RPM blocks even further. By understanding what you want and need, you’ll be able to overcome the temptation of procrastination. And be less stressed. Make it a habit to do this kind of triage every week. Instead of spending energy thinking about how to stop procrastinating, you’ll find that even the scariest tasks become manageable because you know what’s motivating to you.

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