Doctor-turned-Youtuber Ali Abdaal released his first book, Feel-Good Productivity, in the last days of 2023, and it's already secured a spot on the New York Times Best Seller's List.

The book's premise is that feeling good makes you productive, not vice versa. He discusses various motivators of productivity as well as factors that deter. In this essay, we'll take a look at his Unblock Method, an effective framework for when we find ourselves procrastinating.

Abdaal's idea is that a frequent cause for procrastination is uncertainty, and the solution is to get clear on your why, what, and when.

Find Your Why

One of the most important factors in goal attainment is to figure out the reasons why you're pursuing a particular goal so that you don't lose sight of your true values.

Abdaal uses the exercise of the 5 Whys popularized by Taiichi Ohno at the Toyota Motor Corporation to figure out why mistakes were made. Similarly, this technique is used in psychotherapy to unpack core beliefs. The idea is that before you take on a project or involved task, ask yourself five times why you're doing it.

Implementing such an exercise will give you a clear sense of purpose even when pursuing the more mundane tasks and prevent you from getting sidetracked by busy work and distractions.

Determine Your What With NICE Goals

Abdaal describes why the ubiquitous SMART goals don't always work and can demotivate some people in certain situations.

Instead, he proffers NICE goals:

Near-term - Instead of planning each step, focus instead on what you can do today to move the needle
Input-based - meaning that the goal is focused on your actual behaviors rather than an output on which you do not have control
Controllable - He uses controllable here to mean realistic.
Energizing - Abdaal describes several 'energizing' tactics in the book's first part that increase internal motivation, and he recommends integrating one or more of those strategies here.

Most Importantly, Figure Out When

In order to realize our goals, we must figure out exactly when we're going to act.

Here, Abdaal describes two main techniques -- Implementation intentions and time blocking. Implementation intentions are plans or triggers for when we will do the thing and contingency plans if we get derailed. Secondly, time blocking is a technique in which we fully use our calendar to block out times for everything important to us.

Don't skip out on this last section, as it's essential for turning your dreams into reality.

Procrastinating on Your Goals? Try the Powerful Unblock Method From Ali Abdaal's Feel-Good Productivity

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