The #1 Anti-Procrastination Rule

Why motivation is not enough, and what to do instead

Goncalo Hoshi
7 min readJun 23, 2021
Art by Mira Maia

Have you ever had a burst of sudden motivation?

One that made you rush to do something, an activity you were really excited about, only to find yourself wondering where to even start when you got there?

Could be starting a youtube channel, getting rid of your pot belly, or even writing a book.

A confusion that, in my case, tends to turn to overwhelm quite quickly, and for most people, tends to evolve into avoiding a task that minutes ago seemed of maximum excitement.

We end up procrastinating on a pursuit which just seconds ago deeply motivated us.

Meanwhile, with a quick glance through social media, we can find ourselves being riddled with guilt when we see Jocko Willink waking up at 4:30 Am every day, or David Goggins running 200-mile marathons.

@jockowillink posts one of these every day.

How can these people overcome such tall mountains when we can’t put on the shoes to climb ours?

Before answering that for you, let me share my personal example which happened right before writing this article.

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