How to Motivate Yourself To Do Just About Anything

I was talking to my friend Anne Samoilov the other day. She told me she’s trying to get a finish a webinar presentation, and asked me if I had any tips for getting it done quickly.

“When do you need to have it completed?” I asked.

“Pretty much…yesterday,” she said.

I told her I have a technique that really works well for me, but warned her that it might seem a little extreme.

She seemed game, so I filled her in.

My best method to get things done – especially things that might be tedious, like webinar presentations, blog posts or other content creation – was to set an insane deadline, then make sure it’s too painful for me to do anything except meet that deadline.

If I’m creating a webinar, here’s how that process works for me:

1. I think of an idea for a webinar.
2. I create a title and some quick bullet points, then create a simple sign up page for the webinar.
3. I start promoting the webinar and getting people to sign up for the event. I usually start promoting 5-6 days before a live webinar.
4. I create the slides, show up for the webinar, and do the presentation.

This technique works astounding well for me, and here’s why:

• I know I will never create a presentation (and the slides to go with it) if I don’t give myself a short timeline to do it. So I set a date and start promoting the event to my audience and my social networks, thereby holding my feet to the virtual fire.
• Once people start signing up – once it is guaranteed there will be people who log in for the webinar who will expect me to show up and share my expertise – I have no choice put to create the presentation and prepare for the talk.

This technique has worked for me for guest blog posts, course creation, live speaking events, and all kinds of other huge projects.

I even used this technique to write my book (Pinfluence: The Complete Guide to Marketing Your Business with Pinterest) in just under six weeks. My publisher set that deadline back in 2012, when we were rushing to get the book out the door before any other publisher launched a book on Pinterest marketing.

I met the book deadline, even though it seemed insane at the time. Now I know it’s absolutely possible to do incredible things when I set outrageous goals and don’t give myself any time to screw around, procrastinate, give in to resistance, or give up.

One of my coaches, Pamela Slim, even commented on my ability to keep cranking away on my business, so matter what else was going on. “Beth, you SHIP stuff,” she said — which I took as a huge compliment.

Do I create perfect stuff every time I use this technique? Absolutely not. But as my mentor Jon Morrow says, “Awesomeness is an iterative process.”

I’m a big fan of creating something and getting it out the door, then making it a little bit better with each successive draft. I would rather do that than never create anything at all.

The time this technique crashed and burned

You might be wondering if this technique has ever backfired on me.

In short – yes.

Occasionally, setting insane deadlines and promoting unfinished content has led to the occasional rush job.

During one particular launch, I ended up having to pull an all-nighter to complete a sales page and meet the deadline I set for myself. That one was just poor planning on my part. I just flat-out did not leave myself enough time to complete the project.

I won’t lie to you. Pulling an all-nighter sucked. It’s a lot less fun at 40 years old than it was when I was a 20-year-old college student (and it was never that much fun, even then!)

But I’ve only had this technique bite me in the butt (in a major way) ONCE, in all the time I’ve been using this process. In almost all the other cases, I shipped content and products I never would’ve created otherwise.

One all-nighter for three years of productivity? I’ll take it.

How to try Beth’s “feet-to-the-fire” creation method

So if you’re struggling to create something and you really just need to get it done and shipped, here’s what I recommend:

• Set a deadline that is far enough out to get the work done.
• Subtract a few days from that original deadline (or more, if you’ve estimated really conservatively). If you’ve estimated it will take you a month to create a presentation, shave off a week. If you assume it’s going to take you a year to finish a book, set a deadline of eight months.
• Publicize the product, webinar, presentation or launch you’re creating.
• Once you’ve got your deadline, put your head down and get started. Work your butt off until the thing is done.
• Take a rest break, then set another deadline and do it again.

Remember, you must make it PAINFUL for you to miss the deadline or not be prepared. If there’s no consequence, it won’t motivate you to finish.

If you’re hosting a webinar, create a sign-up page for the event and start getting people to sign up. If it’s a book, line up your editor and tell her to start charging you by the day if you miss your deadline.

If you need this approach, try it

Here’s the thing: If you’re a planner and you always leave yourself plenty of time to start and finish projects, you probably don’t need to try this technique.

If you’ve read this post, and any part of you is thinking, “I would never procrastinate on a big project, and I would never feel comfortable promoting something that isn’t finished yet,” this is probably isn’t the right technique for you.

But if you’re like me and you’d never get anything done without a deadline, try this technique to complete a project you’d really like to finish and get out the door.

Wondering which project to choose? If someone asks you about your timeline and asks you when you’d like to get a particular project done, and your answer is “yesterday,” that’s the right one.

So pick a project and give it a try.

You must just be amazed at the magic you can create when you set ridiculous goals – and meet them.