Next Level University

#1661 - Can Procrastination Be Good?

• Kevin Palmieri and Alan Lazaros

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Have you ever felt overwhelmed by your to-do list? In this episode, Kevin Palmieri and Alan Lazaros discuss how our world always pushes us to do more and do it faster. However, they introduce a counterintuitive concept: slowing down can propel us forward. It’s not about the quantity of tasks completed but the quality of the functions we focus on. This shift in perspective can lead to a more meaningful and productive life, offering a new way to approach our daily responsibilities.

Links mentioned:
Next Level Group Coaching - https://www.nextleveluniverse.com/group-coaching/
Group14 starts on April 9th, 2024; Discount Code for NLGC (30% off): NLULISTENER
Next Level Monthly Meet-up - https://www.nextleveluniverse.com/monthly-meetups/

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NLU is more than just a podcast; we have many more resources to help you achieve your goals and dreams.

For more information, please check out our website at the link below. 👇

Website 💻  http://www.nextleveluniverse.com

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Any of these communities or resources are FREE to join and consume
Next Level Nation - https://www.facebook.com/groups/459320958216700
Next Level 5 To Thrive (free course) - ​​https://bit.ly/3xffver
Next Level U Book Club - https://www.nextleveluniverse.com/next-level-book-club/
Next Level Monthly Meet-up:  https://www.nextleveluniverse.com/monthly-meetups/

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We love connecting with you guys! Reach out on Instagram, Facebook, or via email.

Instagram 📷
Kevin: https://www.instagram.com/neverquitkid/
Alan: https://www.instagram.com/alazaros88/

Facebook ✍
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Kevin: https://www.facebook.com/kevin.palmieri.90/

Email 💬
Kevin@nextleveluniverse.com
Alan@nextleveluniverse.com

LinkedIn ✍
Kevin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevin-palmieri-5b7736160/
Alan: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alanlazarosllc/

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Show notes:
(2:09) It brings more clarity to what’s important
(4:18) Two types of procrastination
(6:53) E.A.D.P. - Focus filter
(13:21) Meet like-minded people and jumpstart your journey to achieving your dreams while optimizing your life. Join Next Level Group Coaching. https://www.nextleveluniverse.com/group-coaching/ 
(14:57) ‘What if’ factor
(17:31) Productive procrastination
(22:03) Developing self-worth and time management
(27:44) Outro

Send a text to Kevin and Alan!

🎙️ Hosted by Kevin Palmieri and Alan Lazaros

Next Level University is a top-ranked daily podcast for dream chasers and self-improvement lovers. With over 2,100 episodes, we help you level up in life, love, health, and wealth one day at a time. Subscribe for real, honest, no-fluff growth every single day.

Speaker 1

Next Level Nation . Welcome back to another episode of Next Level University where we help you level up your life , your love , your health and your wealth . We hope you enjoyed yesterday's episode , episode number 1,660 , a reason some of us are afraid of success . Today , for episode number 1,661 , can procrastination be good ? 1961 , can procrastination be good ? One of the keys to my long-term quote-unquote success is to-do lists . Alan taught me that very early on in this journey .

Speaker 2

To-do lists are the way .

Speaker 1

To-do lists are the way . I know not everybody likes to-do lists . I know it can feel restrictive , it can feel overwhelming , it can feel boring . I understand that . It can feel all those ways .

Speaker 1

But one of the beautiful things about having to-do lists , checklists , whatever it is is you make a bunch of stuff or you get a bunch of stuff , you write it down and eventually it might get to the place where you say , hmm , I should really send that email . Well , you know what ? I'm not going to send that email today , I'll wait till tomorrow . And then tomorrow comes and you say , man , I should really send that email today . And you say you know what ? I'm going to wait till tomorrow . There's something that's more important . And eventually it might get to the place where you realize that you don't want to send that email at all . I've had so many times where there's something on my to-do list for a week and then that week turns into a month , and that month turns into two months , and then it turns into three , and then it turns into six , and then it gets to the place where I say , you know what , obviously it's not that important , because I haven't done it in six months and nothing has changed , it's not really that important . And then I just get rid of it off my to-do list Rather than saying , well , these are the 15 things that must get done today .

Speaker 1

Sometimes procrastination if it's productive can actually be a good thing , because you're figuring out what's important in real time and it's almost like what's a really good way to look at it . Let's say you're grocery shopping and you say , well , you know what a really good way to look at it . Let's say you're grocery shopping and you say , well , you know what , I really should get this . No , wait , I'll get that next time . And the next time comes and you say , yeah , I should really get this . Well , I'll get it next time . If you haven't bought the thing in six months , you probably don't need the thing that much , and that's how something that was once procrastinated ends up being something that you just don't do anymore . So that's kind of the jam that we're going to talk about today . Can procrastination be good ? Yeah , as long as it's not something that's super , super important . And when you procrastinate , it actually brings more clarity to what is important around that thing ultimately , I sent Kev a TED Talk on productivity recently by a man named Rory Vaden .

Speaker 2

How to Multiply your Time is the name of the TED Talk . If you want to look it up , it's a famous one how to Multiply your Time by Rory Vaden , r-o-r-y-v-a-d-e-n , and it has this idea of there's two types of procrastination . The one type of procrastination is the one that everyone thinks is the killer of all success . It's the . It's the I don't want to go to the gym , so I'm not going to go to the gym , even though the gym is really important and I want results . So that's the bad kind of procrastination . The procrastination where something is important , something is urgent , something is significant and I don't feel like doing it , so I'm going to , I'm going to not do it . That's not what we're talking about today . That type of procrastination is not good and you do have to inject self-discipline , inject self-belief , find a way to get it done . The type of procrastination we're talking about is the thing that Kevin mentioned , which is I'm not sure this is even necessary . I'm not sure this is that important , I'm not sure this is that urgent , I'm not sure this is that significant .

Speaker 2

And in the TED talk he talks about those three sort of parameters . He calls it 3D productivity , which is three-dimensional productivity . So the three questions are this is this urgent ? Urgent means how timely is it ? So one of the reasons why Next Level Live is challenging is because everything that has to do with the event in the weeks coming up to the event , that's the most important , most no , not most important most urgent thing . So , all of a sudden , peak week is what we call it . During the week of Next Level Live , everything else falls to the back burner Because the most urgent thing is Next Level Live . That's why it can be so challenging when you get a new pet or you have a baby or you buy a house I've never had a baby but when you first move , everything that has to do with the move or the house , setting up the house .

Speaker 2

I told Amelia this because we're going to be getting another house next year . We're going to sell this one , one , to be getting another house next year . We're going to sell this one . One thing I'm concerned with is we just spent the last two years setting this house up for success and that's been a hell of a process . Honestly , behind the scenes , and when we move , that's a whole thing , and then setting the next house up , getting the office set up , getting her office set up , getting the studios set up , making sure that everything's set up in the kitchen and we know where everything goes . That's going to be a whole learning curve .

Speaker 2

And so , whether it's moving , having a kid , getting a pet , things that normally aren't urgent all of a sudden are super , super urgent and they get in the way of the things that you want to be consistent at . And so the other thing I want to mention I told Kev this is my kind of episode . I love productivity . If you ever are curious , please reach out . I love this stuff .

Speaker 2

But the four questions that I try to ask myself and this is from the TED talk as well it's called a focus filter . I think he calls it a focus funnel , emilia and I call it a focus filter , and we have it written on our whiteboard downstairs EADP , edip Not the best acronym , edip E stands for eliminate . So let's say you have a task . What's a task ? Pull up my Dreamliner . Okay , full monthly meetup promo is the number one most important task on my MIT list . Okay , let's go through the focus filter number one . Can I eliminate this ? The answer is no , unless I want no one to know about our meetup on thursday . So no , I can't eliminate that I could .

Speaker 1

But speaking of . We have a meetup tomorrow . If you're listening to this , yeah , yeah on self-worth tomorrow , yeah , today's wednesday , today's episode is wednesday . Today's episode is wednesday oh my god .

Speaker 2

Yeah , that's right . Yeah , got it . Okay . So we have a meetup tomorrow . My bad , okay . Can I eliminate this ? No , can I automate this . Is there a way to get this automated ? Like what's a good example , I was telling kev about how emilia and I bought these feeders , mostly em Emilia .

Speaker 2

Emilia is the automation queen . She automates everything she can to save her time . So we have these three feeders for Tucker Tilly and Tigo Tucker Tilly , tao , our two cats , and dog . We have to feed these . We have to fill these feeders once per week and they , at 7.15 . Every day they go off and the cats go eat and Tucker eats and it's all good . So we only have to fill them once a week . So it's that's called batching , um , so can I automate this with the monthly meetup ? The answer is no .

Speaker 2

Now the third one is can I delegate this ? So maybe hire landscapers instead of doing it yourself . Maybe hire painters instead of doing it yourself when we painted the deck . That kind of thing delegation is . Can I pay someone else to do it instead of me doing it ?

Speaker 2

Now , delegation's dangerous and here's why I often joke with my clients . Don't delegate a task and then like , go to the beach , because that's not going to save you money . It actually does save you money if you can delegate a task while also working , and so we live in a specialized world . So I'll go briefly with this . But let's say my most profitable activity is speaking . Let's say I'm a speaker , okay , and I have a speech for $5,000 . If I focus on that speech and make $5,000 while I pay someone else to do the landscaping , I'm actually making more money , but that's presupposing I actually have a speech for $5,000 , and that's where it gets a little wonky .

Speaker 2

So the first one is how can I eliminate this ? Second one is how can I automate this ? Third one is how can I delegate this ? That's the E-A-D . And the last one is is P , and that's the point of this episode , which is can I procrastinate this ? I have a rolling back burner of MITs on my phone . I use Google Tasks on my phone and it's called rolling back burner . Surprise ending . And I have . I mean , I just scrolled . I probably have 50 things on here . Now , why do I keep a rolling back burner ? Because every now and then I'll look at this . If I ever have any free time , which is very rare , I'll look at this , like if I ever don't know what to do .

Speaker 2

So let's give an example Amazon affiliate program for book club . We have a book club and everybody buys their book . Every time we have a new book , we have a new book coming up and we wanted to create an Amazon affiliate program where , if you go to our website , you can buy the book through our website on Amazon and then Amazon will give us a percentage in the business . It's just extra passive income . Why not ? It's a referral program . I just haven't set it up yet .

Speaker 2

So I've been procrastinating that for probably however long . Book club's been around three or four years . Now here's the thing why didn't I take it off the list ? Can I eliminate it ? I can , I don't want to . Can I automate it ? Yes , but it takes a long time to set up , and by long time I mean a couple hours . Can I delegate it ? Yes , probably Okay , and then can I procrastinate it . I've been doing that for about four years Now .

Speaker 2

The focus filter the cool part is what I should do is bring that thing back to the top . So if you do procrastinate something and that's the point that Rory was making in the TED Talk is , bring it back to the top of the funnel , so you'll notice things like what's a good example ? So our YouTube ? Right now , if you are on YouTube , you can look at our banner . Our banner and our icon are actually old branding still , which does bother me . By the way , fyi , you're the producer of the show . Please change it . But at the end of the day , he has other , more important things to do , and that's why I think it's so important to understand this procrastination piece , because all day , every day I don't know if this is a unique to me thing , it might be I just see things that need to improve all day , every day . It's just this needs to like all the time , but you can't improve everything all at once .

Speaker 2

You have to improve everything little by little by little . Now here's the question Am I going to go set up Amazon affiliate program for book club versus going to the gym today ? That's a terrible idea . Exercise and health is more important than Amazon affiliate program , and so you have to . And this is the very last piece of this is you have to filter it through your core values .

Speaker 2

If you spent the weekend with your family this past weekend and family is your number one core value , then obviously you shouldn't spend Easter weekend or whatever . If you celebrate it or not , we don't personally but if you celebrate Easter weekend and you value that , that's your prerogative . You should not be at home setting up Amazon affiliate program while you should be with your family . And so a lot of people feel bad constantly that they're not doing the things they quote unquote should do , when in reality they're not aligned anyway . And so hopefully this is very permission giving for people , because there is no fairytale candy land thing where you go to bed where you got everything done . That doesn't exist . And I would love to hear from you , Kev , because as a business owner for the last seven years , you know for a fact . You've never had your head hit that pillow , having gotten everything done . There's no such thing .

Speaker 1

No , no . And I think that requires it requires courage to be okay with that . It requires courage to have something on your list and say , alright , I'm going to get rid of this and it's just going to be gone Forever . I had an idea one time it was going to be called RateMyCoachcom . Remember that , yeah .

Speaker 1

You and I were talking about something . You were like , yeah , there's RateMyProfessorcom , where in college you can rate your professor and everybody can look at it and say , oh , this is an awesome professor , I want to take this class . And I said what if we did that for coaching ? There's so many coaches out there who aren't good coaches , or there's so many coaches out there who are really good that nobody knows about . What if we did that ? And that was on my to-do list for like a year or a couple years .

Speaker 1

And then I got to the point where I was like this doesn't make sense anymore . It was a cool idea at the time . If you want it , take it . Ratemycoachcom I don't even know . Beauty of it is other things . Now it's like I want to create a Facebook group for Podcast Growth University . That is very high on the top of my list , but that'll get procrastinated for the next couple months , most likely because there's other things that I'm focused on . But it does take courage to see something on that list and say , yeah , this has been on here for like eight months . It's just like the clothes in the closet . That's one of the reasons it's super hard to donate clothes or whatever it is , throw away clothes that are wrecked and you're never going to wear again is because it's the what if factor . Well , what if I need this ?

Speaker 2

You haven't needed it Every now and then two months later you're like , oh , I really wish I had that shirt . It's fair , that happens . Yeah , it does .

Speaker 1

It does , it's bound to happen , it does .

Speaker 2

I throw out a bunch of not throw out . They're in our garage still , luckily , this shaker cup that I'm using for my protein shake . I clean the cupboards out all the time . Em , I'm really good at eliminate , she's really good at automate , so I like to get rid of stuff . Kev , you know that .

Speaker 2

Just get rid of it , get rid of it , donate it , donate it , donate it . We got rid of most of the cups in our cupboard one time and not three weeks later . I was like , oh you know , I really should start doing protein shakes in the morning .

Speaker 1

And then I'm like seven of them and Taryn said do you need seven of these ? And I said , well , I might . And then we had a conversation and we got rid of because a lot of them were junk and they were leaking and they were years and years old .

Speaker 1

So now I think I have like two . Nice . But I think that's the beauty of it is , as you change and as things around you change , your priorities can change too . Something that might seem super important right now might not be important at all in six months . Something that doesn't seem important at all right now and it's just like ah , whatever , it'll get done when it gets done . It might next week , it might need to get done . You just don't . You just don't know . But I think it's really important to have a list of stuff , because I'm the type of person I say this all the time to myself . I'll remember that you have a really good idea . Okay , let me connect it to another thought . I'll remember that . And then I wake up the next day and it's like what was that again ?

Speaker 1

I don't remember anything . If I wrote that down somewhere , then at least I'd have the opportunity to look at the next , to look at it the next day . But I guess my memory is not as good as I would like it to be .

Speaker 2

So yeah , and that brings us to the next level Dreamliner .

Speaker 1

Yes , where you ?

Speaker 2

can write down all of your most important tasks . Yes , you can Continue . I interrupt , no , no you're good , you're good .

Speaker 1

It's very rare that when I finish I don't want to say everything done , because it depends . It depends on what you quantify as everything . If you have a list of 15 things to get done and you get 15 things done , you might say I got everything done , but in theory , another 15 things should go on the list when you get those 15 things done .

Speaker 2

Yeah , there is no end state .

Speaker 1

Right , yeah , yeah , you can always accomplish more .

Speaker 2

That's one of the hardest things in the world , brother . The thing in the 21st century that I think bothers people so much and why we're all filled with so much anxiety and struggle , is there's so much opportunity , there's so much you can do . I mean , there's a reason my to-do list has 50 things on there , and that's me being very discerning . I comb that list all the time . I combed that list two days ago . I got rid of 13 , 14 things off there and every one of those took courage to delete . Or every now and then , and I know everyone knows this feeling it's like oh , I did that Nice , Ooh , that got done .

Speaker 2

Oh , I don't even have to do that anymore . Sometimes things just get done , you know .

Speaker 1

That's the beauty of it . Yeah , it's real nice .

Speaker 2

That's the beauty of it so , for example , I wanted to text so emilia's sister , ella . She came to next level live and I wanted to text her and say thank you for coming . Ended up going to lunch with her . She I didn't even know she was going to lunch . We went to her parents my mom , and she was there , I was like , oh good , I already thanked her in person , done deal , check it off the list , right ? So that feels good too .

Speaker 2

So sometimes when you procrastinate , things actually end up getting done as well . And so , kev little side tangent , here you had the rate , my coach rate , my coachcom idea . I remember that . That was years ago , four years ago , something like that , five years ago no , probably like three probably in the studio days we had a studio .

Speaker 1

I think that conversation was in the studio right , I don't know , I don't , I don't know . I just remember seeing it on my on my to-do list I think that came out of a conversation .

Speaker 2

So before campus libre . So for context , for those who don't know , my very first company was called campus libre . It was a campus specific textbook uh , campus specific craigslist for textbooks and I me and three college friends of mine started the company together . I was the chief marketing officer , ceo , cto , all stuff um we had . We were profitable out of the gate . We had a website . It was really quite awesome , honestly , and we won a bunch of business awards . A bunch won a couple , we won a couple of business awards . And it was before that it an idea .

Speaker 2

When I first pitched that idea , before we decided to do the Campus Libre thing , I went to lunch . I remember I was working at iRobot at the time and I went to lunch with one of my business partners at the time . His name's Manu and I remember I had a whole slide deck printed out for the lunch . Now I know I don't have any friends , so I pull it up to him , I show him and it was rate my landlordcom , because back in college I didn't like our landlord and he wasn't terrible but he wasn't good and I figured you know what it would .

Speaker 2

It would hold landlords really accountable , particularly in these college areas too , because some of these places you don't have to take care of your place at all for the tenants because the demand is so high , and so we paid a decent amount of money , and again for a not so nice place , but the location was everything because it's right next to campus and so , anyways , that's where that started Interesting . Yeah , so RateMyProfessorcom was something I used in college to make sure that I didn't get the ridiculously hard do extra work all day , every day type of thing . Back in my party days , nothing could get in the way of a good party right , and then I used I wanted ratemylandlordcom , and then fast forward years and years and years later , kevin considered ratemycoachcom .

Speaker 1

So I don't know .

Speaker 2

It's just a cool little thing of none of them ever happened but , if you want three good ideas but there you go .

Speaker 1

Who knows , we might have rate my podcast I . Who knows what will happen in the future ? That's the thing you never know . You never know , if something gets procrastinated long enough , it might evolve into something different , something better , into something different , something better , something more aligned , something more powerful , valuable , whatever .

Speaker 2

Last . Thing .

Speaker 1

Yeah .

Speaker 2

After Next Level Live we talked to the NLU team . Kevin and I talked first and we were like dude . So the , the car that Emilie and I have is it has a chill mode . It's a Tesla , it has a chill mode and it has a sport mode . And the sport mode is super fast . And I don't like driving fast . I'm not a , I don't like that at all , I don't like fast cars , but anyways . So I always put it in chill mode Always . And I told Kev , I said we need to put some of these departments in chill mode , man , because we're going to burn out Me , I'm going to burn out and so we are purposely putting .

Speaker 2

We changed it to coast mode and growth mode at NLU , so it's green , yellow . We put some of our departments in coast mode and it's kind of like procrastinating a little bit on those departments For now . For now I don't want to get rid of them . They're still going to be valuable in the future and that's the problem . We don't . It's all or nothing thinking , it's I have to get rid of this completely or I have to do it now . That's not the way the world works . That's not helpful . It can be very detrimental .

Speaker 2

So to sum up here my next level lesson . No one hits their head at night feeling fully accomplished . There's no such thing . No one gets a 100% day because even if you get to 100% , you always could have done a little bit more . So give yourself the permission slip to decide in advance , and that's why I love the Dreamliner . I do it first thing . When I wake up , it says three MITs , not 50 , not 40 , not 100 , not 10 , three . And then if I do get those three done , amongst the other things I'm doing , I just add another three and it makes it manageable , so you're not constantly overwhelmed by all the stuff . And my next level lesson is EDIP Eliminate , automate , delegate , procrastinate . And the very last thing I'll say . I told Kevin this before the episode . I'm so excited to do this one .

Speaker 2

Every one of us gets spam emails . We all do , and we don't want to take the time to unsubscribe . But if you unsubscribe once or put it , mark it as spam , you save a bunch of time in the future . So there's urgent . How quickly do I have to do this ? There's important . How important is this ? Which is how much does this matter toward my goals and dreams ? And then the third one is how significant is this , which is how long is this ? Which is how much does this matter toward my goals and dreams ? And then the third one is how significant is this , which is how long is this going to matter ? So , if I unsubscribe from one email and take those five minutes now I'm going to save 30 seconds , 30 seconds , 30 seconds , 30 seconds and within a month I saved my five minutes . I've already gotten a return on my investment of time . So hopefully that's a good example . Or Instagram blocking people , whatever . So hopefully that's a good example . Or Instagram blocking people , whatever .

Speaker 1

So protect your time . Protect your time Mine would be . It takes courage to say you know what , I'm not going to do this now because it's not the most valuable thing to do . Again , that's the point of this , right , if you're procrastinating things that are the most valuable , you're probably Jeffing , but if you're procrastinating things that just don't matter that much right now , it takes courage to do that . But I think over time it gets easier and easier , because you don't have negative it's not negative feedback . It's not negative feedback of okay , I procrastinated that and then everything went off the rails . That's my next level nugget . Alan's going to call it next level lesson . I'm going to call it next level nugget , just so if you hear us talking about two different things . That is why .

Speaker 2

And here's the cool part you get to choose . You get to choose . Choose whichever one you like better , I like next level nugget son . Well , now we've got to figure out which one to from the listeners . Okay , Because , at the bottom of the Dreamliner it says next level nugget currently .

Speaker 1

I like that Okay . I feel like a nugget is 1% . It's little , lesson's heavy . For today's lesson we're going to learn . You know what I mean . No , no , I don't want to learn a lesson , I want to learn a nugget . Give me a nugget , all right listeners .

Speaker 2

let us know , yes , let us know .

Speaker 1

We got to go because I have a coaching call . If you have not signed up for group coaching and you are interested in doing so , it starts in six days , so today's Wednesday If you're listening to this on Wednesday it starts next Tuesday at 6 pm Eastern Standard Time . Use promo code NLULISTENER for 30% off and ends up being $96.60 per month , and you get four calls per month , so it ends up being like $25 a call Super , super affordable , and it is designed that way so it's sustainable for you wherever you are financially . And then we also , as we mentioned , we have a meetup tomorrow . What is it ? Five Ways to Build Self-Worth .

Speaker 2

Self-Worth . Yeah , Our listeners I don't want to project , but our listeners , our community tends to have struggled with self-worth , Kevin and myself included . Yes , we learned how to build it and we want to help teach you that as well . It's the two most important things in NLU beliefs , what we believe Number one , self-belief . Number two , self-worth . So half of the equation of your future bigger , better , brighter future , I think is self-worth . I would concur .

Speaker 1

I would concur with that . Tomorrow for episode number 1,662 , doubling down on your strengths or working on your weaknesses ? I get asked that question often on podcasts . If you're very good at something , should you just get better at it , or should you work on the weaknesses , potentially the room for improvements that you have ? So we're going to talk about that for tomorrow's episode . As always , we love you , we appreciate you , grateful for each and every one of you , and at NLU we don't have fans , we have family . We will talk to you all tomorrow . Keep up the edip .

Speaker 2

Thanks , Elvenage .

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Alan Lazaros

Host
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Kevin Palmieri

Host