﻿Day 5

Subject: [firstname]: Get the hard stuff out of the way

Hey [firstname]!

If you’ve got a lot of tasks to do, you may be procrastinating because you think one or more of them is just too hard.  The thing to do in these situations is to do the most difficult one first and get it out of the way.  Oftentimes it's not a daunting as you think!

Once you’ve successfully tackled this task, you should find the others much easier – so there’s no reason to put them off, either. 

But what if you’ve got several hard tasks to do? How do you know which one to tackle first? Is your procrastination really just indecision?

If that’s the case, try using a strategy like the Eisenhower Box (AKA the Eisenhower Matrix) for prioritizing your tasks in an efficient way. This was a system developed by Dwight Eisenhower, 5 star general and 34th President of the United States. Basically, you divide all you have to do into four boxes/categories: Tasks that must be done immediately, tasks that can be done later (or rescheduled), tasks that can be delegated to someone else and tasks that aren't important and can be eliminated. The strength of this strategy is that it works well with the tasks you must complete in a given day, and it also works on longer timescales, like weeks or months.

I like the Eisenhower Matrix because it provides a clear framework for making decisions over and over again. You can even buy notepads that already have the boxes printed for you. Once you get into the habit of using this method, you’ll know what tasks are the most difficult and need to be done soonest. Like I said at the beginning of this e-mail, once you’ve gotten the most difficult task out of the way, the others become much easier and you’ll have fewer excuses to put them off.

Talk soon!

[Your Name]

PS. There’s still time to get my procrastination to prosperity guide.  Here’s the link [link to sales page].
