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Book Review: Get It Done
11 Plays5 years ago
On this week's episode, I reviewed a book that was sent to me and written by one of my listeners Michael Mackintosh. Michael wrote a brilliant and insightful book on how to hack your brain and accomplish your goals!
Recommended Resource: Get It Done: The 21-Day Mind Hack System to Double Your Productivity and Finish What You Start by Michael Mackintosh. https://amzn.to/30Mm718
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Recorded, Produced and Edited by Éliane Anita
Track Produced by Devo Beats
This is a Relevant Media production and Podcast
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Transcript
Introduction & Welcome
00:00:10
Speaker
Hi guys, welcome to the Aelion Anita podcast where we get down to business every week. I'm your host Aelion and I'm so excited to have you join me for this week's podcast.
Birthday Hiatus Explanation
00:00:22
Speaker
I took a couple weeks off because I celebrated my 33rd birthday
00:00:27
Speaker
Two weeks ago, so I just wanted to take some time to rest and recuperate and enjoy my birthday and enjoy my break So I am back again giving you guys a fresh podcast and this week I'm going to give you a book review podcast I got an email from a listener who told me that they wrote a book and
00:00:48
Speaker
and they asked me would I be willing to do a book review on my podcast about the book and I agreed to
Introduction to 'Get It Done'
00:00:56
Speaker
do so. So today, I am reviewing the book, Get It Done, The 21 Day Mind Hack System to Double Your Productivity and Finish What You Start. And this book is written by Michael McIntosh. So thank you Michael for sending me this book and I am going to get started into the
Book Structure Overview
00:01:17
Speaker
book review.
00:01:17
Speaker
So if anybody knows me, they know that I am an executor. I love to get stuff done. I am the person that you give the blueprint to and I make it happen because I enjoy executing well thought out plans. So this book was right up my alley because it's a two on one kind of book for me when I read it. It was a strategic book and then it was an execution book.
00:01:46
Speaker
So it's broken up in three parts, and the first part talks about mind hacks, which really deals with the mind and how we approach our task. And the second part of the book, it actually talks about
00:02:01
Speaker
the strategic portion and the execution portion. So it's kind of two and one in the second part. And then the third part of the book is the actual 21 day challenge. So this book to me, I enjoyed it because it was very well written and it was strategically organized to help you follow along and build you up to where you can actually get stuff done.
00:02:24
Speaker
So let's talk about a couple chapters that really stood out to me in the
Key Chapters: Pain & Self-doubt
00:02:29
Speaker
first section. So the first section, again, deals with the mind and how we have to rewire our mind to be able to attack our goal. So the first chapter is prolonged pain or short-lived pain. And what that chapter basically talked about was accepting the fact that you're getting ready to do something that's going to cause you a little bit of pain.
00:02:52
Speaker
whatever you change anything, whether it's your diet or you decide that you're going to write a book or you're going to start a business, it's going to require the pain of reworking your schedule. So you just, you have to begin to set time aside to do whatever it is that you're trying to accomplish. So that means that
00:03:15
Speaker
you're not going to be able to stay up all night binge watching Netflix shows or you're not going to be able to be on the Internet or you're not going to always be able to be easily accessible because you're attempting to accomplish a goal. This is pain for a lot of people and this honestly delay a lot of people from getting things done because they don't want to accept the fact that they have to make a change.
00:03:42
Speaker
And so this chapter of the book really pushes you to just accept it and swallow the pill that it's going to take some work and it's going to take some time and it's going to take some giving away to get things done.
Starting Projects & Perfectionism
00:03:57
Speaker
So just accept the pain.
00:03:59
Speaker
Another chapter in the first section, it talked about self-doubt. And I really enjoyed this because a lot of times we don't get started because we're afraid that we don't know enough or that we don't have enough or that we're not enough. And the truth of the matter is you don't have to be perfect to start. You don't have to be perfect to
00:04:23
Speaker
get success, perfection is not required for success. And you have to be willing to be bad at a thing and not do so great sometimes to get where you need to be eventually. Like you're not gonna come out of the gate writing your first book and it's gonna be perfect. You're gonna have grammatical errors, you're gonna have all kinds of things that happen. But the point is is that you need to start
00:04:52
Speaker
and keep going and keep perfecting like you perfect yourself as you go forward. And that's what he talked about, dealing with the self-doubt in this book was like, hey, listen, you're not going to be perfect. You don't have to be perfect to start. You just need to start and keep it, keep the momentum going. And as you move forward, you will eventually find success and you will become perfected as you go through the process.
00:05:17
Speaker
And the last chapter that I'm going to talk about in this section of the book is Do Less Work, Get More Done.
Productivity Tips
00:05:25
Speaker
Earlier this year, I read a book called Deeper Work, and this book really helped radicalize my thinking as it pertains to work.
00:05:35
Speaker
And in this chapter of this particular book, he talked about the same theme that deeper work talked about where if you focus your time and your energy on one thing for a short amount of time, you will get more work done. Meaning if you're writing a book and you say, I'm going to focus for one hour writing one chapter,
00:06:01
Speaker
of my book, you will get more work done in that one hour than trying to break it up and try, or than you trying to work a whole day. So instead of you saying, I want to work eight hours on this book, nine times out of 10, you're not going to be focused that long and you're not going to get much done. So you need to take a break because taking breaks gives you a better perspective and it actually helps you move faster. When you know that you only have one hour of dedicated time,
00:06:30
Speaker
to a particular thing, you're going to give it your all, you're going to give it your best, it's going to get all of your focus because it's just one hour. But if you try to work for an extended amount of time, you're going to lose momentum and focus. Think about it. If you work a job for eight hours a day,
00:06:48
Speaker
that job is not getting all of your energy, your full energy for eight hours of that day. You're going to take breaks. You're going to look at your cell phone. I mean, you're going to twiddle your thumbs by the end of the day, you're going to be exhausted. So let's say hours nine of, if you work from nine to five, let's say hours from, from nine o'clock
00:07:09
Speaker
to 12 o'clock, your job gets your absolute best. It gets your focus. But from 12 to five, your job is getting probably like low moments of work and you're not giving your best energy because your best energy was at the beginning of the day. So you're gonna get more work done in short amount of time than you would in extended amounts of time. So do less work.
00:07:37
Speaker
and get more done or basically spend less time doing work and you'll get more work done.
Goal Achievement: WAR Method
00:07:45
Speaker
So the second portion of the book is what he defines and he has an acronym. He has actually two acronyms. The first acronym is called WAR. WAC, ATTACK, RELAX.
00:07:59
Speaker
So that is his strategy, his recommended strategy for actually getting your goals done. So WAC is basically an acronym that gives you, and I'll break down the acronym in a minute, but it basically is the strategic portion of your goal where you sit down, you write, you define, you put accountability around it, you set conditions and structures and things like that to ensure that you're going to be successful in your goal.
00:08:29
Speaker
then the act portion is exactly what it says. You act out whatever it is and then relax is and once you're done, you relax. So I want to spend quite a bit of time talking about the whack portion of this book because I really think that the strategic portion is what is going to allow you to have great success and help you move with great momentum as you attack your goals.
00:08:55
Speaker
So the first letter in WAC is obviously W. And this is the defining step of your goal. So this is the what, when, and where. So you define your goal when you're going to do it.
00:09:11
Speaker
how long it's going to take you to do it, when you're going to do it, all of that. So and where you're going to do it. So it's all about defining in the W. So the H talks about how are you going to make this plan happen. So this is where you get down to the root of things. So
00:09:30
Speaker
If you are writing a book, this is where you define how you're going to write it. This is the outline of the book. This is the detailed instructions for yourself on how you're going to accomplish your goals. Imagine if you were building a bookshelf from IKEA, they're going to give you everything you need
00:09:54
Speaker
and the instructions to do it. So this part of your WAC plan is how you're going to do it. So if you was reading this or if you was giving this to someone, this will be the exact instructions on how to get this plan done. The next thing he talked about is A, which is accountability.
00:10:18
Speaker
And you guys have probably heard me say this more than once, you need a team to be around your dream. Like it's very hard to get dreams accomplished without some form of accountability. So he talked about, he has several different ways. He actually has a commitment sheet that you can copy and type and give it to everybody that
00:10:42
Speaker
is holding you accountable to accomplishing this particular goal. It's in the book if you so decide to get it. Also too, he mentioned one thing that I think is important and can be crucial to your success, which is make your goals public. Now, obviously, every goal cannot be public. Some things need to be kept private, but things that you want people to know and things that you want people to
00:11:10
Speaker
hold you accountable to make it very public. And it doesn't necessarily mean that you have to make it public via social media. You can, if that's your choice, but you also can make it very public to your family or to your close-knit of friends to say, hey, this is what I'm doing. Could you hold me accountable? If you see me doing this, make sure you tell me or remind me that this is my goal and this is what I tend to accomplish.
00:11:36
Speaker
So make your goals public, get a team around your dream and make it happen. The next letter is C, which he defines as conditions and structures. So basically this is what do you have in place to make things easier?
00:11:53
Speaker
Imagine writing a book and you have a dedicated space, maybe it's an office space, maybe it's a place in your house where the light comes in really good and you get inspired off natural lighting, whatever the case may be. You want to make sure that you have things in place, structures in place to ensure that when you go to this place, you are going to be able to work with great momentum.
00:12:19
Speaker
So for instance, you want to make sure the area is clean you want to make sure you know if you're writing a book you have to have something like a maybe you need a playlist. So this is your writing playlist you know this is what makes things easier for you.
00:12:34
Speaker
to actually get your goal done. So this is your conditions your structures like I work in these conditions this is my structure I have to have this I have to make you know like maybe you need your notebook or maybe you need like two pens in two different colors whatever that is for you whatever that condition and structure is for you
00:12:55
Speaker
to make you successful and help you get your goal done, do that.
Goal Planning: WAC Method
00:13:01
Speaker
So that's the portion where you actually sit down with yourself and say, what do I need or what's required of me to actually be able
00:13:11
Speaker
to get my goal done. And finally, the last letter in the WAC acronym is K, which stands for Kickstart. So this is your week by week actionable plan. So this is where you sit down and you write out exactly what you're going to do week by week to basically take a chunk out of your goal. So again, if you're writing a book,
00:13:39
Speaker
or I'm just using the book as an example, but if you're writing the book, you're obviously not going to write it in one week. It's going to take some time, right? So you're going to tell yourself this is, and I love the example that he gives in the book. So he has like a three week, uh, example plan where he says like, you know, you have your results section and then you have your actions that, um, sections. So the, the first one is I'm going to get my book outline outline done. That's week one. So I'm going to write every day from five
00:14:08
Speaker
to 7am and 8 to 11pm. So that is an example of how to kickstart your goal. So this is you sitting down with your pen and your paper or an excel sheet or whatever saying week by week this is what I'm going to do to ensure that I get my plan done.
00:14:28
Speaker
So that is his WAC method. So that is the strategic portion of the 21 day challenge that you're going to take. So this is where you sit down and you basically plot out everything you need, get everything in order so that you can do the next thing, which is act.
Executing Goals with Strategy
00:14:48
Speaker
So now that you have your instructions, your terms and conditions, your accountability, your what, when, where, and how, you have all of that prepared, now you can simply act. After doing the WAC method, you're going to find that it is so much easier for you to actually execute your plan.
00:15:07
Speaker
Now that you have a well thought out and strategic plan, you can now act and it gives you like when you have the whack method, what I learned is that when you actually have the whack method, which is the plan, actually the strategic plan in hand, it makes it so much easier for you to flow and accomplish your goals because now you know
00:15:27
Speaker
your hindrance, you've gotten over every mind issue that you may have about accomplishing your goal. You have everything you need to make your your goal a success. And the only thing next for you to do is to get it done. So this is the easiest part. I actually once you actually sat down and thought everything out and became clear on your goals, the acting portion is so much easier now that you have a strategic plan.
00:15:55
Speaker
Once you've accomplished your goal, the next thing to do is relax because you finally got it done.
Book Recommendation & Tools
00:16:03
Speaker
So I recommend this book because it is a really good book to help you go through your mind and really confront the things and the issues that hold you back.
00:16:15
Speaker
That's that was in section one. The next thing it does is confront you to make you sit yourself down and write out a plan to strategically get your goal done. And it honestly this book takes away every excuse to why you can't get things done.
00:16:32
Speaker
And at the end of the book, what I really enjoyed is that he actually has a 21 day plan and he has tools and all kinds of diagrams and things like that to help you commit to getting your your goal done. I mean, honestly, it's a really good book and it's like a book in a workbook put together. So it's not a very long book.
00:16:55
Speaker
It's a very easy read. He used very easy language to read and understand. And I think that if you're trying to accomplish a goal in this last quarter of the year, this is the book that you want in your hands to ensure that you can accomplish a goal. And also too, you know, with us preparing for
00:17:14
Speaker
2020 perfect vision the year perfect vision which I'm proclaiming this book is what's needed so that you can actually execute what you need to get done from start to finish so if you're asking me I highly recommend this book and I want to thank Michael McIntosh for reaching out to me and have me read this book and sending it to me
00:17:35
Speaker
And any artist out there that's writing a book that would like for me to read it and do a book review on, I will be more than happy
Invitation for Book Reviews
00:17:43
Speaker
to. So all you have to do is email me at a Leon Anita show at gmail.com and we can work out the logistics from there.
00:17:55
Speaker
So thank you guys so much for tuning in to this week's podcast.
Conclusion & Motivation
00:18:00
Speaker
Make sure you go get the book, get it done written by Michael McIntosh. I will link it in my show descriptions below so you can easily get the book. If you want to follow me on any social media,
00:18:14
Speaker
I am Eliana Nita on all of the things. And yeah, that's it guys. Thank you guys for tuning in this week. And as always be blessed and stay relevant.