Post written by Nicolás Zuasti.

How many times did you feel like doing something really cool, that have you really exited, but had too many other stuff around to do that you felt you had to do before? How many times did you stop yourself from following through, only to feel guilty and a failure later?.

I know i did that way too many times, I’ve never have time to learn to play piano, or other languages, never have time to catch up with a friend, too tired to go out to dinner with my wife even when she really loves to eat outside.

I’m not here to give you a formula on how to do everything you want, I’m just another guy, maybe with a different approach. I try to enjoy life, not struggle with it.

I’ll leave some tips that have been working wonderfully for myself.

Do less

If you can, try to live a life without goals . It’s a really hard thing to do, since we are too fixed in a goal oriented mindset.

Even if you have goals set, each morning try to create a Task list for the day. Start with a clean list, and put in it the things that have you more exited about, and next the things you must do in the day, but either you aren’t exited about or you are obligated to do.

Try to include in the list only the things that you know you can do in the day without rushing, you should always go slow, enjoying the process of doing the things you love. Remove any task that you could do at another time, put them in a “to-do in the future list”.

Focus on the first activity and do it. Do not think in anything else, try not to be distracted by anyone and just focus. At first this will be hard, since our society thrives with distraction, cell phones, internet, social networks, TV, adds, work partners will be demanding our constant attention. If possible try to remove yourself from this things as long as you can while you are working on the things you love.

Start small, do the things you really want to do for as long as you can, even if that is 5 minutes per day. To form the habit of doing, you just need to start doing that thing. Try start doing the thing you really love every day.

As time goes by you will have less trouble setting yourself to follow through and the excuses will fade away.

Be mindful about your decisions

I’ve noticed that even when you start creating your task list for the day, the excuses began boiling up.

“I’ll not be able to do this”
“I’ll be too tired after work”
“If i do this i wont have time to watch my show”
“I’ll start on next Monday”

The first thing you should do is learn to detect when you are making an excuse to yourself or others. Write down your usual excuses and compare them with what you think after writing your task list. Remove that type of thought and just start doing.

It will be really hard, but once you get there its an amazing thing to watch.