♪ I don't wanna do it ♪
♪ Let's go ♪
♪ This can be the (indistinct) ♪
♪ And I wish I could wake you up ♪
(harmonizing)
- Hey, I tweeted a tweet a little while ago
that got a bigger response than I expected.
"Why don't I wanna do the work that I wanna do."
♪ We got work ♪
♪ I don't really wanna do the work today ♪
♪ I don't wanna do the work today ♪
First of all, I gotta acknowledge
that I'm lucky enough to be in a position
where I'm doing the work I wanna do.
That tweet sounds like I'm spoiled bra.
I don't wanna do,
to solve some thing I have the means to do.
But clearly, this resonated with a lot of you,
tweeters out there.
So let's try to answer this question
using my favorite weapon, the kukri.
No, the list.
♪ List, yeah ♪
♪ It's time for a list ♪
♪ List, list ♪
♪ Oh, yeah ♪
Why don't you wanna do the work that you want to do?
One, there are no endless pleasure machines.
I mean, unless there are that I don't know about,
but if there are, please let me know in the comments,
keep it clean though.
I know what kind of pleasure machines you're thinking of,
and those have limits.
Okay? Carl?
Someday, maybe in the distant future when we're born,
our brains will be jacked into an endless pleasure machine,
which may lead to an apocalyptic battle
with robots and business suits.
But hopefully we will prevail
and then return to our endless pleasure machines.
Ignorance is bliss.
- Ignorance is bliss.
- But for now we have to deal with stupid,
actual, real life, as far as we know.
Basically I'm saying, moods are real.
You're not going to always feel like doing things.
That's silly.
Don't be silly, Lucas.
"So what do we do about it, WheezyWaiter?"
Well first, maybe your mood is a lie.
(dramatic music)
And you actually do wanna do the thing you don't wanna do,
you just need to kick in the pants to get started.
I made a video about the 10 minute rule which can help,
just decide that you're gonna do a thing for 10 minutes,
that might lead to doing it longer.
For me, it's almost always the case
that starting a thing is harder
than just continuing a thing I'm already doing.
Just start, just start, just start.
Maybe try this trick that I just made up
just now to start, sing. ♪ I don't wanna do it ♪
♪ I don't wanna do it ♪
♪ Let's go ♪
Secondly, maybe your mood isn't a lie.
(dramatic music)
Then what do you do?
I'm actually working on another video
about how to help you quickly get out of a mood,
for the short term.
Things like listening to music, exercise,
breathing, meditation,
and one that really surprises me, cleaning.
I don't know what it is about cleaning,
but it actually does put me in a better mood,
maybe it's 'cause I'm 41 years old.
I'm just not as filthy as I used to be.
Stop spoiling the video.
Sorry, point is, moods like shirt happen,
and you may just need to walk away for a while,
maybe clean up your act a little bit, Steven.
Speaking of cleaning, this is the perfect time
to mention the sponsor of this video,
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Segue, yes.
No, Blueland doesn't make segues,
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Oh, I hate parabens.
Won't you prove they're clean, Craig.
Well, Blueland is EPA certified and every ingredient meets
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Now then, back to the list.
What number were we on?
♪ Yeah, number two ♪
♪ The second thing on the list ♪
Two, you don't believe in it or you've forgotten why.
Some tweeters helped to answer this question,
because you want a why?
Why at all? Anything?
I feel like that should be a t-shirt.
Maybe you have ethical misgivings.
It could be that you have some guilt
or shame hiding from you somewhere,
that's holding you back.
It pairs nicely with the fear
that whatever you're trying to do won't work.
Whoa, slow down, fear is later on the list, Jonas.
Janis.
(car honking)
Don't swear at me.
(car tires skid)
You can't run away from your problems forever, Janis.
Anyway, I'm gonna say what I seem to say
in almost every list.
Figure out why.
I'm not sure if Serenity Receiver
was saying you should identify why, or just ignore why.
But I'm definitely saying, identify why.
A book that I often think about and have mentioned before,
"Start with Why" by Simon Sinek.
It seems mostly geared towards businesses,
but the core message is, people don't buy what you do,
they buy why you do it.
And he says, "People usually do it backwards."
They think about what they're doing first
and why comes later, if at all.
- Let me give you an example.
I use Apple because they're easy to understand
and everybody gets it.
If Apple were like everyone else,
a marketing message from them might sound like this,
"We make great computers.
They're beautifully designed,
simple to use, and user friendly, wanna buy one?"
Meh.
- But the most successful people do it in the right order,
why, how, and what.
- And by why I don't mean to make a profit.
What's your purpose?
What's your 'cause?
What's your belief?
Why does your organization exist?
Here's how Apple actually communicates,
"Everything we do, we believe in challenging
the status quo in thinking differently,
by making our products beautifully designed,
simple to use and user friendly,
we just happen to make great computers, wanna buy one?"
- This can help businesses succeed,
but I have applied this to pretty much everything I do,
because it's really motivational
to know why you're doing something.
Other than to make money.
If you don't know why,
you're not gonna have any pressing need to do it.
Unless you really need the money.
And no reward when it's done.
Other than money.
I revived my channel a few years ago
and this whole idea was a big part of it.
Made a video about it.
I stepped back, took a breather,
had a colon cleanse, metaphorically,
and created four rules and then followed them and it worked.
(patriotic music)
Number one, have a purpose.
- I've got one, I've got a special purpose.
- You do.
- I actually write down my why, how and what,
and I go back and I check in on it and change it
as I see fit as the days go on.
Hey, people change, things change.
Change is money.
Right now, my why, how and what are,
"WheezyWaiter" why, show that the internet
can be a positive fun, dependable, and useful place.
But we all know the real reason is becoming the all seeing,
all knowing, space baby at the center of the universe.
How? Share my stupid attempts to improve my stupid life,
learn about the stupid world,
and make stupid jokes on a regular stupid basis.
What? Stupid videos and stupid tweets.
And a stupid newsletter I just started
sending out every Tuesday called "Tuesbetter Newsletter."
Be a "Tuesbetter Newsletter" getter.
Link down below, it'll be on the list.
So maybe take the time to nail down your why.
Write it down, actually think about it.
Don't be a dingus, Susie.
I find that the process of writing things down
actually makes me discover things.
Like when I wrote this very sentence
for this very video, I discovered gold.
Gold is money.
And you might discover that you don't actually
wanna do the thing that you wanna do,
but you might wanna do something else
that is more in line with your why.
I think this whole process takes the focus off of what,
which I think we initially think about too much.
"I wanna make videos, I wanna make audios."
What about?
"I don't know, video stuff,
audio stuff, opinions and shirt."
♪ Yeah, it's three ♪
♪ It's three times ♪
♪ Three me up Scotty ♪
Three, you don't know how.
This could mean, literally, you don't have any knowledge
about how to do the thing,
but if you really wanna do the thing,
you probably have some skills.
I'm more talking about the possibility
that you don't have a plan, you don't know where to start,
how long to work on it?
What's your schedule?
What do other people do?
It's huge.
And the hugeness is scary.
Here's what you do, you break it into small bits.
Little bitty bits.
Each time you get a bit done, sense of accomplishment,
and that will motivate you to get the next bit done.
When I'm a make a 10 or 20 minute video,
if I thought about the entire video, the entire time,
my brain would explode.
WheezyWaiter has to make another clone
to make the rest of the video.
Oh, gross, I'm sitting on clone bits.
But no, I break the video into parts, first part, script.
And I break the script into parts.
Intro, outro, and usually lists.
And lists can be made into sub-list,
and those can be made into sub-lists,
and sub-sub-list and sub-sub-sub-list,
but you don't wanna go too far.
You don't wanna go into the sub-list quantum realm.
And then shooting the video,
I usually do that in one big chunk,
because it doesn't take that long because I'm a one take...
(beep) 'Cause I'm a one take wonder.
And then cutting down the footage,
which is divided into the segments of the list
that's in the script and add graphics, text,
delightful drawings maybe, usually a sponsor segment,
export, upload, title thumbnail, description,
captions, overlays, publish, promote.
Whenever I'm feeling tired or unmotivated
I try to only focus on the next thing I have to do.
If every step along the way,
I have been very aware of why I'm doing it,
the whole house of cards should stand, but...
♪ Four ♪
♪ Oh yeah, four ♪
Number four, you're afraid of failure.
I'm lumping this in with perfectionism,
because perfectionism stems from fear of failure.
As a perfect person, I suffer from perfectionism.
In fact, that's my only imperfection.
(sarcastic laugh)
Not true, not true, not true, not true.
But the perfectionism stems from a fear
of people not liking the thing
or the thing not doing as well as I hope it will,
which stems from a fear of this whole WheezyWaiter operation
coming crashing down and I have nothing more to say,
and I'm never interesting or useful ever again.
So if you want something to be perfect,
you either work on it forever and never finish,
or never start and let it live perfectly
in your head forever or until your brain explode.
Oh man, I'm making on a mess today.
Anyway, where were we?
For me, the best way out of a perfectionism
spiral is a deadline.
Well, it's as good as it can be in the time allotted.
But often, especially for pet projects you care about,
you don't have a deadline.
Works up for the literal deadline of death as far as I know.
So the obvious solution here is, create arbitrary deadlines.
Limits, limits, limits, limits,
limits, limits, limits limits, limits.
Sorry, hit my limit.
And what works best for me is making them simple,
end of day, end of week, end of months.
None of this middle of the day bull shirt.
And don't give yourself too much time.
There's a thing called Parkinson's law,
"Work expands so as to fill
the time available for its completion."
Every time I give myself more time,
it doesn't lead to getting more projects done,
it just takes me longer to do that one,
and the amount of value, that extra work I did,
gives me diminishing returns.
And I have lots of time to find ways to waste time.
And when you're done indicate that you are truly done.
Let people know on the internet or if it's postable,
post the thing on the internet.
Tell the world, "I'm done."
That feels a lot better than, "I'm not done! Okay."
That was my first "WheezyWaiter" video,
I've done thousands of imperfect videos since then,
because I just decided to get things done.
Another thing that actually helps me get over perfectionism
it's a mantra that I just tell myself over and over again,
there's two now actually,
there's one that I've always told you,
"Perfect is the enemy of the good."
And then there's a simpler one,
"Done is better than perfect."
I realized I can just say that to you
but that doesn't really help.
Really, have it written somewhere
where you can see it and be reminded.
Tell yourself it all the time.
Every time I'm bogged down
and I just can't finish something, I'm just like...
I just tell myself,
"Done is better than perfect," and I move on.
Have an automated email to yourself about it.
Replay the part where I say,
"Done is better than perfect," over and over.
Done is better than perfect.
Done is better than lying.
(beep)
It's fine, we move on.
Tattoo it on your forehead, okay.
Thanks for watching.
In my previous video, I tell you how to get better sleep,
and YouTube thinks you'll like that video,
and you can subscribe,
and you can support me on Patreon right over there.
(explosion)
Totally. Ah, we're done
Great.
(explosion)