From Idea to Action: How to Stop Losing Your Best Thoughts

Ideas are cheap; implementation is what matters. In this episode, I’ll share my simple system for capturing ideas and how I make sure the best ones actually get done.

[0:17]  

I’m Igor Kheifets, and this is The ListBuilding Lifestyle. The podcast is for anyone who wants to build a wildly profitable email list working from home. If you’d like to make six figures, travel the world, and help people improve their lives in the process, this podcast is for you. I also invite you to claim a free copy of my best-selling book, The List Building Lifestyle Confessions of an Email Millionaire, at www.igorsbook.com. Get the free book plus $3,000 bonus package that includes my best capture page templates, email swipe files, and traffic blueprints. Visit www.igorsbook.com for details. And now it’s time to claim your List Building Lifestyle.

[1:04]

These days, when I have an idea and I can’t access paper, which happens, right? What I would do is I would grab my phone and I would email myself. I would literally start a new email, enter my own email address into the box, and in the subject line summarize what the thing is like. 

It could be an idea like running a 50% off promotion for this offer. Or it could be to-do list items, such as collecting paperwork for immigration, so it could be either.

And I kind of send it to myself, and then it sits in my inbox. And at any given point, usually, I have two or three of these sitting in my inbox waiting to be implemented.   But again, not all of them get implemented. 

[01:48]

At one point or another, if I haven’t implemented it in like a week, two weeks, three weeks, four weeks, I just end up getting rid of the idea altogether.

Because if I didn’t prioritize implementation in like four weeks, it must not be urgent or important. Otherwise, I would have done it. It must not be a great idea, because most ideas seem like great ideas the moment you come up with them, but you let them marinate, you let them sink, and then they don’t seem very great, and you don’t end up implementing them. 

Now this is both good and bad, because if we implemented every new idea that came to mind, we would end up with way too many ideas to implement, way too many unfinished tasks, and probably way too many bad ideas that we invested more time and effort and energy into than we really should have. 

However, on the opposite side of that, if we know anything about implementation, it is that the faster you put an idea into action, the faster you take the first step related to an idea you want to implement, the more likely you are to actually implement the idea. 

[3:57]

So if you’re thinking about, let’s say, going on vacation, and you’ve been procrastinating, procrastinating about going on vacation now for some time the best thing you can do is to simply the moment, a thought comes across your mind that says something like, “Oh, damn it, I need to schedule that vacation”. 

But the moment that happens, you need to literally take a look at the calendar and decide on the dates, and get on the Sky Scanner website and at least research some flight tickets, and maybe book the flight ticket. 

So, take some kind of step that solidifies your commitment. That’s like the best thing you can do if you truly want to implement an idea. If there’s been something that you need to do but you’ve been procrastinating about doing it, the best thing you can do is to take the first step, no matter how small the step might be. 

All right, for example, if you’ve been procrastinating about talking to your family member who borrowed some money from you two years ago, and they’ve been kind of not bringing it up at all, and acting as if it never happened. 

And you’ve been really feeling frustrated about that, and you’ve been resenting them for it, and you’ve been wanting to have a conversation about it but you keep delaying it and delaying it because there’s no perfect time, to have a conversation like that, then the best thing you can do to follow through on this is to message them and say, Hey, Jeff or Barb, hey, I wanted to talk to you about something is are you available tomorrow between 11 and one? 

[5:22]

So you’re not telling them what it’s going to be about. Out so you don’t yet have to have the conversation, but you message them, show intent, and outline a particular time when that conversation is supposed to happen. And so then the conversation will take place, and it’s going to be hard for you to avoid it.

That’s like how we are with anything in general like the more, the more time passes. From the moment you have the idea to the moment you’ve, you’ve you started implementing, the more time passes, the less the chances that you will put that idea into action.

There are, of course, exceptions to this rule. There are some things we procrastinate about, and then we actually end up doing them for whatever reason. But for the most part, that’s like a key.

So key to implementation, although I know the question wasn’t about implementation, was about ideas, the key to implementation is to move from idea to taking that first step, no matter how small the step is, as fast as you can so as far as not losing ideas a piece of paper, and if you can’t access a piece of paper, then your phone connected to your email, and you email yourself the idea.

[6:45]

Now, then the question becomes, okay. Now I have all these. I have a folder full of ideas. Which ones am I going to implement? And we once again come back to the subject of what our main goal is? 

Because you see, if you don’t know what the goal is, if you don’t know what your end outcome is, it’s going to be very hard for you to pick an idea to implement. I find it very hard to sit in front of a list of ideas or to-do items and then pick one if I don’t have one clear, big, audacious goal that I’m working towards, because if I don’t, none of these items will have priority.

But if I do, if I do, then priority is clear, right? For example, if I’ve got a trip coming up to Miami to another football camp for my son, and it’s like four weeks away. 

Then this week, I’m probably not going to prioritize anything, but maybe two weeks before the camp, I will start prioritizing different things, such as getting the plane tickets, such as booking a hotel, renting a car, such as looking at the calendar, the dates, and picking a hotel that’s in proximity to the training facility now getting the the official kit that they want you to get, get in touch with the organizers, right?

So the closer I get to an important event with a deadline like the more likely I am to start investing more time, effort and focus into that and and everything else kind of falls, kind of falls to the side, almost like to the sidelines, because the deadline takes priority, and of course, that’s not a key. 

So not only are you looking at your to-do list from a standpoint of what’s the thing that’s going to get me closest to my big, important goal. But you’re also looking at that same to-do list from the point of view of, okay, I’ve got deadlines. I live in the real world, and some things require my immediate attention. 

[8:17]

So what do I need to do now? Do I have a deadline coming up? And that’s a big question. That’s why deadlines move projects forward. That’s why Parkinson’s Law states that projects will take as much time as we allow them. Or maybe I’m butchering the log. 

Basically, what it says is that if you allocate three weeks to a task or a project, it’s going to take you three weeks. Most likely, it’s going to take you basically, you’re going to be procrastinating for two weeks and five days, and then you’re going to complete it in the last 48 hours. 

But if you take the same project and only assign one week to the project, you will complete that project in one week. That’s just the way it works. It’s one of the Irrefutable Laws of accomplishment, achievement, productivity, whatever you want to call it. 

So the key is to allow smaller timeframes, to set smaller timeframes, and tighter deadlines for anything that you’d like to achieve. And what I noticed in as I was studying and continue to study, uh, top performers, is that they have a built-in sense of urgency that they carry around pretty much anything that they’re trying to achieve. 

[10:04]  

For example, I remember having a conversation with. Um, Anastasia, when I was like, I don’t know, 2122, and I was really upset, because even though my online business was taken off, it wasn’t at the level that I wanted it to be. 

I think at the time, it was some like, maybe six or 7000 a month, or maybe 10,000 a month, which is amazing for where I lived. Like right now, I wouldn’t be able to pay my bills with that, but back then, it was more than enough. It was, like, six times the amount of money I needed to pay my bills. 

So as far as she was concerned, we were doing really well, and she was really happy. And I would be upset all the time. I would be upset, and I would be obsessed, and I would be working on my business, and, um, and she would like, she would be like, what’s wrong?

And I said, What do you mean? What’s wrong? I haven’t even made a million dollars yet. And she’s like, Yeah, but you’re only 20-something. I don’t remember what I was, let’s say 23, and she’s like, Yeah, but you’re only 23. I said only already 23, right? 

[11:43]

And that was the diff, the key difference in perception that, one of a top performer and one a person who isn’t the top performer or isn’t striving to be a top performer. A top performer in their field has an incredible, incredible sense of urgency about achieving, accomplishing, about completing projects, about reaching the next step in that evolution. 

[12:27]

Thank you for listening to The List Building Lifestyle. Get access to the previous episodes, transcript of today’s show, as well as other exclusive content at listbuildinglifestyleshow.com. Also, remember to claim your free copy of my best-selling book at www.igorsbook.com. It explains how I made millions with list buildings starting from scratch, plus I’ll give you $3,000 worth of free bonuses, including my best landing page templates, email swipe files, and traffic blueprints. Go to www.igorsbook.com now to claim your free package!