JUSTIN ROGERS

Post Category:

Productivity

Too much too soon

April 24, 2026

It’s new years day and you have a big beautiful piece of paper in front of you. It’s got scribbles in different colours with words and sentences of all different sizes; this is you LIFE PLAN.

It’s so exciting! You can see it all there in front of you. The energy of the fresh cup of coffee coupled with the momentum of the first day of January has hit you hard and this grand plan represents your entire vision.

This was me on new years day- I had the added inspiration of being on the beach at Oakura Bay in the north of New Zealand. My inspiration quickly turned to overwhelm. I had no trouble getting all my visions and goals down on the page. But just a few hours later I looked at the page again. What was once a battery pack that charged me up with energy now seemed like the opposite- I felt drained and daunted by what lay in front of me.

Inspiration isn’t enough.

Being inspired feels great, doesn’t it? New Years Day does it, but we see these moments in other bursts throughout the year too. The beginning of term or the start of a new flashy program at school… these ‘launch’ moments have a tendency to burn bright and burn fast. The problem isn’t the vision, we need a clear direction. The problem is too much too soon.

One of the grand goals I had was for the kids I was teaching to have a full Te Reo exchange with me at the beginning of class. I barreled into our first session together and began laying out a multi-step greeting and conversation exchange… It felt exciting and new and I got some great initial progress. But the next time I went in, the kids had forgotten and each subsequent lesson I had to start from scratch. The kids were over chunked; it was too much too soon.

Out of frustration one day, I decided to drop it. So I just did the opening greeting. Some of them remembered it… cool! I drilled it again for those still not confident. The next few lessons I just did the same.

What I’d hoped would take me one lesson actually took more like six- but I was stoked.

I learned to use the moments of inspiration as the ‘lift off’ and chunk down the subsequent bits. It doesn’t all have to feel like the raging fire of a rocket taking off.

Sometimes it’s just striking a match.

And when you strike enough of them, you get a pretty bright light.

Set the clock

April 19, 2026

When I’m feeling REALLY unproductive here’s what I do.

Task. Time Limit. Set the clock.

I name the exact task I want to get done and how long I give myself to do it.

This cures my pattern of unproductive work. I want to get a lot done, so I tend to switch between tasks in an attempt to feel like I am getting lots done…

Yeah, that doesn’t work.

The above protocol forces my hand.

Task: Edit the first minute to this week’s video. Time: 35minutes. Start the timer.

There’s no mistaking what I need to do and how long I will take.

Task. Time Limit. Set the clock.

Brushing your teeth

April 17, 2026

How do you follow through on what you set out to do?

I love those moments of inspiration. When something is suddenly clear, you know exactly what you want and what it’ll be like when you get there.

The tricky part is how to keep that alive.

And the answer has to lie in a system. I wish I could, but I can’t reply on inspiration every day- it requires too much thinking. We need to figure out how to translate that to the systematic actions that take place daily without our constant upkeep.

I don’t visualise the perfect healthy smile every day, yet I do brush my teeth twice a day.

It’s not because I’m a powerful productivity god, I just have a simple action I do each day (and you probably do too).

So the question isn’t how do we keep motivated.

It’s how to we harness that initial momentum, wisely pick the ‘tooth brushing’ equivalent action and merely do that daily.

Our capacity will grow over time and we inch closer without the constant mental load.

Good enough

April 14, 2026

Good enough is a potent propellent.

When shipping something is more important that getting it perfect, good enough gets you in the game.

Good enough gives you time later to revisit. Good enough gets you iterative.

Good enough doesn’t mean you don’t try.

But you also don’t let perfection paralyse you.

Good enough is generous because it moves everyone closer to the value you’re here to give.

If it’s good enough it might be time to ship it.

Attach to the outcome not the means

April 12, 2026

It’s advice I’ve been given as an actor.

An actor can play the same scene night after night because she has the same objective as the character each performance. It feels fresh every night because the means always changes.

In life we don’t need to know the ‘how’ either. We just need to have the outcome and the reason.

That’s plenty to get you there.

How you sit is how you work

April 7, 2026

It seems so simple but it really works. I can’t get the best out of myself when I’m hunched over a laptop in a dark room.

When I sit up, my brain does too. And so does my work.

I can’t focus when my eyes dart around from thing to thing.

When I focus my gaze in one direction, my work hones in as well.

I love paying attention to the ingredients of effective performance. When you have ingredients and cook books, you have delicious meals when ever you want them.

You just have to follow the recipe.

Good enough

March 30, 2026

It’s a difficult one, isn’t? On the one hand you want to put out your best work, always.

On the other hand, perfection is the enemy of execution.

When do you say something is “good enough” and when do aim for a higher standard?

What if “good enough” actually was the best standard? If perfection delays or destroys progress, it is really something to strive for?

“Good enough” is the best because it got made. It started the conversation. It got the show on the road.

There’d be no show without “good enough”.

Celebrate your “good enough”.

And it gives you plenty in the tank for the next one.

Pre-sleep list

March 28, 2026

My schedule has been quite different lately. Lot’s of travel and my day to day varies quite a lot. Sometimes I have the morning to myself, other times I have an engagement first thing.

One thing that has helped me is to mentally list the order and sequence of things I will do in the morning.

If your day looks the same every day, I’m trying to mimic that.

Wake up. Straight out for a walk. Journal. Breakfast. Voice warm up. Day begins.

It seems simple, but when I go to bed with a jumbled list of things I could do in any order, by morning ends up taking twice as long.

And worse still, I’ll add unnecessary things before the actual list (check phone…!)

If the order doesn’t matter, choose AN order and go with that.

And choose it before you sleep.

Stay connected

March 26, 2026

I think the root cause of procrastination is a lack of connection to the end goal of what you’re trying to do.

Say, you just can’t get yourself to sit down and write. That just means you’re disconnected from all the good that comes into your life when you write the book; you’re a published author, people connect to your ideas, you knock something off your bucket list… all those things are true.

But in the moment, you aren’t thinking of these in a visceral way.

So a fun game I’m playing is merely reconnecting vividly to the end goal of any action I’m resistant to beginning.

Give it a go.

Little Tweaks

March 17, 2026

Sometimes we need a giant change…

And sometimes we need a little tweak.

(More often that not it’s the little tweak)

Before the giant change…

Make a few little tweaks.

And then some more little tweaks.

You’ll probably be fine with just those.

And you’ll probably experience giant change

From the little tweaks.

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