October 9, 2025 • 26 mins
Listen to this episode to discover:
- The Productivity paradox - why smart people procrastinate.
- The 3 neuro chemical allies that are your inner productivity team to activate your natural focus.
- The #1 tip to building accountability that actually works and creates better results.
Today's Guest: Robin J. Emdon
Robin J. Emdon — aka The Procrastination Slayer — hosts the GoalBusters podcast and created GetResultsology® – The Science of Getting Stuff Done!, a system that helps solopreneurs beat procrastination and follow through — without burning out. A face-palm moment in 2019 — taking 10 years to finish a 6-year home-study degree — sparked a 3-year deep dive into academic studies and science-backed books on procrastination. Today, Robin helps clients achieve up to 33% more of their goals using brain science, not willpower. His mantra? Do it today. Profit tomorrow — and repeat! https://getresultsology.com/
CLEAR Acceleration Inc. Create Your Client Growth Engine https://www.christinecampbellrapin.com
Request your free 10-minute training resource on how to master your marketing message to create more impact and income in your business on the podcast page.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:04):
If you are a B2B service based business owner and you are
looking to gain more clients, create more impact and more
revenue in your business, TuneInto amplify your marketing
message with Christine Campbell Rappin.
Every week we're going to take you through how to build an
audience of buyers, mastering your marketing message and
making offers that convert consistently.
(00:24):
See you all on the inside. It is really important that we
don't make the hard things unnecessarily hard in our
business and the easy things hard as well.
I'm super excited to welcome ourguest today who's going to give
(00:47):
us a quick orientation to actually getting stuff done.
Not just once, not just every blue Moon, not just when Mercury
is not in retrograde, but all the time.
Today we're talking about accountability and doing
accountability well so that you actually create consistent
results. Please give a very warm welcome
to our guest today. Robin J Edmonton is here in the
(01:10):
House. Welcome, welcome, welcome.
Hello and thank you for having me.
It's such a pleasure to be here.I'm excited to have this
conversation because you and I were chatting a couple weeks ago
and something you said really lingered with me, which is I'm
much too smart to get in my own way, and yet I did for a really
long time. So let's talk about the
(01:32):
productivity paradox. Why is it so hard to actually
follow through and get somethingdone?
Well, OK. Well, there's two different
answers into that to that question.
The first one is, I think I'll start with the second one first
because it really is the critical point.
We are biologically hardwired toprocrastinate.
(01:54):
I do know that the people there are people who don't
procrastinate very much, if at all.
And for many people, it if they do procrastinate, it's not a
significant problem in their lives.
Sometimes that's an environmental situation.
They just can't procrastinate inthe in the lives that they live,
the busy lives that they live. There's no space for it.
But I'm talking about someone like me who works from home and
(02:16):
procrastination is an option. And I realized I had a like a
face palm moment about five years ago where I realized, Oh,
yeah, I do it a lot because I'd always treated procrastination
very much like I thought of as acommon cold.
Oh, you know, it'll cut. You know, before the age of
COVID, bringing every sniffle was something that could be
(02:37):
something very serious indeed. Most of us just work through
colds and just think, oh, you know, whatever.
I'll, I'll, I'll get over it. I'll just carry on.
And I did the same with procrastination.
I'm procrastinating today. Oht don't worry, I'll do it
tomorrow. The classic procrastinators
mantra. Not very smart, you might think.
And actually I was bragging about being smart when I was
(03:00):
having a coffee with my brother in a coffee shop in 2019.
And I just got my degree. And I was really pleased myself
because I had not been allowed or able to finish my education
when I was a young man. And I have now succeeded in
doing it working from home. And I was so pleased with
myself. And my brother was so bored and
could not care less really. Well, he did a bit, but he was
(03:22):
failing. I don't really care.
So I thought, OK, I know I'll, I'll, I'll Chevy him up.
I'll, I'll tell him, oh, you know, trust me to take 10 years
to do something in that I shouldhave done in six, which is true.
It should have done the degree in six years.
It took me 10 minutes. Went oht Yeah.
Why was that? And I said, oh, you know,
procrastination. And I laughed and I changed the
subject and I thought on the wayhome I was thinking, you know
(03:45):
what, that really isn't that smart.
You know, I have got a degree now.
But hang on, you're a trained life coach.
I mean, I trained in 2001 under the tutelage of Tony Robbins and
his team and I and, and I was very, and it was brilliant
training and I, and it meant that I, when I came back to
England, I was able to set myself up in business as a life
coach. And on the way home, I was like,
(04:08):
how dare you? How dare you procrastinate,
Robin? How very dare you.
That's just not something that you should be doing.
Your clients never procrastinated and never let
them. And I thought, OK, so all right,
what's the solution to procrastination?
Actually, I thought two other things on the way home.
The first thing I thought was where else in my life does this
show up? And I realised absolutely
(04:29):
everywhere. And the second question was how
much does it cost me? And I was like, really, really
angry by the time I got home. Angry with myself and also very,
very upset. I was almost in tears when I
thought about all the things that had cost me.
Again, not very smart. So I called my brother and said
(04:51):
I'll just remind me, you know, Ihad a mental pen and paper
there. What was the cure for
procrastination again? I know I did 100 days or so with
Tony Robbins and all sorts of his things that he did.
And I know that I've read loads of books.
I've got my Sudoku collection, which are all the books I've
bought about personal growth that I've put on my bookshelf,
my shelf development shelf, as Icall it.
Never really read all of them properly, but I can't quite put
(05:14):
my finger on it. What is it?
What's the cure? And he was a mental health
professional at one time in his life and he for many years.
And then he said, I don't reallyknow.
I thought, well, you don't know and I don't know what the hecks
going on. So then the gift that cable kept
on giving, kept giving. And that was COVID happened.
And I mean that in an ironic sense, not in a happy sense, but
(05:36):
it caused all the lockdowns and it meant I had even more time on
my hands. And then I started studying and
researching the copious amounts of research that have been done
into procrastination, productivity.
Hundreds and hundreds of papers have been written on it.
Didn't read all the papers. I went to the summaries and but
I knew how to do it cause I got a degree, right?
I'm smart. And the critical thing that I
(05:56):
discovered coming full circle back to what I was saying was
it's biological. It's part of our survival
mechanism. It's in here.
Now, if you don't struggle with procrastination, as I say, it's
probably because environmentallyyou don't have the opportunity
or you're one of those few very lucky people that have developed
skill sets from a very early agewhere it's just not an issue for
(06:17):
you. Fantastic.
I love that. And, and every time someone
tells me they're one of those people, I always go cool, tell
me more because I try and pick their brains, you know?
Yeah, well, I think there's there's there's permission and
it's wired that way. And I2 words that really struck
me is I allowed it and I had created this space for it.
(06:38):
So we have to manage the inner game because we are the ones
making our choices, right? We we have influence for sure
from the outside, but we're making our inner choices.
So you say that there's actuallysome chemical allies that we can
use to help us go against the biology, but tap into still
natural focus. What does that really mean?
(07:01):
Well, we would never go against biology, that would be a foolish
thing to do. What we need to do is understand
biology and I don't, I'll be honest with you, why last exam
at school, which was the last time I took any kind of science
exam. My degree is in arts and
humanities. I did psychology.
I did a philosophy and I did history.
(07:25):
No sciences in there. Or ironically, because my book
is got an ology in it, it's get results ology.
There's a reason for that. But I don't want to digress.
I'll stick to the point that you've asked me to make.
So. Yeah, so we don't go against it.
But what I discovered was, oh, Iwas saying about my final, my
(07:45):
very last exam I did at school in science, the very last time I
did any kind of science, I got 9% in biology.
I was furious, but not for the reason you might think.
I actually spoke to the teacher that marked the exam afterwards
and I said, what do you mean I've got 9%?
How dare you? Why did I get 9%?
He said you didn't answer any ofthe questions.
I said I know that I don't know the answer to any of the
(08:07):
questions. It goes in this ear and out the
other. It's not that I'm not willing,
it's just that I can't retain the information.
Science and me are not good mates.
And he said no, but you spelt your name right, so I felt sorry
for you. Ohk, OK, fair enough.
So I'm not a scientist, right? But I do know how to read
science, just at the surface level.
And when I was looking at the research, it was all neurology
(08:30):
and psychology and biology. It's all in there.
And I thought, OK, well, I'm notgoing to go deep into the
science papers because clearly Iwon't understand them.
But I am going to look at the conclusions.
I am going to look what the scientists have said.
And then I'm going to translate it into English.
It's British English. I'm sorry about that.
You know, we've got more words than the Americans.
What can I say? I'll help translate the Canadian
(08:52):
in between. That's right.
Absolutely. So, yeah.
But it's, I translated it. Basically, I said OK.
And what I discovered was was that we do have natural allies.
The people who don't procrastinate naturally tap into
these natural allies. And I will tell you, and it took
me about a year to learn 3 words.
(09:15):
As in, I don't need to. Oh, where are they?
Look them up. I think because my brain just
doesn't return. Retain them.
They are dopamine, acetylcholineand noradrenaline.
And you need all, all three of those neurotransmitters present
in your brain when you are beingin your most productive state,
(09:35):
when you hit peak performance, whatever you want to call it,
right? And that's the last time I'm
going to mention those words, although I will say most people
have probably heard of some of those.
We've all heard of dopamine, dopamine HIT, dopamine junkies,
all of that kind of thing. So I thought, well, I need to
translate these not into what they're called, but what do they
do? And I came up with the
(09:57):
productivity trifecta. You need your IT like your inner
productivity team, and that is dopamine is the conductor, which
is like the conductor of an orchestra.
And the conductor resides in theprefrontal cortex of your brain.
And that is where there is an absolute cacophony of noises
(10:18):
that are all the disparate, disparate parts of your life and
your organized and the things that you need to organize.
And the conductor comes in and he brings them all together,
gives them the music, brings them all together, and turns the
cacophony of sound into the music of your life.
And he does it or she does it because they are able to think
rationally and calmly and intelligently and apply a very
(10:41):
well thought out strategies to the things you need to do with
your life. That's the conductor.
But then you also need the scholar.
Now the scholars, an interestingone because I did, because I did
mention it's it that is the acetylcholine.
Acetylcholine is present in us when we are children.
Now maybe you know, some children.
I know, maybe you're even well, once a child, I, I think I was,
(11:04):
it's such a long time ago. I have a vague memory of being a
child. Children are brilliant at
focusing. They just are.
I understand they can be easily distracted.
You know, a little bit of wind in a child.
It's like you, they'll scream the house down.
I'm really up upset now I've gotthis gas, but normally when
they're healthy and happy and they're not, they're not
struggling with wind or some kind of pain or hunger.
(11:27):
They are focused laser like how many people can remember
children have children that justsit and watch the same movie
over and over and over again. My, my, my eldest son watched
cars over and over and over again.
I got so I could tell you every line of cars cause I had to sit
and watch it as well. It was always on in the
background. Total focus.
(11:48):
Children focus on You buy them alovely present for Christmas and
it comes in a beautiful box, butyou've they forget what's in the
box. They just play with the box.
But for hours and hours and hours.
Focus. Here's the kicker.
When you're an adult, the neurotransmitter acetylcholine.
See, I'm struggling to remember it again, right?
(12:08):
Is not naturally present. We can produce it, but we can't
naturally. It's just no longer just in our
blood bloodstream. We have to generate it.
And you know when it's happeningbecause it's when you're
focused. So, for example, if you sit down
to do something and you find yourself focusing at it, on it,
(12:31):
and you spend 5 minutes on something and you look up at the
clock on the wall and you realize, no, it's not been 5
minutes, it's been 5 hours. That was you focusing time.
You lost track of time. That is the scholar alright.
And so you need to create the environment in which the scholar
can flourish. So get rid of all the
(12:52):
distractions, all the usual tipsthat you're reading 1000 a
million books and courses on productivity tally.
Get rid of the distractions, deal with them.
That's so the scholar can come in.
The final one is the fun size warrior.
Now the fun size warrior is likea fun size chocolate bar that
you're having your lunch box foryour children.
So a fun size. Why not the big warrior?
(13:12):
Now that the big warrior residesin your in in your, you see,
it's science again, just science.
And we're just not brilliant. The limbic system, right?
We had to search in my brain just to think.
Oh yeah, there's a biology word here, the limbic system, which
is the oldest part of your brain.
(13:33):
And it's also what I obviously couldn't I, I don't have, I have
problems accessing when I'm trying to.
It's where you get your fight, flight or freeze response from.
It's vital. And if you think about it, our
brain only has what, 2 functions?
If you think about it, our survival and our procreation as
a species, that's it. Everything else is just gravy
(13:55):
on, on, on the food. It's just extra.
It's just living life. But you have to survive and you
have to procreate. Those are the things that we
were born to do, and it all comes from the limbic system and
it's all powerful. It's very, very strong.
It's primal and it's strong. It's much stronger than the
prefrontal cortex, which is a much newer part of your brain.
(14:16):
And So what happens there is that the big warrior comes out,
they are ready to fight, flight or freeze.
But if you're in that state, what's called threat modality,
you're not going to be very productive.
You're going to be very good at,you might be very productive at
running away. You may be very productive at
hiding from your responsibilities.
Procrastination, that's where it's hardwired.
(14:36):
Guys and girls, you may be very productive at any number of
things that have nothing to do with your work because it's
flight, fight or freeze, right? So that's the big warrior and we
need the big warrior. If you're ever attacked by a man
eating tiger, you need the big warrior.
Or as I prefer to think of it, bills you can't pay, landlords
(14:58):
trying to evict you, bosses being nasty to you, bad
relationships or just arguments in relationships, bad news about
health, yours or someone else. These are all triggering your
limbic system. They all trigger your threat.
Big warrior comes out, you either fight it, you fly or you
or you freeze cause it's like you're terrified.
(15:18):
What have I got to do about thisterrible news?
Or, or you run away from it, right?
So the point about all this is you don't want the big worry,
you want the fun size warrior. And the fun size warrior is so
is the more adrenaline where youget that little edge, that
little bit of stress, that little bit of anxiety like James
(15:42):
Clear talks about in the Goldilocks Principle.
Not too much, not too little, just enough, just enough to give
you that edge. It's happened, right?
It's like happening to me right now.
If I sit back in my chair and completely relax, I'm gonna, I'm
obviously I am. I do distract myself and forget
my train of thought, but I'll completely lose my train of
thought. Play off with the fairies in
(16:03):
their title. Be like all squirrel.
You know how we gone. But because I'm on the literally
on the edge of my seat, I'm muchsharper.
I'm much more focused. I'm much more capable and
willing and able and wanting to get on with the day.
I love this because there are things that you can tap into,
guys, we heard it. You want to talk to the people
(16:24):
with your focus. That's your conductor.
Bring in your scholar and bring in that little bit of edge to
get off 0 and you know, getting off 0 is one of my very favorite
principles. I want to ask you one tip here.
How do you build accountability that actually works because you
had this moment from shock and disruption and frustration and
anger with yourself of wow, did I waste opportunity?
(16:47):
It's costed me main war that I really anticipated, but you're
now taking the lesson. The insight to action was the
one tip to building accountability that actually
works. So this will sound very
self-serving and it's not meant to be.
And just to give you some background, well, I'll tell you
(17:07):
what it is now I'll explain it. Get yourself an external
accountability buddy, friend or coach.
There's the amateurs and the professionals, anything like
that. Now there's, I always say that
you have to really be careful about when you're working with
friends and buddies don't by theway, not your significant other.
(17:27):
It's not fair to ask them to hold you to account.
They already do, indirectly or directly, but it's not fair to
make it their responsibility. That's too.
That's just not a nice. Thing talking percent on that.
Right, so it needs to be somebody that you can share
accountability with. Now there's a cost involved in
that which you will probably have to do it for them.
So that's a time cost and you can't get back time.
(17:49):
You can get back money, but you can't get back time.
So always think about that. And an accountability buddy also
may or may not be good for your psychology.
They might just tell, you know, just get on with it, dude,
because you're crap at that. Pardon my French.
You know that. You know it's.
Like all the time, said me, Christine.
You're gonna just tell me to go do it?
I'm like there is an element in me that says yes, just go do it.
(18:10):
Yes, but it's how you're. Talking about not doing it, you
could have executed this. Stop procrastinating and take
action. But if your accountability body
doesn't know what they're doing,they can undermine your
confidence and they can actuallydrag you back.
So that said, I've had many accountability buddies over the
years and, and it's a brilliant way to go.
(18:31):
But you can also go for a professional external
accountability coach. Now, I have to say, I did say
that self-serving because that'swhat I do, but I wasn't an
accountability coach. I only became it because I
started writing the book. And as I was writing the book
that I've got to say, you know, the book is, is 95% of this book
is self-help, OK. And that's it's written in the
(18:54):
intention that you don't need anything else that's very
important and it's written in plain English and it's divided
up into sections and sub sections that you should make a
lot of sense. And I don't obviously don't have
time to go into that today, but the point is, is that as I was
writing the book, the research, because I always went back to
the research. That's why there's a science in
(19:16):
the name it get results. Technology kept going back to
the science. It kept pointing at
accountability as one of the most effective momentum builders
towards productivity that you could possibly imagine.
Why is that important? Why external accountability?
2 things. First, if you work for yourself
from home like me, maybe you've got a nice coffee machine.
(19:37):
I do love my coffee. I'm a bit obsessed with my
coffee. I've got a nice view from my
window. I work flexible hours.
I can pick and choose around my clients, what hours I work.
I, you know, I have a great lifestyle.
But the one thing I can't recreate is a boss.
I mean, I look, I get up in the morning, I'm looking in the
mirror. It's my boss looking back at me.
You know, he's my boss. He's a lunatic, but he's my
(20:00):
boss. But he's really bad at holding
me to accounts. And that is the critical point.
For people who struggle with procrastination, making excuses
for not not everybody. A lot of people are like me,
they don't recognise that they that they were even doing it for
decades. I, you know, common cold
classification, whatever didn't occur to me, right, is that
(20:25):
you've got to, um, with accountability, you have to have
that in your life in a way that connects with other people.
I love. That because we are, we are a
herding animal. We like being amongst other
people. In fact, that is the other point
about your brain. It's wired for survival, it's
(20:48):
wired for regeneration, for for procreation, but it's also wired
to be social and, and we look toour peers.
Now, if you have a project to dothat's going to take you maybe
six months or a year to do it. Or in the case of my book, it
took me nearly five years to geteverything in place and get the
book finally published earlier this year.
(21:11):
That's a big project and it's daunting and it becomes
overwhelming. Procrastination is easy to set
in and it's it's so far off in the future.
The targets, the goals, it's very difficult to stay focused
throughout. But if you have an external
accountability coach or buddy, they can say, OK, never mind
what you're going to get done insix months or a year.
What are you going to get done by the end of today?
(21:32):
What are you gonna get done by the end of the week?
What are you gonna get done by the end of two weeks, 3 weeks, 4
weeks? Come back to me and let me know.
And if you're if they are the right person for you, you don't
want to let them down. I love this that's.
The place it's social. It's social and it is about
getting help. I want to ask you, Robin, how
are you working in your businessright now to amplify your
(21:56):
marketing message? What's working with you to gain
clients to hire you as a professional accountability
coach? OK, so again, there was this was
a kind of a thank you for asking.
This was a kind of chicken and egg situation.
I didn't know which to do first.I actually wasn't coaching.
When I started writing the book,the book I wrote for myself, it
(22:16):
was like, I really want to understand this because I was so
upset about this issue that had been going on under my own
radar. I think of myself as a smart,
intelligent person, but then I had this massive face palm
moment. Oh my goodness, what have I been
doing? Right?
And so the point about that was,was that I, as I was writing the
(22:37):
book and the accountability started to creep in there as a
theme that I put it it, it weaves through the book.
But the book, as I say, is self help.
But I realized that I'm startingagain.
I haven't been coaching, you know, for a long time.
I became a full time single father in the early 2000s and,
and concentrated on that more than my coaching, to be honest.
(22:59):
That's where I went and I did other things online with
marketing and so on. And then I thought, OK, so I
could offer this as something now that I can offer people.
I, I, I'm, I'm, I'm a modest person when I say I'm, I'm
actually quite a good coach. OK, so self-serving.
Again, if I don't sing my praises, he will, you know.
(23:19):
So here's the point. I know when I published the book
that I'm, I'm an unknown. So I decided, right, OK, I don't
mind. I'm not proud.
There's nothing in the book that's highly that's original.
I didn't do any new research. I simply brought the disparate
strands together and translated it into language that I
understood and I hope other people will understand.
(23:41):
And so now you can buy the book if you want to online.
Or what I normally do is I just give it away as a free PDF.
And that's, that is how I'm reaching people because I give
them the book and I say, look, read the book, take it with my
blessing. Absolutely hope it works for
you. Let me know.
Drop me a line, I'd love to knowAnd of course, if you're ever in
the market for the belt and braces approach to the top top
(24:04):
hat and tails approached with with what about braces is better
analogy for us Brits. And then you will then then you
will probably won't be thinking about an accountability coach,
of which there are many. I hope you will consider me and
of course I will teach you lasertargeted, laser focused.
We get results ology accountability coaching.
OK, so how do people find you, connect with you and get that
(24:27):
free copy of the book to start their journey and being more
effective? Sure, two things simple.
Come, come find me on LinkedIn. Just look at my name, Robin J
Emden on LinkedIn that you'll find me.
There are no other Robin JM gunsin the world.
I promise you that one is in more than enough.
It's more than enough for me. And if you want the book, I have
a very easy trip. I have two websites, but
(24:48):
obviously I've got get results ology.com.
You can find it there, but equally easy or maybe easier.
I have really usefultips.com as in yes, I'm really giving it
away useful as I hope you find it very useful and tips was in
it's full of them really usefultips.com that takes you
straight to getting a free download of the PDF of the book.
(25:12):
It is unabridged. That's exactly the copy that you
would buy as a paperback or Kindle book on.
Amazon, I love it. Guys, go connect to Robin.
This is an important topic. You are not in your own
isolation, struggling, and the key is getting help.
Thank you for being our guest today.
Absolutely a pleasure to have you.
And guys, I want you to know this because one of the things
(25:34):
that we do in our business absolutely is we just hold your
hand. We would know that when you're
starting, you're wired to get inyour own way, and yet it is
costing you more than you could afford to reach the results.
So I want you to connect to Robin.
(25:54):
I want you to be back here for our next episode and right now
Subscribe and we'll see you nextweek.
That's a wrap on another amazingepisode of Amplify your
Marketing Message with me, your host Christine Campbell rap.
And be sure to subscribe on yourfavorite podcast platform so you
(26:18):
don't miss another great episode.
And be sure to visit christinecampbellrappin.com/podcast
to get a free resource on how tomaster your marketing message.
We'll see you all on our next episode.
If you are a B2B service based business owner and you are
looking to gain more clients, create more impact and more
revenue in your business, TuneInto amplify your marketing
message with Christine Campbell Rappin.
Every week we're going to take you through how to build an
audience of buyers, mastering your marketing message and
making offers that convert consistently.
(00:24):
See you all on the inside. It is really important that we
don't make the hard things unnecessarily hard in our
business and the easy things hard as well.
I'm super excited to welcome ourguest today who's going to give
(00:47):
us a quick orientation to actually getting stuff done.
Not just once, not just every blue Moon, not just when Mercury
is not in retrograde, but all the time.
Today we're talking about accountability and doing
accountability well so that you actually create consistent
results. Please give a very warm welcome
to our guest today. Robin J Edmonton is here in the
(01:10):
House. Welcome, welcome, welcome.
Hello and thank you for having me.
It's such a pleasure to be here.I'm excited to have this
conversation because you and I were chatting a couple weeks ago
and something you said really lingered with me, which is I'm
much too smart to get in my own way, and yet I did for a really
long time. So let's talk about the
(01:32):
productivity paradox. Why is it so hard to actually
follow through and get somethingdone?
Well, OK. Well, there's two different
answers into that to that question.
The first one is, I think I'll start with the second one first
because it really is the critical point.
We are biologically hardwired toprocrastinate.
(01:54):
I do know that the people there are people who don't
procrastinate very much, if at all.
And for many people, it if they do procrastinate, it's not a
significant problem in their lives.
Sometimes that's an environmental situation.
They just can't procrastinate inthe in the lives that they live,
the busy lives that they live. There's no space for it.
But I'm talking about someone like me who works from home and
(02:16):
procrastination is an option. And I realized I had a like a
face palm moment about five years ago where I realized, Oh,
yeah, I do it a lot because I'd always treated procrastination
very much like I thought of as acommon cold.
Oh, you know, it'll cut. You know, before the age of
COVID, bringing every sniffle was something that could be
(02:37):
something very serious indeed. Most of us just work through
colds and just think, oh, you know, whatever.
I'll, I'll, I'll get over it. I'll just carry on.
And I did the same with procrastination.
I'm procrastinating today. Oht don't worry, I'll do it
tomorrow. The classic procrastinators
mantra. Not very smart, you might think.
And actually I was bragging about being smart when I was
(03:00):
having a coffee with my brother in a coffee shop in 2019.
And I just got my degree. And I was really pleased myself
because I had not been allowed or able to finish my education
when I was a young man. And I have now succeeded in
doing it working from home. And I was so pleased with
myself. And my brother was so bored and
could not care less really. Well, he did a bit, but he was
(03:22):
failing. I don't really care.
So I thought, OK, I know I'll, I'll, I'll Chevy him up.
I'll, I'll tell him, oh, you know, trust me to take 10 years
to do something in that I shouldhave done in six, which is true.
It should have done the degree in six years.
It took me 10 minutes. Went oht Yeah.
Why was that? And I said, oh, you know,
procrastination. And I laughed and I changed the
subject and I thought on the wayhome I was thinking, you know
(03:45):
what, that really isn't that smart.
You know, I have got a degree now.
But hang on, you're a trained life coach.
I mean, I trained in 2001 under the tutelage of Tony Robbins and
his team and I and, and I was very, and it was brilliant
training and I, and it meant that I, when I came back to
England, I was able to set myself up in business as a life
coach. And on the way home, I was like,
(04:08):
how dare you? How dare you procrastinate,
Robin? How very dare you.
That's just not something that you should be doing.
Your clients never procrastinated and never let
them. And I thought, OK, so all right,
what's the solution to procrastination?
Actually, I thought two other things on the way home.
The first thing I thought was where else in my life does this
show up? And I realised absolutely
(04:29):
everywhere. And the second question was how
much does it cost me? And I was like, really, really
angry by the time I got home. Angry with myself and also very,
very upset. I was almost in tears when I
thought about all the things that had cost me.
Again, not very smart. So I called my brother and said
(04:51):
I'll just remind me, you know, Ihad a mental pen and paper
there. What was the cure for
procrastination again? I know I did 100 days or so with
Tony Robbins and all sorts of his things that he did.
And I know that I've read loads of books.
I've got my Sudoku collection, which are all the books I've
bought about personal growth that I've put on my bookshelf,
my shelf development shelf, as Icall it.
Never really read all of them properly, but I can't quite put
(05:14):
my finger on it. What is it?
What's the cure? And he was a mental health
professional at one time in his life and he for many years.
And then he said, I don't reallyknow.
I thought, well, you don't know and I don't know what the hecks
going on. So then the gift that cable kept
on giving, kept giving. And that was COVID happened.
And I mean that in an ironic sense, not in a happy sense, but
(05:36):
it caused all the lockdowns and it meant I had even more time on
my hands. And then I started studying and
researching the copious amounts of research that have been done
into procrastination, productivity.
Hundreds and hundreds of papers have been written on it.
Didn't read all the papers. I went to the summaries and but
I knew how to do it cause I got a degree, right?
I'm smart. And the critical thing that I
(05:56):
discovered coming full circle back to what I was saying was
it's biological. It's part of our survival
mechanism. It's in here.
Now, if you don't struggle with procrastination, as I say, it's
probably because environmentallyyou don't have the opportunity
or you're one of those few very lucky people that have developed
skill sets from a very early agewhere it's just not an issue for
(06:17):
you. Fantastic.
I love that. And, and every time someone
tells me they're one of those people, I always go cool, tell
me more because I try and pick their brains, you know?
Yeah, well, I think there's there's there's permission and
it's wired that way. And I2 words that really struck
me is I allowed it and I had created this space for it.
(06:38):
So we have to manage the inner game because we are the ones
making our choices, right? We we have influence for sure
from the outside, but we're making our inner choices.
So you say that there's actuallysome chemical allies that we can
use to help us go against the biology, but tap into still
natural focus. What does that really mean?
(07:01):
Well, we would never go against biology, that would be a foolish
thing to do. What we need to do is understand
biology and I don't, I'll be honest with you, why last exam
at school, which was the last time I took any kind of science
exam. My degree is in arts and
humanities. I did psychology.
I did a philosophy and I did history.
(07:25):
No sciences in there. Or ironically, because my book
is got an ology in it, it's get results ology.
There's a reason for that. But I don't want to digress.
I'll stick to the point that you've asked me to make.
So. Yeah, so we don't go against it.
But what I discovered was, oh, Iwas saying about my final, my
(07:45):
very last exam I did at school in science, the very last time I
did any kind of science, I got 9% in biology.
I was furious, but not for the reason you might think.
I actually spoke to the teacher that marked the exam afterwards
and I said, what do you mean I've got 9%?
How dare you? Why did I get 9%?
He said you didn't answer any ofthe questions.
I said I know that I don't know the answer to any of the
(08:07):
questions. It goes in this ear and out the
other. It's not that I'm not willing,
it's just that I can't retain the information.
Science and me are not good mates.
And he said no, but you spelt your name right, so I felt sorry
for you. Ohk, OK, fair enough.
So I'm not a scientist, right? But I do know how to read
science, just at the surface level.
And when I was looking at the research, it was all neurology
(08:30):
and psychology and biology. It's all in there.
And I thought, OK, well, I'm notgoing to go deep into the
science papers because clearly Iwon't understand them.
But I am going to look at the conclusions.
I am going to look what the scientists have said.
And then I'm going to translate it into English.
It's British English. I'm sorry about that.
You know, we've got more words than the Americans.
What can I say? I'll help translate the Canadian
(08:52):
in between. That's right.
Absolutely. So, yeah.
But it's, I translated it. Basically, I said OK.
And what I discovered was was that we do have natural allies.
The people who don't procrastinate naturally tap into
these natural allies. And I will tell you, and it took
me about a year to learn 3 words.
(09:15):
As in, I don't need to. Oh, where are they?
Look them up. I think because my brain just
doesn't return. Retain them.
They are dopamine, acetylcholineand noradrenaline.
And you need all, all three of those neurotransmitters present
in your brain when you are beingin your most productive state,
(09:35):
when you hit peak performance, whatever you want to call it,
right? And that's the last time I'm
going to mention those words, although I will say most people
have probably heard of some of those.
We've all heard of dopamine, dopamine HIT, dopamine junkies,
all of that kind of thing. So I thought, well, I need to
translate these not into what they're called, but what do they
do? And I came up with the
(09:57):
productivity trifecta. You need your IT like your inner
productivity team, and that is dopamine is the conductor, which
is like the conductor of an orchestra.
And the conductor resides in theprefrontal cortex of your brain.
And that is where there is an absolute cacophony of noises
(10:18):
that are all the disparate, disparate parts of your life and
your organized and the things that you need to organize.
And the conductor comes in and he brings them all together,
gives them the music, brings them all together, and turns the
cacophony of sound into the music of your life.
And he does it or she does it because they are able to think
rationally and calmly and intelligently and apply a very
(10:41):
well thought out strategies to the things you need to do with
your life. That's the conductor.
But then you also need the scholar.
Now the scholars, an interestingone because I did, because I did
mention it's it that is the acetylcholine.
Acetylcholine is present in us when we are children.
Now maybe you know, some children.
I know, maybe you're even well, once a child, I, I think I was,
(11:04):
it's such a long time ago. I have a vague memory of being a
child. Children are brilliant at
focusing. They just are.
I understand they can be easily distracted.
You know, a little bit of wind in a child.
It's like you, they'll scream the house down.
I'm really up upset now I've gotthis gas, but normally when
they're healthy and happy and they're not, they're not
struggling with wind or some kind of pain or hunger.
(11:27):
They are focused laser like how many people can remember
children have children that justsit and watch the same movie
over and over and over again. My, my, my eldest son watched
cars over and over and over again.
I got so I could tell you every line of cars cause I had to sit
and watch it as well. It was always on in the
background. Total focus.
(11:48):
Children focus on You buy them alovely present for Christmas and
it comes in a beautiful box, butyou've they forget what's in the
box. They just play with the box.
But for hours and hours and hours.
Focus. Here's the kicker.
When you're an adult, the neurotransmitter acetylcholine.
See, I'm struggling to remember it again, right?
(12:08):
Is not naturally present. We can produce it, but we can't
naturally. It's just no longer just in our
blood bloodstream. We have to generate it.
And you know when it's happeningbecause it's when you're
focused. So, for example, if you sit down
to do something and you find yourself focusing at it, on it,
(12:31):
and you spend 5 minutes on something and you look up at the
clock on the wall and you realize, no, it's not been 5
minutes, it's been 5 hours. That was you focusing time.
You lost track of time. That is the scholar alright.
And so you need to create the environment in which the scholar
can flourish. So get rid of all the
(12:52):
distractions, all the usual tipsthat you're reading 1000 a
million books and courses on productivity tally.
Get rid of the distractions, deal with them.
That's so the scholar can come in.
The final one is the fun size warrior.
Now the fun size warrior is likea fun size chocolate bar that
you're having your lunch box foryour children.
So a fun size. Why not the big warrior?
(13:12):
Now that the big warrior residesin your in in your, you see,
it's science again, just science.
And we're just not brilliant. The limbic system, right?
We had to search in my brain just to think.
Oh yeah, there's a biology word here, the limbic system, which
is the oldest part of your brain.
(13:33):
And it's also what I obviously couldn't I, I don't have, I have
problems accessing when I'm trying to.
It's where you get your fight, flight or freeze response from.
It's vital. And if you think about it, our
brain only has what, 2 functions?
If you think about it, our survival and our procreation as
a species, that's it. Everything else is just gravy
(13:55):
on, on, on the food. It's just extra.
It's just living life. But you have to survive and you
have to procreate. Those are the things that we
were born to do, and it all comes from the limbic system and
it's all powerful. It's very, very strong.
It's primal and it's strong. It's much stronger than the
prefrontal cortex, which is a much newer part of your brain.
(14:16):
And So what happens there is that the big warrior comes out,
they are ready to fight, flight or freeze.
But if you're in that state, what's called threat modality,
you're not going to be very productive.
You're going to be very good at,you might be very productive at
running away. You may be very productive at
hiding from your responsibilities.
Procrastination, that's where it's hardwired.
(14:36):
Guys and girls, you may be very productive at any number of
things that have nothing to do with your work because it's
flight, fight or freeze, right? So that's the big warrior and we
need the big warrior. If you're ever attacked by a man
eating tiger, you need the big warrior.
Or as I prefer to think of it, bills you can't pay, landlords
(14:58):
trying to evict you, bosses being nasty to you, bad
relationships or just arguments in relationships, bad news about
health, yours or someone else. These are all triggering your
limbic system. They all trigger your threat.
Big warrior comes out, you either fight it, you fly or you
or you freeze cause it's like you're terrified.
(15:18):
What have I got to do about thisterrible news?
Or, or you run away from it, right?
So the point about all this is you don't want the big worry,
you want the fun size warrior. And the fun size warrior is so
is the more adrenaline where youget that little edge, that
little bit of stress, that little bit of anxiety like James
(15:42):
Clear talks about in the Goldilocks Principle.
Not too much, not too little, just enough, just enough to give
you that edge. It's happened, right?
It's like happening to me right now.
If I sit back in my chair and completely relax, I'm gonna, I'm
obviously I am. I do distract myself and forget
my train of thought, but I'll completely lose my train of
thought. Play off with the fairies in
(16:03):
their title. Be like all squirrel.
You know how we gone. But because I'm on the literally
on the edge of my seat, I'm muchsharper.
I'm much more focused. I'm much more capable and
willing and able and wanting to get on with the day.
I love this because there are things that you can tap into,
guys, we heard it. You want to talk to the people
(16:24):
with your focus. That's your conductor.
Bring in your scholar and bring in that little bit of edge to
get off 0 and you know, getting off 0 is one of my very favorite
principles. I want to ask you one tip here.
How do you build accountability that actually works because you
had this moment from shock and disruption and frustration and
anger with yourself of wow, did I waste opportunity?
(16:47):
It's costed me main war that I really anticipated, but you're
now taking the lesson. The insight to action was the
one tip to building accountability that actually
works. So this will sound very
self-serving and it's not meant to be.
And just to give you some background, well, I'll tell you
(17:07):
what it is now I'll explain it. Get yourself an external
accountability buddy, friend or coach.
There's the amateurs and the professionals, anything like
that. Now there's, I always say that
you have to really be careful about when you're working with
friends and buddies don't by theway, not your significant other.
(17:27):
It's not fair to ask them to hold you to account.
They already do, indirectly or directly, but it's not fair to
make it their responsibility. That's too.
That's just not a nice. Thing talking percent on that.
Right, so it needs to be somebody that you can share
accountability with. Now there's a cost involved in
that which you will probably have to do it for them.
So that's a time cost and you can't get back time.
(17:49):
You can get back money, but you can't get back time.
So always think about that. And an accountability buddy also
may or may not be good for your psychology.
They might just tell, you know, just get on with it, dude,
because you're crap at that. Pardon my French.
You know that. You know it's.
Like all the time, said me, Christine.
You're gonna just tell me to go do it?
I'm like there is an element in me that says yes, just go do it.
(18:10):
Yes, but it's how you're. Talking about not doing it, you
could have executed this. Stop procrastinating and take
action. But if your accountability body
doesn't know what they're doing,they can undermine your
confidence and they can actuallydrag you back.
So that said, I've had many accountability buddies over the
years and, and it's a brilliant way to go.
(18:31):
But you can also go for a professional external
accountability coach. Now, I have to say, I did say
that self-serving because that'swhat I do, but I wasn't an
accountability coach. I only became it because I
started writing the book. And as I was writing the book
that I've got to say, you know, the book is, is 95% of this book
is self-help, OK. And that's it's written in the
(18:54):
intention that you don't need anything else that's very
important and it's written in plain English and it's divided
up into sections and sub sections that you should make a
lot of sense. And I don't obviously don't have
time to go into that today, but the point is, is that as I was
writing the book, the research, because I always went back to
the research. That's why there's a science in
(19:16):
the name it get results. Technology kept going back to
the science. It kept pointing at
accountability as one of the most effective momentum builders
towards productivity that you could possibly imagine.
Why is that important? Why external accountability?
2 things. First, if you work for yourself
from home like me, maybe you've got a nice coffee machine.
(19:37):
I do love my coffee. I'm a bit obsessed with my
coffee. I've got a nice view from my
window. I work flexible hours.
I can pick and choose around my clients, what hours I work.
I, you know, I have a great lifestyle.
But the one thing I can't recreate is a boss.
I mean, I look, I get up in the morning, I'm looking in the
mirror. It's my boss looking back at me.
You know, he's my boss. He's a lunatic, but he's my
(20:00):
boss. But he's really bad at holding
me to accounts. And that is the critical point.
For people who struggle with procrastination, making excuses
for not not everybody. A lot of people are like me,
they don't recognise that they that they were even doing it for
decades. I, you know, common cold
classification, whatever didn't occur to me, right, is that
(20:25):
you've got to, um, with accountability, you have to have
that in your life in a way that connects with other people.
I love. That because we are, we are a
herding animal. We like being amongst other
people. In fact, that is the other point
about your brain. It's wired for survival, it's
(20:48):
wired for regeneration, for for procreation, but it's also wired
to be social and, and we look toour peers.
Now, if you have a project to dothat's going to take you maybe
six months or a year to do it. Or in the case of my book, it
took me nearly five years to geteverything in place and get the
book finally published earlier this year.
(21:11):
That's a big project and it's daunting and it becomes
overwhelming. Procrastination is easy to set
in and it's it's so far off in the future.
The targets, the goals, it's very difficult to stay focused
throughout. But if you have an external
accountability coach or buddy, they can say, OK, never mind
what you're going to get done insix months or a year.
What are you going to get done by the end of today?
(21:32):
What are you gonna get done by the end of the week?
What are you gonna get done by the end of two weeks, 3 weeks, 4
weeks? Come back to me and let me know.
And if you're if they are the right person for you, you don't
want to let them down. I love this that's.
The place it's social. It's social and it is about
getting help. I want to ask you, Robin, how
are you working in your businessright now to amplify your
(21:56):
marketing message? What's working with you to gain
clients to hire you as a professional accountability
coach? OK, so again, there was this was
a kind of a thank you for asking.
This was a kind of chicken and egg situation.
I didn't know which to do first.I actually wasn't coaching.
When I started writing the book,the book I wrote for myself, it
(22:16):
was like, I really want to understand this because I was so
upset about this issue that had been going on under my own
radar. I think of myself as a smart,
intelligent person, but then I had this massive face palm
moment. Oh my goodness, what have I been
doing? Right?
And so the point about that was,was that I, as I was writing the
(22:37):
book and the accountability started to creep in there as a
theme that I put it it, it weaves through the book.
But the book, as I say, is self help.
But I realized that I'm startingagain.
I haven't been coaching, you know, for a long time.
I became a full time single father in the early 2000s and,
and concentrated on that more than my coaching, to be honest.
(22:59):
That's where I went and I did other things online with
marketing and so on. And then I thought, OK, so I
could offer this as something now that I can offer people.
I, I, I'm, I'm, I'm a modest person when I say I'm, I'm
actually quite a good coach. OK, so self-serving.
Again, if I don't sing my praises, he will, you know.
(23:19):
So here's the point. I know when I published the book
that I'm, I'm an unknown. So I decided, right, OK, I don't
mind. I'm not proud.
There's nothing in the book that's highly that's original.
I didn't do any new research. I simply brought the disparate
strands together and translated it into language that I
understood and I hope other people will understand.
(23:41):
And so now you can buy the book if you want to online.
Or what I normally do is I just give it away as a free PDF.
And that's, that is how I'm reaching people because I give
them the book and I say, look, read the book, take it with my
blessing. Absolutely hope it works for
you. Let me know.
Drop me a line, I'd love to knowAnd of course, if you're ever in
the market for the belt and braces approach to the top top
(24:04):
hat and tails approached with with what about braces is better
analogy for us Brits. And then you will then then you
will probably won't be thinking about an accountability coach,
of which there are many. I hope you will consider me and
of course I will teach you lasertargeted, laser focused.
We get results ology accountability coaching.
OK, so how do people find you, connect with you and get that
(24:27):
free copy of the book to start their journey and being more
effective? Sure, two things simple.
Come, come find me on LinkedIn. Just look at my name, Robin J
Emden on LinkedIn that you'll find me.
There are no other Robin JM gunsin the world.
I promise you that one is in more than enough.
It's more than enough for me. And if you want the book, I have
a very easy trip. I have two websites, but
(24:48):
obviously I've got get results ology.com.
You can find it there, but equally easy or maybe easier.
I have really usefultips.com as in yes, I'm really giving it
away useful as I hope you find it very useful and tips was in
it's full of them really usefultips.com that takes you
straight to getting a free download of the PDF of the book.
(25:12):
It is unabridged. That's exactly the copy that you
would buy as a paperback or Kindle book on.
Amazon, I love it. Guys, go connect to Robin.
This is an important topic. You are not in your own
isolation, struggling, and the key is getting help.
Thank you for being our guest today.
Absolutely a pleasure to have you.
And guys, I want you to know this because one of the things
(25:34):
that we do in our business absolutely is we just hold your
hand. We would know that when you're
starting, you're wired to get inyour own way, and yet it is
costing you more than you could afford to reach the results.
So I want you to connect to Robin.
(25:54):
I want you to be back here for our next episode and right now
Subscribe and we'll see you nextweek.
That's a wrap on another amazingepisode of Amplify your
Marketing Message with me, your host Christine Campbell rap.
And be sure to subscribe on yourfavorite podcast platform so you
(26:18):
don't miss another great episode.
And be sure to visit christinecampbellrappin.com/podcast
to get a free resource on how tomaster your marketing message.
We'll see you all on our next episode.
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