Transcript

End Procrastination Forever - David Buck

From The Proven Podcast · Episode page · Watch on YouTube

· 49 min · 9,419 words · 105 timestamped sections

This is the full, timestamped transcript of "End Procrastination Forever - David Buck", an episode of The Proven Podcast published August 8, 2025 (49 min, about 9,419 words). It mentions 41 people, works and ideas, including Procrastination, Automation, Jeffrey 71st – Miller, Charles, Outlook, Clockify.

What is discussed, and when

  1. – 5:00: Procrastination, Jeffrey 71st – Miller, Charles, Joan Juliet Buck, Lifestyle Strategy
  2. – 10:00: Procrastination
  3. – 15:00: Procrastination, HubSpot
  4. – 20:00: Automation, HubSpot, Lifestyle Strategy, Outlook
  5. – 25:00: Automation, Clockify, Clockify, HubSpot
  6. – 30:00: Sherwin Williams
  7. – 35:00: Microsoft Teams, Microsoft Teams, Jeffrey 71st – Miller, Charles, Outlook
  8. – 40:00: Post-it Notes
  9. – 45:00: Automation, ConvertKit, ConvertKit, Mailchimp
  10. – 48:46: Jeffrey 71st – Miller, Charles, Procrastination, HubSpot, Infinity Lifestyled

Notable quotes from "End Procrastination Forever - David Buck"

  • Does not matter what you think, only what you can prove. Everyone treats procrastination like a character flaw that can't be fixed. David Buck has cracked the code on…
    about Procrastination · at
  • Versus reactively or managing their time and that inspired me to write the book the time optimized life which seeks to take people's mindset from first in first out to plan negotiate and adapt through a proactive.
    about The Time Optimized Life · at
  • Going to do with all this free time if you choose to stop working? So I craft around a lifestyle strategy for them.
    about Lifestyle Strategy · at
  • And a client sees and wants to book a meeting with me through, Calendarly. I use HubSpot, one of those, they see that as open and I'm willing to do that. But if I have 2025…
    about HubSpot · at
  • I use HubSpot as a way which links to my Outlook calendar. So it's all so and there's very specific questions I'll ask in Calendarly does the same thing.
    about Outlook · at
  • You and the use of your time. So, I think it's a great question. Take advantage of that. That's an automation process to your equipment that allows you not to have to think…
    about Automation · at
  • When you have something that you keep delaying on and you spend time I personally use Clockify as a means for that, it's a time tracking tool. It's a free version. They have a…
    about Clockify · at
  • Really recommend it's some type of tool for collaboration in team. If it's if you have Microsoft, you can do Microsoft Teams is very robust. Slack is another one if you have…
    about Microsoft Teams · at

Who and what is mentioned in this episode?

People

  • Jeffrey 71st – Miller, Charles — Person · 5 mentions · first at
    Always an honor. Thank you so much, Charles. Appreciate you investing time in me. Thank you.
  • Joan Juliet Buck — Person · 1 mention · first at
    What you can prove. Everyone treats procrastination like a character flaw that can't be fixed. David Buck has cracked the code on eliminating procrastination forever, not…
  • Dr. Blake Tyson — Person · 1 mention

Books & papers

  • The Time Optimized Life — Book · 2 mentions · first at
  • Getting Things Done — Book · 1 mention · first at
    Funnel, it reminds me I need to call the client that. So all of that stuff, David Allen, who wrote a book called Getting Things Done, it is a very tactical Yes, I have it on this side. David Allen's book was all about talking about.

Companies & orgs

  • Microsoft Teams — Company · 2 mentions · first at
    Really recommend it's some type of tool for collaboration in team. If it's if you have Microsoft, you can do Microsoft Teams is very robust. Slack is another one if you have…
  • ConvertKit — Company · 2 mentions · first at
    Some of the tools that you're using to make that happen? So, I use like ConvertKit as a way I find you've got ConvertKit, you have things like Mailchimp, Constant Contact.
  • Taco Bell — Company · 1 mention · first at
    Don't have VAS, please get one as quickly as you possibly can. If you got to work at Taco Bell, if you got to do Uber drives just to pay for the VA, it's worth it because my…
  • Sherwin Williams — Company · 1 mention · first at
    Is it Sherwin Williams or is it Home Depot?
  • Constant Contact — Company · 1 mention · first at
    ConvertKit as a way I find you've got ConvertKit, you have things like Mailchimp, Constant Contact.
  • Infinity Lifestyled — Company · 1 mention · first at
    Again, infinity lifestyled.com one word.
  • Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) — Company · 1 mention

Products & tech

  • Outlook — Product · 3 mentions · first at
  • Clockify — Product · 3 mentions · first at
  • Tidy Calendar — Product · 1 mention · first at
    Through and we've laid these things out and you've used the tools and you're using Tidy Calendar or you're using HubSpot or you're using Calendar, you're using these tools, you…
  • Post-it Notes — Product · 1 mention · first at
    And mapping everything out. I'm very old-fashioned. I start with the very small Post-it notes and then I go to the bigger Post-it notes and I map it all out and I brain dump…
  • Retirement Time Analysis — Product · 1 mention · first at
    So what I offer clients is they can go to their you can take either of my two main assessments. The retirement time analysis. If you're on that part of your life and want to…
  • Time Management Analysis Assessment — Product · 1 mention · first at
    Going to be like there, great. But if you're definitely an entrepreneur, a leader, take the time management analysis assessment because that'll give you a benchmark right then…
  • Apple Calendar — Product · 1 mention
  • Calendly — Product · 1 mention

Concepts & topics

Sponsors

  • HubSpot — Sponsor · 4 mentions · first at
  • Clockify — Sponsor · 3 mentions · first at
    When you have something that you keep delaying on and you spend time I personally use Clockify as a means for that, it's a time tracking tool. It's a free version. They have a…
  • Microsoft Teams — Sponsor · 2 mentions · first at
  • ConvertKit — Sponsor · 2 mentions · first at
    Some of the tools that you're using to make that happen? So, I use like ConvertKit as a way I find you've got ConvertKit, you have things like Mailchimp, Constant Contact.
  • Mailchimp — Sponsor · 2 mentions · first at
    ConvertKit as a way I find you've got ConvertKit, you have things like Mailchimp, Constant Contact.
  • Proven Podcast — Sponsor · 1 mention · first at
    Welcome to the Proven Podcast, where it does not matter what you think, only what you can prove. Everyone treats procrastination like a character flaw that can't be fixed. David Buck has.
  • Constant Contact — Sponsor · 1 mention · first at
    ConvertKit as a way I find you've got ConvertKit, you have things like Mailchimp, Constant Contact.
  • Calendly — Sponsor · 1 mention
  • Slack — Sponsor · 1 mention

Full transcript with timestamps

Welcome to the Proven Podcast, where it does not matter what you think, only what you can prove. Everyone treats procrastination like a character flaw that can't be fixed. David Buck has cracked the code on eliminating procrastination forever, not through willpower or motivation, but through systematic processes that make procrastination impossible. The show starts now. All right, welcome back to the show. Today we're with David and we're going to talk about how to kill procrastination forever. I'm excited. Thank you for being on.

Always an honor. Thank you so much, Charles. Appreciate you investing time in me. Thank you.

Absolutely. So, tell me a little bit more about you. I know you've written a book and you've done a whole bunch of things that most people haven't. I know we're going to get to killing procrastination, how to end it permanently, but walk me through this. Who are you? What have you done? Tell me about the book.

So, I have always had a fascination with time. And that actually came from the fact that I have been in business development for all of my career. All of us who know that's a fancy word for sales. So, I was a salesman. And I learned early on, particularly those of you who are looking at me, I wasn't going to get far in my amazing, stunning good looks and charisma. It wasn't going to do it for me.

I think you kind of yourself, but okay. Thanks. And I found though where my success lied was being better prepared than my competition.

And that preparation came in the fact part of it and how I used my time. And that became the defining element for me through my career is that I was going to provide you my product and service, but I was going to help you manage your time so you didn't have to be bothered by all the stuff that could come from me from not following through like I should. So that became my defined success and carried that through and then found probably about five years ago I was helping friends, friends of friends, family members, people I didn't know help them manage their time. they were asking for assistance and built a system around that and uh four years ago launched my company and two years ago went in full force stopped the side hustle dove into it and in that process I really began to learn and understand there's some key components and elements about how people what I call optimize their time or proactively use their time

versus reactively or managing their time and that inspired me to write the book the time optimized life which seeks to take people's mindset from first in first out

to plan negotiate and adapt through a proactive system what I call time optimization

so when your clients work with you what do they normally come for you and what do you normally what do they normally get out of it so what are the problems they normally come to you with like hey this is what's going on and then what is the end result So in the case I deal with two sets of clients most of them are are either have been business leaders or entrepreneurs. One phase is those that who are in their career or in their business. So they're like I'm I'm trying to figure out life really their challenges there revolve around trying to find flexibility between personal life and professional life.

The ability that I can flex into work when I need to and sustain there. But I also have the opportunity to flip into personal life and invest good time there. So that's the one element. Second element are those people who are thinking about heading into what I call postc career or retirement. What are you going to do with all this free time if you choose to stop working? So I craft around a lifestyle strategy for them. And I love playing in both elements because both teach me myself how to be better in this idea of flexibility.

Yeah. There's a lot of people who, cuz I've been retiring entrepreneurs for 20 years, there's always this boomerang or slingshot idea that they always come back. They're like, "Hey, I'm retired. I have all this free time. Oh god, I need to go back to work because I don't know what to do." So, being able to plan this and optimize their time is so vitally important. And again, I know we're going to talk about ending procrastination and and that's going to be a huge thing because I suffer from it. I don't know an entrepreneur who doesn't suffer from it because we have such burnout in our field. But if someone's going through and and and we can just give them a small taste of how to optimize their time outside of procrastination, how do how do they do that? How do if someone doesn't have the book in front of them right now? What are some kind key takeaways that they can do like right now? What are something someone can do

like two things do this immediately? First element is to think of time. You have to invest time to get more time. So we all consume time at the same rate. A second to you is the same as a second for me. But we don't use time the right way or the same way. So I can I my trade show days an hour being on a trade show floor that's slow goes extremely slow. Add some customers to it and I'm like oh an hour's gone by already. So it's that perception. So the idea really ultimately for you is to say what am I going to do to invest time upfront to then be able to adapt later and that requires a discipline that a lot of people are happy with and are really good at reacting

but then they struggle with well I set my time up plan didn't go the way I anticipated I'm throwing it all out the door and going back to what way I used to

right that happens far more often and we'd like to admit to. So, let's get into it. I want to know how to kill procrastination. I've suffered from it for 40ome years at this point. How do we reverse it? How do we get rid of procrastination? I am I am really excited for this.

Well, let's define procrastination first so that we have some some guidelines to follow. And how I define procrastination is intentionally delaying on something that's important and shifting your attention to something less important that gives you a false sense of productivity.

So you my whole life so that and I think you're everyone suffers from procrastination at some point. I I do I do myself. Just last week, I had a day where I was supposed to write for my second book

and I found every other excuse to do everything that gave me a false sense of I was productive, but I failed in the in that because I didn't define strongly enough what my day was. So for all of us who delay intentionally on something and shift from a more important thing to a less important thing, that's procrastination. And it it is a big challenge for those of us who run our own businesses or in a leadership role uh because we can get so sucked into the tactics that we forget about the strategy. So, I'm curious, when it comes to procrastination, are there certain things that create more procrastination than other things? For example, an iPad versus a TV versus, you know, are screens worse or are being overwhelmed worse? What are the things that trigger the procrastination for most people, especially your clients?

So typically the biggest thing is they have not defined enough what they need to accomplish.

I'll use a a very broad example. So behind me I I'm in a white room right now. I have an off-white office. If I choose to want to do a project of I'm going to paint my office.

Typically if I left it at that, I can wake up the next day and say got to paint the office. Oh, and before I know it, it's two weeks. I got to paint the the idea is to break it down then into more manageable tasks or project. Take away that that could be the ultimate goal to paint your room, but there could be 12, 13, or 14 steps that gets you to that final completion. So, if you make a broad statement as a business owner that says, "All right, I'm going to get a hundred more clients next year."

Wonderful goal. Mhm. But if you have no process, you have no uh in motivation set for that and you don't have the right equipment around you, great. That 100's still going to be 100 on December 31st when you went out of the gate January 1st because you didn't have structure around how to complete it.

Gotcha. So, it's about the methodology. It's about the systems. It's about having all of that as an encompassing thing like any other aspect of our business in our lives. And one of the things we entrepreneurs forget is there's not a huge difference between our business life and our personal life. There was a a friend of mine uh who had gone through AA and he said the only difference between AA for alcohol and AA for entrepreneurs is in the one for entrepreneurs you stand up and you say hey my name is Bob and I don't know the difference between my business life and my personal life like oh hello Bob welcome Bob welcome Bob. It's basically that difference is you just have no idea

and the idea that hey I'm going to have balance here and I'm going to have balance doesn't exist. It comes down to systems and policies and procedures and discipline. So

if someone's coming in I know you break it down into three very specific sections when we're going to go after and we're going to conquer procrastination. We're going to try and end it once and for all. For those who are listening what are those three?

So it's the processes you establish that define. So that's the first one that helps define exactly what you think you need to do.

The second thing is the equipment that you use. And of course, as if you're a soloreneur who provides a service, you're probably thinking, what does equipment have to do with it? You do. You live in equipment. It doesn't have to be just a manufacturing facility. And then the third element is your motivation. what's driving the behaviors with which you are going to want to complete that. I'm a big fan that of obviously positive motivation, but there's been plenty of times in my life where I was negatively motivated to a positive outcome. So I think that's why I don't say just positive motivation because that can give you a false sense of accomplishment. can even be toxic to you from the standpoint is I'm going to brah rah rah I'm getting those hundred but if you're if you don't have a realism behind it then you'll find you continue to to delay so process equipment and motivation are the three

key elements that I ask people to focus on when it comes to procrastination so when they jump in for processes what are some of the tools and techniques that they can start using to optimize it the best way possible what is something that someone can do immediately in the process section I would say take a look at your calendar today.

Uh when I look at uh first thing I ask with a new client is show me your calendar. Typically what I see in that calendar is a series of blocks of time that are associated to a lot of times either client generated or if they have a team they're pulling a team into series of tactical meetings. I'm not discounting any of those. That's important. But what I typically see is a lot of white space,

a lot of just grid lines from the counter. So I said, "Well, what's happening in this time then?"

Well, I've got a list of things I have to do and I'll go ahead and, you know, work in those open times. Well, what happens if a client wants to meet with you right?

Oh, I'll shovel that time into that open spot. That becomes a client and then I figure out what to do later. And so, well, that will cause you to procrastinate because the process of not having a calendar system in place where you're proactively lay laying out what you think your time's going to be, for me, council, two weeks minimum, knowing that it's going to change. I use a wet cement analogy that says when a when a company pours a foundation for a building, the concrete has to set and cure. So, there's still time to change it. Week two is your wet cement. It's where you're going to say, "I'm going to do my best, but I know it's going to change." But in and amongst all that simple process of account of just one thing of your calendar, you are allowing yourself to negotiate for when people want to demand your time and therefore you're like can't do this because I've got this project I'm working on or I

can't do this because I've made a commitment elsewhere here that's important that I complete. So that's one of the biggest areas that you can do from a readily available tool to minimize procrastination.

When when you're breaking down the calendars, are you using do you see better results with digital or analog paper or and then from there? How do you break up the time clusters? Do you do in 15-minute clusters, 20-minute clusters, 2hour clusters? How do you, you know, get into those level of minute details of what's better, what works the best? I am uh personally try to tell clients that a digital calendar is the best way because if you have an email with an exchange server, it's there.

It's there. But I also know people who are very old school who still use planners. I'm like, that's great. The methodology is the same. I think you lose though some you get some inflexibility with the planner because you can't share that. You have to go digital to be able to share it. But I but I don't challenge people if it if it works. I'm not going to break that for you. But if you go to the digital calendar, then the idea for me is anything whether you have business related meetings tied to the the functionality of your business, the just day in and day out. Uh and client calls.

That's for me are the two priorities that define my calendar. So once those fill up, that's great. But then the open time I still fill that up but it's normally generally tied to a project or a tactical processes and I so it could be an hour of what I call administrative work then I'm going to define what that administrative work means outside my calendar but if you are using a calendar I don't block that as busy because if I say that I am going to work an hour on administrative but that's lower level and a client sees and wants to book a a meeting with me through, you know, Calendarly. I use HubSpot, one of those, they see that as open and I'm willing to do that. But if I have 2025 business strategy locked in for 3 hours, that's blocked off on my calendar because I don't want the client to be able to book during that time frame. They'll figure it out. there's plenty of other availability left because I need to

devote that time. So, right then and there, I've on the motivation standpoint and the process standpoint of those two, I've identified that's important to me and I'm going to carve that time out.

So, I think you know when you were saying before about exchange, how vitally important it is for people who don't have VAS, please get one as quickly as you possibly can. If you got to work at Taco Bell, if you got to do Uber drives just to pay for the VA, it's worth it because my VA, we sit down, she's been with me for six years. Her name is Christine. Everybody knows who works with me. We will sit down and we will go over every 90 days, what are we going, what is the main goal, what are the priorities, and they very rarely change. And I'm, okay, this is when I'm available. This is what's negotiable.

This is what's non-negotiable. And then I set it and forget it. I barely check my emails. I barely check my messages, all the social media. That's not my job. I've outsourced that to someone else so that when I wake up in the morning, my calendar is fully digitized and I roll over, I do my morning routine that we all do and I'll look at my calendar. I'm like, "What am I doing today?" It is wonderful to have that level of feminine energy in your life to tell you, "This is what you're doing today." I'm like, "Okay." It is so much easier cuz she can control it and she also knows the priorities. So, if you're going to share it with somebody, please sit down and make sure they know what your priority is. And I and I love that you mentioned that. like listen my clients this is important but also if I have this for 2025 that's also important when you block this up I know Benjamin Franklin he has a very famous one that he had in

his diary of how he broke his up how do you break up your time structures so it it breaks it up I do not try to do anything more than three hours so I go as sometimes as little as 15 minutes because I do offer 15inut shots with with clients and prospects somebody has a specific question, they can do that. So, 15 minutes, but I try not to do I limit the time that I'm available for 15 minutes

in areas that I know aren't in I I'm not needed to be hyperproductive because typically those are lower level very specific things. So, again, you we have through the wonderful digital calendar process the ability to decide when we want to be available to clients depending on the type of meeting. And I probably have six different types of meeting structures that I have based upon that. So if you click on one type of meeting, it's going to tell you I'm available on one time. And if you click on another, it's going to be available on another because it's tied to when I'm going to be most productive.

And you're using so 15. Uh I use HubSpot as as a way which links to my Outlook calendar. So it's all so and there's very specific questions I'll ask in Calendarly does the same thing.

I use because then that way you can also qualify. So if somebody says, "Well, I'm going to come talk. I want Dave to f solve my problems in 15 minutes." That ain't happening. So there's very specific questions I ask of them in that like what are your goals? And if someone comes back and tries to circumvent that and says, "Yes, Dave, I want you to be able to help me set my lifestyle strategy in 15 minutes." I'm going to say, "I'm sorry. I'm cancelling this this meeting. That's not what this is for. if you would like to, here's an alternative booking, whether that's a paid booking or not, it depends on how you have it set up. But then you're identifying to them what's important to you and the use of your time. So, I think it's a great question. Take advantage of that. That's an automation process to your equipment that allows you not to have to think about that. Put it on the onus of And your process that

I had to go through to get on to your show did that as well. It put onus on me to provide you with information to help you bring value not only to me but to your listeners. And so there's that is a great example of what you did.

We we all thank you. We also do that in job postings. We will hide in the job posting when we're hiring someone say, "Oh, by the way, make sure you say blah blah blah." Put it as a subject line so we want we know that you're detailed oriented. So we have that in there. One of the challenges that I run into because I'm very structured with my time as well. I'm exceptionally protective over it is how to deal with hard stops. Now, I've learned a specific technique that I use. I'm curious when you run into these meetings and these calls where people want more of your time or you've got backtoback back calls. How do you handle the hey, this is a 15-minute call. What do you how do you normally address that?

And that happens on the pre-side. So, the preparation element of it that says I ask a series of qualifying questions. So, if it's a 15-minute call, I actually have 15 minutes is very short. what is your main goal that you want to achieve from this 15 minute session. So if it's that short, so it's it's all the pre preparation aspect of it. Then it's the reminder. Even if it's an hour meeting, I will go ahead and say to somebody if uh if I have a hard stop, I'm like,

I've got an hour. Yep. So at 5 minutes to the top of the hour, uh I'm going to be calling timeout so that I can regurgitate back to you either what I owe you or you owe me. Uh so that's important. where you can I do try to build in time between appointments just from the simple fact particularly if it's a client I want to be able to stop back and reflect a little bit about what happened during that client or that prospect's time frame so then I am putting it into my CRM any follow-up that I have to do so I'm doing the work when it's fresh on my mind but there are times I can't do that and so that idea then is to uh announce and even remind says, "Okay, we're 30 minutes through.

I've got I'm seeing we're 25% through the agenda. So, we either need to speed things up or let's just stop right now and get tell each other we need to invest more time at a future date and we will then go ahead and finish up what we can." So there's not that pressure of, you know, speeding it up to two times what we normally were to say, "Ha, I got everything done for that meeting." Meanwhile, your client or you are are dissatisfied because key elements weren't discussed. I I think the magic words are a hard stop. Whenever I run into a call, I'm like, "Hey, thank you so much for jumping on a call. I've got a hard stop at 5:00 p.m. Just want to give you a heads up. This is what's going on." And I agree with you, always giving some sort of leeway whenever you can. You know, one of the things that and I we I we noticed this because you do shows and you've been on shows and you know, things of this nature is I'll

always join and start the call a little bit earlier and I want to see who shows up early. I always want to see who shows up early because those calls nine times out of 10 are the better episodes than the people who show up right on time. So, I've always

Yeah. the pe the people who show up early nine times out of 10 are going to deliver better and it's a more of a calming process because if you show up right on time there's a sense of panic that comes into it. So the people who show up early is always huge and being able to say hard stops vitally important. I will say I'm not as good as the CRM as you are. I will just send a voice note. I'll send a voice note to the team like hey I spoke to David. This is what we talked about. This is what's going on. These are my thoughts on them.

I love this. I don't love that. Do this. D and then they'll regurgitate it back to they put in the CRM again. Please invest into a VA for the love of everything holy.

And I would say I didn't mention even though I don't mean to say this in a negative way. That's part of the equipment. A VA can be part of the equipment and and I don't have a VA and I'm exploring that. I know I'm going to need a VA as I'm beginning to scale up. There's no and automation. It's it's one of the pillars of my business strategy

is this continuous automation. What is it? What it is? When you and I talked previously, you gave some great uh automation stuff behind that and I I geeked out on that and went and looked at that stuff. But for those particularly, I don't care what size business you are, you need to be thinking automation through everything in your processes that allows you to take tactical out of your brain and put strategic and innovation in your brain. That's the time that needs to be covered there.

Yeah. I I think it's being taught early on that, hey, you don't have a Ferrari, deliver pizza. You're the owner of the company, you're a Ferrari. Don't deliver pizza. Go out and outsource. And that's no offense to my team or the people. there are things that they do better than I ever will. But being able to sit there and have everything automated, hugely important. And so as we go through and we've laid these things out and you you've used the tools and you're using Tidy Calendar or you're using HubSpot or you're using Calendar, you're using these tools, you now process through that. You've got you've got your day within reason laid out. You've got your priorities. You're like, "This is what I'm going to do. This is what I'm not going to do. What's the next step?

what is the next things we get into and what are the tools that we can use in that one?

It depends on how deep you want to go. If I if if someone's particularly struggling with procrastination,

I say then you need to track your time and you're thinking I got to spend more time what you know and that that's a frustration. And I get exasperation out of that. And I'm like,

when you have something that you keep delaying on and you spend time I personally use Clockify as a a means for that, it's a time tracking tool. It's a free version. They have a very robust free version. That's why I like them. I do the paid version because there's there's a lot more reporting to it. But just spend time. It doesn't have to be all detailed, but just say, "What did I do in this hour?" or great thing with Clockify is you click the button and it tracks it for you and you start and stop when you're done and then it provides you with the report. You will find particularly if you're procrastinating, you will probably be shocked after a couple weeks where you're wasting time.

Oh, immense amount of time. Immense. And yes, and and the fact it begins you to help prioriti prioritize so you can say, "All right, um, you know what? I I don't need to pick this up this phone. I don't need to I don't need to check those messages. It it challenges you. And so, but if you don't want to do that, like if you're like, I'm not tracking my time, Dave. Whatever. Thanks for the advice. Then it's simply you take time at the beginning of the day to give yourself a gut check of what my day was like. And then even if it's five minutes at the end of the day, you self-evaluate. How did I do? So the blocks of time, did I really spend that time in those blocks of time? Did I have to adapt for something more important that meant to do that? But ultimately, if you had something that you're saying, I'm procrastinating on, did you make progress on that in that particular day?

Many cases, if you say, "Yeah, but I didn't get done what I what I exactly wanted to get done." Give yourself from some grace. You made at least some progress. It's when you're at the end of the day saying,"I really needed to work on that project and I didn't." That then that's when the time that you say at the end of the day, you don't beat yourself up. You say, "Tomorrow's another day. What do I have to adjust tomorrow to either get back on track or start making progress towards it?" And it's a beginning and the end of the day routine that you do going forward. I have to say it never stops.

It sounds like you map that into your time. You're like, "Okay, I'm going to this is my pre and this is my post. I'm going to map that out no matter what so I can know what's going on." What do you do when you run into you built all this and you've got some processes going and you've got some tools in there and you're tracking it and all of a sudden as it happens, you know, Tyson's got a great a great quote. Everyone's got a plan to get punched in the face. What do you do when life will do that? It will punch you in the face. You know, we've got a tropical storm coming. You know, what do you what do you do when you got to pivot those? How do you get rid of the rigidness of some of the system that's being created?

And that's a great point because I love rigidness and I have to battle against that because I can look at my calendar and every hour is planned and I'm so proud of myself and then you're right, things change. And this is where I call call the rule of 50%.

If it is important to you, so you're working on something, you're like this is I've got to get this done. Mhm.

The the pre-planning part of it, the preparation says, I try to estimate how many hours that that's going to take.

And then add up to 50% more on top of that because the plan never goes the way you account for it. And you build that into your calendar. So if you say, well, I'm going to plan two hours tomorrow, but this is really important. You know what? I'm going to carve out three hours. If you get it done in two hours, wonderful. You have found another hour of which I know you have plenty of things to fill that with. Yes,

but if you're at 2 hours and 50 minutes and you're going, "Wow, I'm on a roll. I really would love to be able to spend more time, but another appointment's booked up in that." You lose that that momentum. So, plan the just plan 50% on the important things. It's a bit like in real estate, whatever you think the project's going to cost, 3x it because it's just going to cost three times as much.

Every single time with Oh, I I remember flipping houses and expanding my real estate portfolio. People would come in like this is what it's going to cost and I just write three acts on top like it's going to cost three times that. It's going to be twice as long and three times as much. Just is what it is. It's Murphy's law. So many war wounds on that one. All right. So, so many more wounds and having trauma right now. All right. So, you've gone through, you mapped this out, you're monitoring it, you're adding an extra 50% to everything. Where do we go from there? What is the next step that we do?

So, the next step is to is monitor your progress and ensure that as you go along, you are understanding the steps you need to take to meet that ultimate goal. So again, if you're painting your room, have I picked a paint color? Have I decided on the brand of paint, the type of paint? Do I want high gloss, satin flat? Then I say, "What materials do I need to get that done? Do I have them already or do I need to do that? Where's the retailer I want to go to buy that paint? Is it Sherwin Williams or is it Home Depot?"

Then what's the prep I have to do? Do I have to like prime before I paint? So it all those get broken down. And again, even if you say, I'm giving myself a month to decide if I'm going to paint this room. You're like, okay, cool. I've already picked the color style, I already have the the things in place. So as you see progress, and I find people when they do that, they actually find they're ahead of time when they break it down into those small chunks. So, you know, an owner's got to give a proposal to a client in two weeks. Well, when they set it up into small chunks, they find a week I'm 75% done here because it didn't either take as long or they get in a momentum that says, "Oh, I'm really digging what's happening here and I'm seeing progress. So, I'm excited because I hit the next thing." And that goes to that motivation aspect. I'm now motivated to do it. Now, you could also wait until the day before and be

negatively motivated, but you're still motivated. And then you consume all your time. You're up late to do that. You still get it done. I would ask you,

it's not necessary. Please don't do that. Plan it out more so you get a good night's sleep before you have to give the proposal.

How do we, you know, we talk about how you eat an elephant, which is one bite at a time. It's a very famous idea. How do you what tools have you used to say, okay, I've got ABC project. It's this big project that we have going on. What tools are you using? What are the methodologies that you break down that project? Is there certain aspects or certain ways that you, hey, you know what, as you said with the with the painting the room, where am I going? What am I buying? What type is it a matte finish? You know, going through all of those, what are the things that you've used and your clients use with you that you're like, hey, this is how I break down so I can swallow that elephant. So if it's individuals, so for example, if it's me and I've got something or if I if it's a client, I usually ask, so the nature of this project, is it you alone in isolation that you have to get this done?

Is it you who has to collaborate with others to get that done? And then is it you working with the client through a series of steps to get that done? So those are the three elements you have to decide. If it's just you, I say keep it simple. Use your calendar and task function. Get that down in the steps through a task function that ties you Outlook, Apple, whoever you use has a built-in task and calendar function with it. Make that simple. However, if you're going to collaborate with others, that's where I really recommend it's some type of tool for collaboration uh in team. If it's if you have Microsoft, you can do Microsoft Teams is very robust. Slack is another one if you have that sort of thing. So there's a a lot of readily available software functions out there that allow you to collaborate in there because then you identify the key elements within that project. And if you assign it to

somebody, it allows you the opportunity to emphasize urgency to this like Charles, I'm going to need this step done because nobody can go forward through that. So explain to me how you're going to do that. So there's investing time to understand clarifications, roles and responsibilities, timelines, and how that's going to get done. Then if you're going to deal with clients outside, so it's a client-based project or whatever, then I try to adapt to what they're doing. Tell me what systems you use today. How do you want me to communicate as I get through the various gates to get to the end of this? Is it an internal system you want to invite me in? And I do. I get clients who invite me into either their Slack or their Microsoft Teams so that they can communicate directly or others can. Some don't. They're a little weird wiggy about having someone into their system.

So they say, "What's the best way? Here's systems that I use." And so between those three, you're identifying expectations either to yourself personally or to others how it's going to get done.

What are one of the systems because now I'm just going to try and steal information from you. What is one system that either you use or you've seen a client use that you know you talked about sharing some of your systems with your clients. What is one of the systems that you're like, you know what, if their stuff is really bad or they've never done this before or there's absolute chaos, this is a system I implement that like clockwork, it really helps start moving that ball forward. Yeah, I if they particularly want me to see like if I'm coaching them one-on-one, biggest element again going back to simplicity is share your calendar with me so I get to see exactly everything that you're doing

and I can challenge. So if there's an open space, tell me why it's open. What are you doing in that open space? Or if I see a block of three hours that says administrative work, I'm like, you need to tell me what you're doing in that administrative work. Have you planned for that out there? Then if they're still struggling, then share your tasks with me so I can see exactly how they're aligning the tasks into a block of time and challenge them if it's realistic or not. And if you don't want to use somebody like me, I'm just like if you're a business owner, you know, somebody in your life you can trust, right? uh find that accountability person that you can then share that with who's not going to tell you, "Oh, this looks fantastic." But they're going to tell you, "Hey, I think you got 80% right. 20% needs to be adjusted. Tell me how you're going to be able to uh uh accomplish this." And again, if it's

delivered in the right way with someone you trust, you'll see that you will begin to think differently and try to anticipate to that level of trust to say, are they going to like what I have here? Have I done enough to do that? What do you do when someone sits there and they get overwhelmed? Because you you and I seem very similar being anal retentively disciplined and organizing and mapping everything out. Um, I'm very old-fashioned. I start with the very small Post-it notes and then I go to the bigger Post-it notes and I map it all out and I brain dump everything. I'm like, "Wait now." And then I'll transfer it over to digital. But I love that that that organization, that routine. You know, my uncle says it's not OCD, it's CDO because at least it's in the right order. There's a little bit of that in me. What do you do when your client comes up to you and they're like, "Oh my god, I I have to map out every push

back. You get that resistance. How do you get them over that hurdle of, hey, you know what? You can keep doing it the way you were doing it, but this probably worked better for How do you get them over that?

Well, Rome was not built in a day. So, if they're overwhelmed with like you there's no stinking way, Dave, I'm planning my calendar out the way you want to. Then I said, tell me where your productivity zone is. Where are you the most productive for yourself, for your team, for your clients? Tell me that that zone. And once we figure out what that zone is, then I'm like, you just plan that, then plan that zone with your most important activities, with the things that you can't procrastinate on. So if from 9 to noon is your high productivity zone, do that. If you're an after lunch person, if you're an evening person, if you're a night owl, maybe your zone needs to be from 8 to 11 at night, whatever that is. Uh I don't want you to do that in lie of also taking care of yourself. But if that's your zone, then plan the most important things that you can do in that zone. So then you find you're not

procrastinating. Once you do that, then you then I do the good mission creep. then try to do an hour or two outside that zone until at such point you're planning both your professional and your personal day out there. So if you look at my calendar now I have uh an hour at night for reading. I don't read every night for an hour, but it's there is to remind me this is time for you to invest in your personal development or just great I'm a sci-fi fan just so that I take time reading literature that I like. So do your productivity zone and then expand out from there.

So they've gone through they've got the conflicts they they've mapped everything out they're starting to prioritize thing they're implementing some of the tools. Hopefully they hire a VA for the love of everything. Holy. Can't believe you haven't hired a VA at this point. We're going to talk about this after the camera stops rolling.

Very fair. Very fair. Yeah, get that needs to be on your list. Hire a VA by the end of the week.

It is. It is on my list. Get Get it done. I interviewed quite a few people recently. Get it done. It changed my life. I would not be where I am without a VA. Absolutely not possible. Um they've gone through they mapped it all out. As we've gone through these processes, what is the of the three that we've talked about, which one is the hardest normally for people to implement and to execute on?

So, I will speak personally for myself and in include everyone in there. The third element is quote equipment automationba to affirm what you said in and amongst once you establish a cadence on your process you cannot rest on your laurels right

at that point again you as an owner a leader I want to spend as much time in strategy and innovation and less time in tactics so it's a constant challenge for me where I block off time to think about how can I automate this? What is the way that I can do this that will bring me scale without sacrificing customer service? And we live in such an amazing time where even outside of AI, you can still automate your processes. Like my entire client engagement is automated. Now you might be thinking what does that mean? Well, it is automated in the sense that those tasks are defined. Some are the email goes out, I never even touch touch touch it or look at it.

I won't do anything until the client engages back. But then also automation is it's a reminder to say once I'm in a particular sales funnel or process funnel, it reminds me I need to call the client that. So all of that stuff, David Allen, who wrote a book called Getting Things Done,

it is a very tactical Yes, I have I have it on this side. David Allen's book was all about talking about how we have and we're like a computer. Our brain has open memories and it also have has a file system. The idea you want to do is not to have your open memory or your desktop filled with a bunch of crap. Mhm.

You you have have a clean desktop because you have in the file system already reminders set for you to do a particular activity. So I don't have to think about did I email Charles back on the followup. I don't have to think about it because I am going to be reminded by the system and the equipment to say it's time to call Charles. And then I get to spend the rest of the time trying to figure out how do I improve my business. We sat there and we used to do this as a litmus test when I would hire people and I would always if they were going to be managers or senior level they'd come over and right before the end of it because I'd always be the last conversation I'm like take a wallet out like excuse me like take your wallet out and they're like take out your money and I'm like show me the money and if it was all facing the same way from one value to the other value I'm like you're hired. If they pulled out a ball of

garbage I'm like nope. And then from there it was open your phone. I'm not going to read any of your messages. I just want to see your phone. And if all of a sudden you've got 30,000 messages that haven't been read and f you know I'm like you're you're not gonna be my you're not my person that just it because those were those litmus tests of putting those things in place. What are some of the tools that you've been using to make sure that this equipment and this automation starts using you talked about how emails automatically go up.

What are some of the software? What are some of the tools that you're using to make that happen? So, I use like ConvertKit as as a way I find um you know, you've got ConvertKit, you have things like Mailchimp, Constant Contact.

What you want to do is you want to investigate for your business if you haven't chosen one yet.

What automation best fits your business type and each there are positive and negatives to each one of those email marketing platforms. And so while I use I used to be Mailchimp, I'm now ConvertKit. Uh and and I like ConvertKit, but I don't want to make that as a wholesale endorsement because you might be have a product or service that requires something different that what they do. But you want to look at a system there that is highly automated that allows you to either use they have got a robust template base if you want to start out with. So you don't want to how do I think about this uh then versus how do I then customize my automation that fits me. So I I think that's an important tool. I will go back to like clockify or some time tracking particularly if you bill by the hour

with a client avenue there. The calendar is not going you can do that but literally if you're going to bill by the hour those time toggle or clockify will allow you to start and stop. So you can legitimately tell a client I was 7.6 hours on your work last week and they might say but we only met for two. Well that's because there's a lot of stuff behind the scenes that I have to do to be able to deliver you what you see in front of you. And so that allows you justification there for billing if that's the case. It also then does that that ability to say where am I carving out my time and how can I improve that.

So I think marketing tools key a time tracking tool is key. Uh those are really two elements if you're like where do I start start with those.

I would also say don't get married to whatever element you choose there. You know, we used one element for a very long time and we were bringing on a specific talent. We wanted him to take over and he's very good at what he does. We know what his results were. We had that whole conversation. He's like, "What are you using now?" And I'm like, "Whatever you tell me to." There's a great line from Forest Gump where he goes, "What's your purpose in my army?" And he was like, "Whatever you tell me to, drill sergeant." When you're bringing on talent, when you've gone through the entire hiring process and you're going to scale, make sure that you sit down and say, "Okay, I've hired the best talent I possibly have." It's kind of like bringing a pitcher into a baseball game. If he prefers to wear, you know, a certain type of glove and your team doesn't do that, give him his damn glove. It doesn't matter at the end

of the day. Just give him the glove he wants. Same thing with the equipment you use. Same thing with the software you use. Uh, make sure that you you have those things. Ask

I would also, sorry, Charles, if I may, I forgot one. Oh, please. And that's a CRM. having a customer relationship management tool, whichever direction you go. Again, pros and cons to each one of those. I mentioned I use HubSpot uh for that, and there's definite pros and cons, but the idea there is it can be broader than just your customer relationship management. It can be an amazing tool for collaboration within your organization. I like to think it is it allows you to develop a hopefully a neverending story for your clients. The idea that says and I have clients that I've had for years that that story is very detailed. I don't have to think about what did I say to that client two years ago. I don't have to try to go into Outlook or, you know, Apple to try to search for it. I simply have a story right there to say.

And so that's the third element that I would ask that that if you don't have that, research that because it's really important.

It it really is. I mean, I'll add on to that. Whenever I send the voice notes to my team, they will attach it to inside our CRM and they'll forward it back to me as I'm like, "Hey, you're meeting with so- and so today." I'm like, "Huh?" Cuz you and I both talked to so many people. I'm like, "Huh?" And then I'll play the voice message back to myself. I was like, "Okay, I know who this is now. I get it." Cuz I'm I'm a visual person. I need to see the face cuz I'm horrible with names. I don't remember anyone's names when talking about collaboration.

If someone's like, "Okay, I get it. I've got so much work that needs to be done. I need to fix my my procrastination. I need to redesign my lifestyle. I really need to look at this. I need to optimize what I do." If someone wants to collaborate with you, if someone wants to connect with you, what is the best way for them to reach out and get a hold of you?

So, I would say first from social media, if you want to do that, I'm on LinkedIn. It's David Sbuck. Just send me a connection request. It gives you a great idea to understand a little bit more. But then also I encourage you to go to my website infinitity lifestyled.com. Again, infinity lifestyled.com one word. And at the front it just it what I want you to do first is get a benchmark. And so what I offer clients is they can go to their you can take either of my two main assessments. The retirement time analysis. If you're on that part of your life and want to figure out what time's going to be like there, great. But if you're definitely an entrepreneur, a leader, take the time management analysis assessment because that'll give you a benchmark right then and there of where am I strong? How can I use my strengths to then help my opportunities?

And then again, another thing, if you'd like my book, The Time Optimized Life, at the top, if you click on that link, there's a way for you to download chapter one. So, if you're kind of like, what is this time optimization thing about? What's this guy trying to tell me here? Download chapter 1. It gives a great overview of how you can optimize your time by being proactive. And then, gosh, if you want the books available anywhere for you if you'd like to order it from there.

I really appreciate coming on. I'm going to start implementing some of these cuz procrastination is something I have fought with since ever. So, thank you for sharing some of these. I really appreciate you coming on.

What an honor, Charles. Thank you. Uh to me, the time flew by, so at least I had a good time. So, thank you.

David just laid out the blueprint to kill procrastination, not with motivation speeches, but with actual systems. While others chase productivity hacks, he's built frameworks that

Questions about this episode

What is discussed in "End Procrastination Forever - David Buck"?

In order: 0:00 Procrastination, Jeffrey 71st – Miller, Charles, Joan Juliet Buck, Lifestyle Strategy; 5:00 Procrastination; 10:00 Procrastination, HubSpot; 15:00 Automation, HubSpot, Lifestyle Strategy, Outlook; 20:00 Automation, Clockify, Clockify, HubSpot; 25:00 Sherwin Williams; 30:00 Microsoft Teams, Microsoft Teams, Jeffrey 71st – Miller, Charles, Outlook; 35:00 Post-it Notes; 40:00 Automation, ConvertKit, ConvertKit, Mailchimp; 45:00 Jeffrey 71st – Miller, Charles, Procrastination, HubSpot, Infinity Lifestyled.

What is mentioned in this The Proven Podcast episode?

41 people, works and ideas are mentioned, including Procrastination, Automation, Jeffrey 71st – Miller, Charles, Outlook, Clockify, Time Tracking. Each one on this page links to its own page with every episode that mentions it.

How long is "End Procrastination Forever - David Buck"?

The episode runs 49 min; the transcript is about 9,419 words in 105 timestamped sections.

More from The Proven Podcast

About this transcript: the episode's spoken words as captioned on YouTube, split into timestamped sections. Reclip.Me locates every person, work and idea in the text, keeps the time it is first named, and quotes the words around it verbatim. Last updated November 19, 2025.