You sit down at your desk. Training is planned. And then your brain starts negotiating.
“I’m not really feeling it today. Maybe I should just watch an opening video instead. Or take it easy and play some blitz.”
If you’re anything like me, you know how this ends. You dig a little deeper and come up with all the brilliant reasons why today is really the day you should do what you feel like, instead of what you planned. Twenty minutes later, you’re on the couch watching Netflix.
There are plenty of days where you planned something, and then you just don’t feel like doing the work. Sometimes you are a little lazy. Other times you really feel physically ill. It is very easy to trick yourself. You start believing that this time, you should really listen to your body and just rest.
If that sounds familiar, I’ve got a simple rule that helps me get much more done, even on days I initially didn’t feel like doing anything.
A Simple Rule
The rule is simple: don’t fight with yourself about whether to do it. Just do it.
Once you start allowing yourself to argue with yourself, it is already too late. Your brain is smarter than your discipline. It will find a convincing reason to skip the work every single time. That’s where this rule helps me so much: remove the negotiation entirely.
When I use this, especially together with Alessia, where we hold each other to it and kill the negotiation before it starts, it is incredibly simple and powerful.
- We planned to go to the gym? Just don’t fight, we just go.
- I planned to go for a long run but it is -5 degrees? Just don’t fight, put on the right clothes and go.
- Planned to solve hard tactics but want to play mindless blitz instead? Just don’t fight. Do the tactics.
- Tough discussion with someone I work with? Just don’t fight, prepare well, accept this is going to be hard, do it.
No more discussions.
And here is the truth: it would be wonderful to tell you that ten minutes in, I’m always glad I started. That happens sometimes. But more often than not, I hated every minute of running in -5 degrees. What I enjoy is the feeling after I’m finished. I’m proud that I stuck with what I planned to do. I built character.
The real positive effects come from compounding these small wins throughout your days, weeks, months and years.
The Emergency Exception
The only time I override this: when pushing through risks real, lasting damage.
If I slept only 2 hours and don’t feel like driving, I should listen to my body, because I risk injuring myself and others. That is a real emergency.
But losing some rating points because your focus wasn’t perfect? That’s not an emergency. Let’s be honest, for chess improvement, you will very rarely face that exception.
So then, just put in the work. Sometimes your focus will be better, sometimes worse.
No more excuses. Just don’t fight
PS: I recently listened to a Podcast Episode ranking Self-Improvement strategies. #1 according to a meta analysis of 2600+ studies was… just doing the thing.
Keep improving,
GM Noël Studer
PS: This article was initially sent out to my Newsletter list. If you want to get chess improvement advice for free in your inbox, join 17,000+ chess improvers by signing up for Friday Grandmaster Insights here.
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