How to (Actually) Get Stuff Done (Part I)

Or: How to Write More

People often ask me for advice on meeting their goals. Usually, I’ll indulge them, but if I’m honest, I feel as clueless as the next person.

Here I am, a supposed expert on this stuff. Much of my research is on willpower and motivation, I teach classes on self-control, and I even run an applied seminar on the science of behaviour change. To paraphrase Walter Sobchak—why then do I feel like a fuckin’ amateur when asked for tips? Maybe it’s because we so-called experts on self-control have overplayed our hand, as if we could shake the self-control magic wand and suddenly people’s goals and aspirations will come true. I’m as guilty of that as anyone, but it’s not quite that simple.

Let’s start with a personal example. My sabbatical goals were straightforward: get this Substack off the ground and commit to posting every Wednesday, no exceptions. Another goal? Improve my pickleball game (I’ll save the details for later—just know that my good friend Paul Bloom has had a string of rough matches). Scroll through the Substack app, and you’ll find loads of people with similar plans, setting out to write regularly and then fizzling out after a few posts. I’m aware I’m still in the honeymoon phase, but I’m confident I’ll still be here in April, posting every week, and then we’ll see whether I’ve got real staying power.

My confidence in hitting these goals, however, doesn’t come from having iron self-discipline. I am not using self-control to write these words. In fact, the more I study self-control, the less faith I have in it. Sure, there are countless strategies to manage your impulses, but they’re often limited and temporary. When I get the urge to clean my house instead of write—I know I’m not the only one who uses housework to procrastinate, right?!—I might tell myself to hold off, remind myself why writing matters, or escape to a café to avoid my mop’s siren song. These strategies are helpful, sure, but they’re not a cure-all

Take it from the research. My former students Marina Milyavskaya and Blair Saunders, now outstanding professors, led studies showing that common self-control strategies only work about half the time, and no single strategy has an edge. Worse still, these strategies don’t predict goal progress in the long run. So, even if you gut it out and write a few paragraphs on your latest Substack, relying solely on self-control doesn’t predict whether you’ll stick to it for the next six months.

Alright, I know I’m sounding bleak but hang in there. I didn’t title this post How to (Actually) Get Stuff Done just to tell you it’s hopeless. Behavioural science does offer some real gems, and there is good news here. Oddly enough, it’s not self-control that’s the star of the show. In fact, the advice I’m about to give is so simple that most of you will probably roll your eyes and wonder why we need experts to state the obvious. Yet here I am, your impetuous, overpaid professor, reminding you of what you already know: to reach your goals, you actually need to set them.

Goal-setting theory might seem obvious, but it’s one of the most robust findings in psychology. Psychologists Edwin Locke and Gary Latham’s research shows that setting specific, challenging, and time-bound goals keeps us far more motivated and focused than just hoping to “do our best.”

Having a clear target and deadline guides our attention and effort, making us more likely to follow through. There’s a big difference between saying, “I’ll start a Substack” and “I’ll start writing a new 1,000-word Substack post every Monday from 9 to 11 am and will continue writing every morning for two hours and get it done by no later than Wednesday.” A time-bound goal doesn’t just define what success looks like; it creates a ticking clock that nudges us to keep moving. Without a timeline, even the best goals can drift, lost to procrastination and competing priorities like the sudden urge to clean one’s house.

This kind of structured, deadline-driven goal taps into our natural tendency to prioritize what has an end in sight. As a deadline approaches, our focus sharpens, and we throw more effort into the task. If Wednesday rolls around and my post isn’t done, I know I’ve failed. That immediate feedback forces me to try harder next time. Compare that to a vague goal like “write my Substack.” Without a clear timeline, how would I know if I’m on track? Sure, a blank page is an obvious sign of failure, but what if it’s Friday and I’ve only written a couple of decent paragraphs? Is that a win or a loss? Vague goals give vague feedback.

The cousin to goal-setting is planning. It’s not enough to have specific, challenging, and time-bound goals; you also need to break them down into manageable tasks. Take this Substack post, for example. Writing it isn’t a single action; it’s a series of smaller steps that I spread across several days. Mondays are for brainstorming and messy drafts, where I jot down rough ideas or attempt coherent sentences. Tuesday and Wednesday are for refinement—revisiting my work, restructuring, editing, and polishing. Breaking down the goal into smaller steps keeps it manageable, does not overwhelm, and gives me small wins along the way. Scheduling these steps moves an intention into action, and once it’s on the calendar, I’m far more likely to follow through. Check back on this space soon when I talk about my quietly brilliant student, Emily Zohar, who is working on effective calendaring. She is multi-talented: She designed the logo for this very Substack!

One of the best things about planning is that it generates momentum. Each small success reinforces the goal and builds a sense of progress. By setting aside time for each step, you’re effectively creating a commitment, making it harder to brush off. Plus, the structure of planning helps when life inevitably throws curveballs. As the Dude would say, sometimes new shit comes to light. The trick is getting back on track. If my Monday writing time gets interrupted, I’ve already blocked out time on Tuesday to pick up where I left off. The idea is less about rigidly sticking to a schedule and more about making a flexible yet deliberate plan that keeps you moving forward.

So, yes, goal-setting is that “one weird trick” to helping you get stuff done. But there’s more good news. Goal-setting is not just for the future; it is not only a promissory note to yourself about how good your life will be once you tick that goal off your to-do list. New research from my lab, expertly spearheaded by my remarkable student Aidan Campbell, suggests that setting and effortfully working toward a goal, even in small ways, can make that goal feel significant and rewarding. Pursuing goals gives life a sense of purpose beyond the daily grind. And this isn’t only about grand, life-altering goals; even minor goals, like finishing a weekly post or getting better at pickleball, contribute to a feeling of progress and meaning.

Change isn’t a sudden transformation, and self-control only gets you so far. Change generally happens through a series of adjustments rather than a single epiphany. By setting concrete, time-bound goals, you can begin to make short-term progress that feels real and meaningful. Over time, those small steps add up to something significant.

As a so-called expert, how good am I at all this? I guess you’ll need to wait till next week to see if another article is in your inbox. If not, just know that I consider vacuuming my office to be an important academic pursuit too. So, join me—let’s set our lofty goals, make some overly ambitious plans, and find out together which ones we’ll dodge in favor of alphabetizing our spice racks. Because, really, who needs a Substack when you could be organizing nutmeg?

Stay tuned for Part 2, where I’ll dig into motivation and desire—the fuel that helps see your goals through. Part 2 won’t be about the mechanics of getting things done but about sustaining the energy and drive to keep going when it gets tough.

Like with my last post, I hid two Big Lebowski Easter eggs for all you Little Urban Achievers out there. The first two to comment and identify the quotes—no cheating, that would be over the line—will be gifted with a 3-month paid subsciption.