Do It Today by Darius Foroux is a practical self-help book that focuses on overcoming procrastination, improving productivity, and achieving meaningful goals. The author explains why people delay important tasks and provides simple, proven strategies to develop discipline and take action. Procrastination is one of the biggest barriers to success, often preventing individuals from reaching their full potential. Through real-life examples and actionable advice, the book encourages readers to stop postponing their work and make better use of their time. First published in 2020, Do It Today is divided into three sections and contains approximately 150 pages. Darius Foroux is the author of eight books, including The Stoic Path to Wealth. He writes extensively on productivity, Stoicism, and wealth creation. His work has been featured in publications such as TIME, NBC, Fast Company, and Inc. In this article, we present an honest review of Do It Today and its key lessons.
Key points of the book
Overcoming Procrastination
The first part of the book focuses on overcoming procrastination and taking action today instead of delaying tasks until tomorrow. Darius Foroux provides practical strategies to help readers stop procrastinating, improve their focus, and become more productive. He explains that procrastination is not simply a matter of laziness but often the result of poor habits and ineffective routines. One of the book’s key lessons is that willpower alone is not enough to achieve consistent results. Since motivation can fluctuate, relying on it is unreliable. Instead, Foroux emphasizes the importance of building effective systems, routines, and habits that make productive behavior easier and more sustainable. By following these methods, readers can reduce distractions, stay focused on their goals, and develop the discipline needed to accomplish more in both their personal and professional lives.
How To Stop Wasting Time
We all tend to waste time occasionally and later regret it. This book provides practical strategies to help readers use their time more effectively and avoid common productivity pitfalls.
- Know Thy Time : Understand how you spend your time by tracking your daily activities and identifying where your time goes.
- Identify The Non-Productivity Work : Recognize tasks and habits that add little value and prevent you from making meaningful progress.
- Eliminate The Time-Waster : Reduce or remove distractions and unnecessary activities that consume your time and energy without contributing to your goals.
Habits of Unproductive People
This book helps readers identify the habits of unproductive people and understand how these behaviors can limit personal growth and success. By recognizing and avoiding these habits, you can improve your productivity, make better decisions, and lead a more purposeful life.
- Working Too Much
- Worrying Too Much
- Being Stubborn
- Checking Things
- Escaping Life
- Saying Yes
- Not Writing Things Down
- Being Hard on Yourself
- Neglecting your personal education
- Hating Rules
The 30 Minutes Evening Ritual
While many morning and evening routines have been proposed over the years, it is often observed that morning routines are easy to start but just as easy to abandon. In Do It Today, Darius Foroux introduces a simple yet effective 30-minute evening ritual designed to help you unwind, reflect on the day, and prepare for tomorrow. By spending just half an hour each evening on intentional planning and reflection, you can reduce stress, improve productivity, and start the next day with clarity and purpose.
- From minute 0 to 10 : Close The Day : Spend 10 minutes reflecting on your day. Write a few sentences about what you accomplished, what you learned, and any experiences or insights worth remembering. This practice helps create a sense of closure and promotes continuous learning.
- From minute 10 to 20 : Review Tomorrow’s Calendar : Plan your next day in advance. Review your schedule, note important meetings and deadlines, identify key tasks, and decide when you will exercise or work on priority projects. A clear plan reduces uncertainty and helps you stay focused.
- From minute 20 to 25 : Prepare your outfit : Decision fatigue can reduce the quality of our choices as the day progresses. Preparing your outfit the night before eliminates one decision from the next morning and helps you start the day confidently and efficiently.
- From minute 25 to 30 : Visualize : Take a few minutes to mentally rehearse the day ahead. Visualize your tasks, priorities, and desired outcomes. This simple exercise helps you approach the next day with confidence, focus, and a clear sense of direction.
Power Of Having a Mantra
It’s not about whether you are spiritual or religious. If you study different religions, cultures, and belief systems, you will discover how powerful and useful a mantra can be. Most people have heard of mantras, but very few have one that they actively practice in their daily lives. What is Mantra?
A mantra is a sacred utterance a numinous sound, a syllable, word or phenome; or group of Sanskrit believed by practitioners to have psychological and spiritual powers.
Mantras exists for centuries. You can find them in Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism, and Christianity. Mantra used to overcome fear, know the truth, get strength, and improve focus. It does not matter who came up with it first, what matters is that mantra works.
Smartphones harm your productivity more than you think
A researcher asked participants to complete a concentration test under four different conditions: with their smartphone in their pocket, on their desk, locked in a drawer, and completely removed from the room. The results were significant. Participants performed worst when their smartphones were placed on their desks. However, with each additional layer of distance between the participants and their phones, concentration levels improved. Overall, test scores were 26% higher when smartphones were completely removed from the room. This study highlights how even the mere presence of a smartphone can distract us and reduce our ability to focus. To minimize smartphone-related distractions and improve productivity, consider the following strategies:
- Turn off all non-essential notifications : keeping only calls and important messages enabled.
- Leave unnecessary WhatsApp groups : or mute group notifications to reduce interruptions.
- Remove apps that you rarely use : or that do not add value to your daily life.
- Choose audio over video whenever possible : such as listening to music, news, podcasts, or audiobooks instead of watching videos.
- Keep your phone out of sight while working : preferably in a drawer or another room.
- Schedule specific times to check your phone : rather than responding to every notification immediately.
How to read 100 books in a year
If you enjoy reading but find it difficult to finish books because of constant distractions, Do It Today offers a practical five-step approach that can help you build a consistent reading habit. By following these principles, you can significantly increase the number of books you read each year and retain more of what you learn.
- Buy in Bulk
- Always be Reading
- Read Relevant Books Only
- Read Multiple Books Simultaneously
- Retain the Knowledge
20 things which will make you more productive
In this book, you will discover 20 practical principles and habits that can help you become more productive, focused, and effective in both your personal and professional life. These actionable ideas are designed to help you manage your time better, eliminate distractions, build stronger habits, and consistently achieve your goals. By applying these principles, you can work smarter, accomplish more in less time, and make meaningful progress every day.
- Always cut to the chase.
- Record all your thoughts and ideas.
- Learn to say “No”.
- Take a 5-minute break every 30 to 45 minutes.
- Eliminate everything that distracts you.
- Keep clutter away.
- Focus on one thing at a time.
- Stop consuming so much information.
- Create routines.
- Don’t multitask.
- Check your email only twice a day.
- Stay away from your smartphone during the first hour of your day.
- Plan the next day in advance.
- Keep overthinking to a minimum.
- Exercise regularly.
- Laugh a little.
- Avoid unnecessary meetings.
- Ask yourself, “Is this really necessary?”
- If you’re having a bad day, press reset and start again.
- Do the work.
Why time off is important in work
We often take pride in staying busy and working hard, especially when we enjoy what we do. However, taking time off is just as important as the work itself. In Do It Today, Darius Foroux explains that rest is not a waste of time but a necessary part of maintaining high performance and long-term productivity. Constant work without adequate breaks can lead to burnout, reduced focus, and lower-quality results. The book emphasizes that taking regular breaks allows the mind and body to recover, recharge, and perform at their best. Research shows that periods of rest can improve concentration, creativity, decision-making, and overall well-being. If you want to be more productive, working harder is not always the answer. Sometimes, the most effective thing you can do is step away, rest, and return with renewed energy and focus.
- You can evaluate whether you focused on the right things.
- You get time to process your ideas.
- You can consume more art and creative content.
- You can focus on other important aspects of life that are not work-related.
- Resting can become boring, which motivates you to return to meaningful work.
Don’t Know Your Ikigai Yet? Improve These 7 Universal Skills While You Discover It
We all work hard, but life is often unpredictable. Sometimes, we see friends, classmates, or colleagues who started their careers alongside us achieve greater success, and it can leave us feeling frustrated or uncertain about our own path. Most of us want to discover our true purpose and understand what we are meant to do in life. In Japanese culture, this sense of purpose is known as Ikigai – the reason you get up every morning. However, finding your Ikigai is not always easy, and many people spend years searching for it. In Do It Today, Darius Foroux suggests that rather than obsessing over finding your life’s purpose, you should focus on continuously improving yourself. His advice is simple: until you discover your Ikigai, work on developing the seven universal skills that are valuable in every profession and area of life. By strengthening these skills, you become more capable, adaptable, and prepared for future opportunities, regardless of the path you eventually choose.
- Self Discipline
- Personal Effectiveness
- Communication
- Negotiation
- Persuasion
- Physical Strenght and Stamina
- Flexibility
Don’t Compete, Create
One of the key messages in this book is that we are not meant to spend our lives competing with others; we are meant to create, grow, and contribute. The author encourages readers to move away from a competition-driven mindset and focus instead on creating value through their unique skills, ideas, and efforts. From an early age, many of us are taught that life is a competition, whether for jobs, promotions, money, or recognition. We often believe that another person’s success reduces our own chances of succeeding. This way of thinking creates a sense of scarcity and unnecessary pressure. Darius Foroux challenges this belief by promoting an abundance mindset. He argues that opportunities are not limited and that success is not a finite resource. Rather than comparing yourself with others or trying to take something away from them, focus on improving yourself, developing your talents, and creating something meaningful. When you shift from competition to creation, you become more innovative, confident, and fulfilled. Instead of worrying about what others are doing, you invest your energy in building your own path and making a positive impact. This mindset not only reduces stress and frustration but also opens the door to greater personal and professional growth.
Sticks to the Basics
One of the biggest mistakes we can make is neglecting the fundamentals of our profession or craft. Whether you are a professional, athlete, entrepreneur, student, or friend, long-term success is built on a strong foundation. When we ignore the basics, consistency becomes difficult, and our performance eventually suffers. The book emphasizes that true mastery comes from repetition. No one reaches the highest level in any field without first mastering the fundamentals. The most successful people continue to practice the basics even after achieving expertise because they understand that excellence is built on doing simple things exceptionally well, over and over again. The author’s advice is straightforward: identify the core skills and principles that matter most in your field and practice them consistently. Stay humble, keep learning, and never assume you are too advanced for the basics. At the same time, be careful about what you repeatedly expose yourself to. Repeating ineffective habits, negative behavior, or poor practices only reinforces them. Likewise, seek guidance from people who have achieved meaningful results themselves. Learning from proven experience can save years of trial and error and help you focus on what truly works. In short, master the fundamentals, practice them relentlessly, and keep improving one step at a time.
Conclusion
Do It Today by Darius Foroux is a highly practical book for anyone struggling with procrastination and productivity. The author explains why we delay important tasks and provides simple, actionable strategies to overcome this habit. One of the book’s key lessons is that procrastination often stems from doing work that lacks meaning or purpose. This is where the concept of Ikigai, or finding your reason for being, becomes important. When you discover work that aligns with your interests and values, staying motivated becomes much easier. The book also emphasizes that life is too short to spend on activities that do not bring value or fulfillment. If you want to become more productive, build better habits, and gain greater clarity about your goals, Do It Today is well worth reading. Its practical advice can help you take control of your time and make steady progress toward a more meaningful and purposeful life. The book is available for purchase on amazon.
Disclaimer: I express my own views in this article after reading the book, without intending to offend anyone. I do not sponsor or endorse anyone, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental. The mentioned link is an affiliate link, and purchasing the book through it is a great way to support me if you’d like to read along!
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