While building his second business Alex bought a copy of Your Essential Guide to Cognitive Functions.

The guide gives you ways to improve one cognitive function a day, however, I suggested that Alex pick one cognitive function to work on for 2 weeks. This way he can see real improvement in an important area and not just dabble everywhere.

This suggestion threw Alex off completely.

Until then, every morning, Alex would listen to the next recording and do what it said.
Switching his approach midway left his brain unsure and he ended up doing nothing.
I knew immediately it wasn't just here. Anytime something in the schedule changed or the plan was adjusted Alex had a hard time with it.
Alex shared it was affecting business greatly as running an international business never has perfect schedules.


​We worked together to improve one thinking skill and Alex found himself procrastinating less, getting more done in less time, and feeling calmer internally.

While you are doing any task, you (without even realizing it!) are using your 28 thinking skills.

When the thinking skills you need to use are strong, doing the task happens easily.
If the thinking skill you need to use is weak, doing the task will be a challenge.

The struggle that Alex had, came from a weak thinking skill of having a need to make a plan.

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Having a need to make a plan is not about making the plan.
It's about seeing the need and having the desire to make the plan.
Alex is a perfect example of where it’s not that the thinking skill is non-existent it is simply weaker in more advanced situations.

You see, Alex could make plans when he saw the benefit.
For example, we saw when Alex bought the guide, he right away put in his schedule to listen to the recording and try the exercise.

The challenge came when Alex thought he already had a time slot to do one recording and then the exercise.
Now that he didn’t need to listen to every recording every day, sitting down to the exercise became basically nonexistent.
His brain didn’t see the need to make an updated plan now that things were a bit different, so he fell off track.
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Here are 3 ways we improved Alex’s desire to make a plan even in more advanced situations:

1) I had Alex create a list of times were looking back a plan would have been helpful. Then we looked to see if there were any patterns or situations among that list. This made it easier for Alex’s brain to see what sort of situations need a plan

2) Whenever there was a switch or change of plans, Alex was to use it as a cue to go over his schedule. Sometimes there were no changes to make, but sometimes a slight adjustment would make it easier to follow his plan.

3) Every time Alex made a plan, and it helped with getting results, I had him give himself a round of applause. Yup, just for himself. This reinforced in his brain the benefits of making a plan.

Note: You’ve got to be careful here. I’ve seen many clients fall into the trap of planning and replanning instead of actually doing the work. This is where you need to be aware - do you need to get better at having a desire to make a plan or do you need to get better at doing the work with the plan you have?