Brian Tracy’s “Do It Now” philosophy is about overcoming procrastination by developing a sense of urgency, programming your subconscious with positive commands, setting clear goals, and acting quickly and consistently to achieve them, transforming thoughts into actions for success. He teaches that this mindset involves mental conditioning through repetition (like saying “Do it now”), focusing on goals, managing your environment, and cultivating a positive self-concept, leading to faster progress and a more fulfilling life.

  • Develop Urgency: Say “Do it now” repeatedly to train your subconscious to act without delay, creating a fast-paced approach to life.
  • Clear Goals and Plans: Define exactly what you want, write it down, and create actionable steps; a goal without a plan is just a wish.
  • Mental Conditioning: Use affirmations and repetition to reprogram your mind, building belief and focusing on possibilities rather than limitations.
  • Focus on Self-Concept: See yourself as capable and successful; acting in line with your ideal self boosts self-esteem and performance.
  • Action and Momentum: Take immediate, small steps towards your goals daily to build confidence and momentum.
  • Positive Environment: Surround yourself with optimistic people and inputs that support your goals.

How to manage your most valuable commodity:

1) Goals: The Core of Time Management

Summary: If you don’t set clear goals for your own life, you’ll end up working toward someone else’s.

Time management begins with goals—the “axle” everything else turns around. The key questions are:

  • Who am I?
  • Where am I going?
  • What do I want to accomplish?

Tracy emphasizes that top performers tend to have clear, specific goals, while most people have vague goals or none at all.

Three major goal areas

  1. Personal & family goals Why you’re here; what you want for yourself and the people you love.
  2. Career/financial/material goals What you want to accomplish in the external world and how you want to contribute.
  3. Self-development goals Your growth and skill-building—often the foundation that makes everything else possible.

Three clarifying questions for discovering what matters

  • If you won $1 million in the lottery, what would you do differently? (Reveals what you want if money/time weren’t constraints.)
  • If you learned you had six months to live, what would change? What would you stop doing? Do more of? Who would you spend time with? (Reveals your true values.)
  • If you knew you could not fail, what “great thing” would you dare to pursue? (Sometimes points to the one big goal you’re meant to chase.)

Non-negotiable rule

  • Goals must be written down. Not just “kept in your head”—write them, rewrite them, refine them. Many highly successful people keep their written goals close at hand.

2) Organized Plans of Action

Summary: Goals give direction—but plans turn goals into results. Action without planning produces stress, wasted time, and frustration.

An organized plan is created by taking a goal and writing out every step required to accomplish it.

You then:

  • list each action required,
  • organize steps in sequence,
  • identify what comes first vs. last,
  • decide what matters most.

Tracy calls goal-setting + planning a “master skill” of success. He argues that continuous planning—day to day—can compress years of progress into far less time, and that this has little to do with intelligence or formal education.

He also frames life simply:

  • You are either working toward your goals, or
  • working toward someone else’s goals.

3) Procrastination: Positive vs. Negative

Summary: Not all procrastination is bad. The key is learning to delay low-value tasks—and act immediately on high-value ones.

Tracy distinguishes:

  • Positive procrastination: delaying low-priority activities that don’t meaningfully contribute to your major goals.
  • Negative procrastination: delaying your most important tasks.

Urgent vs. Important

  • Urgent: feels immediate; demands attention now.
  • Important: has high impact on your future; often not urgent.

He warns that people naturally drift toward the urgent—even when it’s not truly important.

A practical anti-procrastination method: “Do it now”

A technique attributed to W. Clement Stone:

  • Every morning, repeat: “Do it now. Do it now. Do it now.”
  • Use it whenever you feel yourself delaying.

The goal is to condition a sense of urgency—become the kind of person who starts quickly and moves fast.

Break tasks down

To launch faster:

  • Break the task into smaller pieces
  • Do one piece immediately
  • Maintain momentum with “Do it now”

4) The Magic Word: “No”

Summary: Saying “no” protects your time. Without it, other people’s priorities will consume your life.

Tracy calls “No” the most powerful word in time management:

  • Say no to tasks, requests, and obligations that don’t support your most important goals.
  • Use it early and often.

A simple script for handling requests

When someone asks you to join something or take on extra work (especially when it’s optional):

  1. “Let me think about it and get back to you.”
  2. If pressured: “I can’t decide right now. I need to think about it.”
  3. After 24 hours: “I thought about it. I simply don’t have the time, but thank you for thinking of me.”

He highlights that many people don’t value their own time—so they won’t automatically value yours. Protecting it is your responsibility.

5) Batch Your Tasks (Use the Learning Curve)

Summary: Switching between tasks destroys efficiency. Grouping similar tasks creates momentum and speed.

Tracy references the “learning curve” idea:

  • The first time you do a task, it takes longest.
  • Repetition makes you faster—potentially dramatically faster over time.

So:

  • Make all your phone calls at once
  • Do all invoices at once
  • Handle all correspondence together
  • Read/catch up in one block

Most people scatter tasks throughout the day (a bit of this, a bit of that), never benefiting from the learning curve. Batching eliminates that constant reset cost.

6) Delegate: Protect Your Productive Time

Summary: If you do low-value work that others can do, you cap your growth.

A simple delegation test:

  • Estimate your hourly value (or the value of your time).
  • If someone else can do a task for less than your hourly value, delegate it.

Tracy argues that productive time is one of the most valuable resources, and it shouldn’t be consumed by tasks like errands and routine chores if they can be outsourced affordably.

Delegation requires clarity

When delegation fails, Tracy points to the most common cause: unclear instructions.

A clear delegation process:

  1. Think through what you want done—write it down.
  2. Choose the right person for the job.
  3. Make expectations crystal clear (what + when).
  4. Inspect and follow up—don’t assume it’s handled.

He quotes a principle: assumption causes “foul-ups.” The remedy is checking.

7) The ABCDE Method (Prioritize Your List)

Summary: Your list is only useful once it’s prioritized. ABCDE forces decisions.

When you make a list, label items:

  • A: Must do (serious consequences if not done)
  • B: Should do (important, but less critical than A)
  • C: Nice to do (no real consequences)
  • D: Delegate
  • E: Eliminate

Then within your A’s:

  • rank them: A1, A2, A3…
  • start with A1 (your true top priority)

Apply ABCDE to goals and plans

Tracy suggests:

  1. List goals for the next 1–5 years.
  2. ABC them (what matters most).
  3. Rank the A goals (A1, A2, A3).
  4. Take A goals and list the actions needed to achieve them.
  5. ABC the action list, then schedule and execute.

He frames this as a practical “six-step” rhythm:

  • Choose goals → set priorities → choose activities → set priorities again → schedule → implement.

8) Priorities: Vital Few vs. Trivial Many

Summary: Effective people focus on a small number of high-impact actions. Ineffective people stay busy with low-impact tasks.

Tracy leans on the idea of:

  • Vital few (high leverage tasks)
  • Trivial many (low-value distractions)

Ineffective people often choose what’s:

  • easy,
  • fun,
  • familiar,
  • immediately pressing…

…while delaying the tasks that actually drive results.

A grounding question to ask constantly:

  • “Is this the most valuable use of my time right now?”
  • “Is this my highest-payoff activity?”

9) The “Futurity” Test (How to Measure Value)

Summary: The value of a task is largely determined by how much it improves your future.

A practical filter:

  • “What impact will this task have on my future?”

He argues many people spend most of their time dealing with the past (problems, leftovers, complications), while successful people invest more time in future-building opportunities.

Rule of thumb:

  • Important tasks improve the future.
  • Unimportant tasks mainly affect the present (or keep you stuck in the past).

10) Final Takeaways

Summary: Write goals, make plans, set priorities, finish tasks, and move with urgency—every day.

Tracy’s closing chain is essentially:

  1. Goals are the foundation.
  2. Goals must be written.
  3. Convert goals into organized plans.
  4. The key to plans is priorities.
  5. Focus on the most valuable use of time.
  6. Stick with the task until it’s finished—no drifting.
  7. Develop urgency: start fast, move fast, finish fast.
  8. Do something every day that moves you toward your most important goals.

If you want, I can also turn this into a 1-page “cheat sheet” (tight bullets, printable) or a fill-in template you can reuse for future talks/books.