Are You a Pseudo-Productive Procrastinator?
focusproductivityI am. It didn’t hit me until a few years ago. And I still struggle with it.
What is it? It’s when you know what you need to do, but you find all these other avenues for your productivity and pursue them instead of focusing.
“These things will help me reach my goals!” Do you tell yourself this? I know I do. That’s why you spend an hour a day listening to podcasts, intermittently check Twitter and reading threads from the best and brightest, you read all the Medium articles, and you rarely make any tangible progress toward your goal.
Stop trying to optimize something that doesn’t exist yet.
I did it in the past. I still do it today. It’s what prompted this article.
I read about all the best ways to build a business, get early adopters to sign up, build a twitter following, how to sell… But never apply it.
All the things everyone says you NEED to do to start your business/podcast/YouTube channel/etc. You don’t. Unless they apply to preventing injury or legal issues.
Skip them for now.
I believe it all stems from a fear of failure and a fear of producing something imperfect, which in turn is a form of desiring perfection.
"Perfection is the enemy of progress" - Winston Churchill
We try to "learn" as many things about what we are going to do before we try to do it. While this is how we are often taught in school and how many of us prefer to do things, it's often a procrastination trap we stick ourselves in. If we want to create then we are actually better off diving in and creating even if what we create is imperfect. An imperfect creation is better than one that does not exist at all. And we will also never reach perfection, so while it is important to desire to do great work, striving for perfection will often lead us astray.
It's not about settling necessarily as much as it is about learning as you do - learning as you produce. This way, you create and learn at the same time.
You know how people become successful? By doing. Not by reading about doing.
Just. Start. Doing.