I tend to get overwhelmed when I’m working on a new project. Especially when I think about a large step and don’t know how to do it. This gets me into quite the procrastination loop. Look at my phone, open the fridge, clean up something in my room, stare out the window, look at my phone, browse online stores, make a grocery list, look at my phone.
I’ll do anything to distract myself, and I often find myself standing in a different room not knowing what I’m doing there. It’s so easy to ruminate on a large step of your task. Sometimes it’s an email where I don’t know the best words to type it out right now. Sometimes it’s texting back a friend to tell them I can’t join in the plans. Sometimes it’s cleaning that pair of shoes that have been a little too dirty to wear for the past 5 months. It can also be larger like trying to tackle a big project or launch a website I have been plugging away at.
This rumination causes stress. (The dirty shoes example isn’t that stressful). Putting it off can make it a bigger problem than it is. If I’m putting off a difficult conversation, I will then think of how bad it could go. Same with any scenario where I’m uncomfortable to interact like an interview or public speaking and feel like something is on the line. Spoiler: It almost always goes fine.
But while some things are intimidating to face, the other problem is that it stops me from focusing fully on something else. Since I know it needs to be done, my brain won’t let me turn it off entirely and do something else productive. Therefore I do distracting tasks that don’t require focus: Look at my phone. Stress plus distraction seems to equal more stress.
So it helps if I just do the next thing now. A sentence of that email and then leave it as a draft. Before I have a chance to talk myself out of it just do a little bit and even do it messy. Work on one tiny feature of the website for 5 minutes. Text them back and just be upfront.
I think most people know this to some extent but we all need a reminder now and then. I know I do.
Brent