I really appreciate the advice to divide and conquer big goals. "Write 30 pages" sounds awful, but "Write 1pg/day this month" - so much more doable and fulfilling.
Paralysis, procrastination closely followed by charging headlong down the rabbit hole 🙂 I know what you mean...
I like your chess analogy. I've a full time day job and frequently feel as if it's spinning plates. Really like your advice of target setting when not on an up. Shall definitely be applying that 🫶
HOW HAVE I NOT THOUGHT OF THIS (re: when/where). Can attest to many spirals from being bottlenecked.
Loved the chess board visual—I used to do this in undergrad when I was devising my schemes to get into grad school. Was very rewarding to visualize the knight taking someone out (aka getting a grant lol)
The When/Then approach is a total win-win. As a task-based checklist robot, I honestly wouldn't function without my Workflowy app, sketchpad, and whiteboard, but those tools usually struggle with things that are "in limbo." I tend to obsess over unfinished tasks when I'm waiting on others, but this feels like the perfect brain hack to give myself permission to pivot to other priorities. Thank you for the tip.
Your posts are always spot-on for me, Devon! I hadn't realized it until you put it to words, but I too have created bare-minimum "quotas" to survive the pursuit of publishing as a stay-at-home mom. No amount of productivity before that ever felt satisfying, and every commitment pulled me down with the same weight. Thanks for your insights!
Thank you for this! The paralysis you describe is certainly real for me. The worst part is not knowing what/which kind of work to do, and whether it will be effective. And yes, the marketing aspects are the most daunting: is "A" better/more effective than "B?" Should I be focusing on "C" which I just read about? Etc.
Your ideas about achievable goals is an excellent (re)grounding principle. I'm definitely going to make use of (steal?) the When/Then column.
I really appreciate the advice to divide and conquer big goals. "Write 30 pages" sounds awful, but "Write 1pg/day this month" - so much more doable and fulfilling.
As a fan of the to-do list and a sufferer of to-do list overwhelm, I found this post so helpful! Thank you for the great ideas.
These are such great ideas, thank you! I especially like the chess one.
I find climbing the mountain more satisfying than the peak.
And good luck with the publicity!!
Paralysis, procrastination closely followed by charging headlong down the rabbit hole 🙂 I know what you mean...
I like your chess analogy. I've a full time day job and frequently feel as if it's spinning plates. Really like your advice of target setting when not on an up. Shall definitely be applying that 🫶
HOW HAVE I NOT THOUGHT OF THIS (re: when/where). Can attest to many spirals from being bottlenecked.
Loved the chess board visual—I used to do this in undergrad when I was devising my schemes to get into grad school. Was very rewarding to visualize the knight taking someone out (aka getting a grant lol)
Gonna read this later today!
The When/Then approach is a total win-win. As a task-based checklist robot, I honestly wouldn't function without my Workflowy app, sketchpad, and whiteboard, but those tools usually struggle with things that are "in limbo." I tend to obsess over unfinished tasks when I'm waiting on others, but this feels like the perfect brain hack to give myself permission to pivot to other priorities. Thank you for the tip.
Your posts are always spot-on for me, Devon! I hadn't realized it until you put it to words, but I too have created bare-minimum "quotas" to survive the pursuit of publishing as a stay-at-home mom. No amount of productivity before that ever felt satisfying, and every commitment pulled me down with the same weight. Thanks for your insights!
Thank you for this! The paralysis you describe is certainly real for me. The worst part is not knowing what/which kind of work to do, and whether it will be effective. And yes, the marketing aspects are the most daunting: is "A" better/more effective than "B?" Should I be focusing on "C" which I just read about? Etc.
Your ideas about achievable goals is an excellent (re)grounding principle. I'm definitely going to make use of (steal?) the When/Then column.
Thanks again,
-Jamie