When you hit the wall, look around

We’ve all been there — the task seems unapproachable, you don’t know what to do, you can’t bring yourself to do anything. The most common advice would probably be — just do it, how hard can it be? Push harder, step on it, stop slacking! That’s a weird notion to me, considering you’ve already tried and it didn’t work. Creating more pressure is just creating a toxic work environment (I explore this idea in You decide and you do).

Now that you know you’ve tried and it didn’t work, maybe it’s time to change your approach, take a breather, look around and take a step back.

You’ve already seen my 6 steps of completing a task. It’s likely you’re stuck trying to complete a task. So we’re going to stop doing that and jump back to step 4.

  1. Preparation

    1Setting goals & prioritizing
    4 steps back
  2. 2Discovering motivation
    3 steps back
  3. 3Organizing & planning
    2 steps back
  4. 4Making sure you'll succeed
    1 step back

  5. Work

    5Working (or not) on the taskYou're here

  6. After you're done

    6Recognizing results and getting feedback

1 step back

Ask yourself:

  • Do I know how to complete the task? What’s the next step I need to take?

If yes, then you might need a little help to set up a better working environment, or just prepare yourself a certain way. Look at the tools for step 4:

If no, then this means you just don’t know what exactly you should do and the task looks too large, too complex, too abstract, too scary. No worries, we just keep going.

2 steps back

Ask yourself:

  • Do I actually want this? Do I need it? How did it end up on my to-do list in the first place? What am I getting from it?

If you know the answer, then breaking down a task and better planning is what you need. See tools for step 3:

If you can’t find the answer, then your brain struggles to work on something it perceives as irrelevant or unimportant — too much effort for not much of an outcome. That’s ok, move on to an earlier step.

3 steps back

Ask yourself:

  • Does this task help me move towards my goal?

If yes, then you are looking at discovering motivation and explaining to yourself why this task needs to be done. Check out step 2:

If no, then this task is not what you should be working on at all. Not in this format. You need to rethink it, rewrite it or drop it entirely.

4 steps back, fresh start!

Ok, by now we know there’s definitely something wrong with the task itself, so you can either remove it from your plans completely or work on somehow changing it. You also still need to proceed with your goal, or set up a new one, so here are the tools:

  • Setting goals
  • Deep dive into task types & prioritizationUnfinished
  • Bad tasksUnfinished
  • Are you sure you’re not tired?
  • Meta-analysis and constant iterations
  • You decide and you do