How to Trick Yourself to “Just Do It”
Every year for the past few years I’ve tried to do NaNoWriMo. I’ve told myself, “November will be the month I finally make progress on a novel.” But here I am, years later, with no novel to show for it.
Until this year! This year, someone came along and gave me just what I needed. They fixed the gaps in my knowledge, shored up my confidence, and gave me motivation for weeks. And it was so simple! They only had to tell me, “Just Do It,” and not a moment later it was done.
I’m kidding, of course.
The most charitable version of “Just Do It” is, “you already know everything you need to know and have everything you need to have, take the last step.” The more absurd version of “Just Do It” that I often hear used is, “just flounder around until something happens.” If “Just Do It” worked, the self-help industry wouldn’t be worth billions of dollars a year. And, I’d have a book. So why doesn’t it work, what’s missing?
Breaking It Down
Hammer time.
Anyone who gives you advice assumes that they understand two things: they assume that they understand you well enough to know what you need, and they assume that they understand what you’re doing well enough to comment on it.
When their advice is “Just Do It,” they assume one more thing: they assume that what you need most is a push. I’ve been told to “Just Do It” lots of times in my life and I could probably count on my hands the number of times that the person giving me that advice actually did understand me, what I was doing, and what I needed. If they had taken the time to understand those three things, I wonder how often they would have chosen different advice to give. Pressure can be useful selectively but it’s used far too often.
What I’m really looking for is “Just Do That”. I want to know what I’m missing and the next piece that I can handle. This takes an expert understanding of what you’re doing and an expert understanding of yourself. Lucky for you, you’re already making good progress on at least one of those two things. You might not be an expert in the activity you’re trying to succeed at and you might not have access an expert who knows you well, but you can find the steps between a Task you know how to do and a Task that seems impossible.
How do you “Just Do” an intimidating Task? You spend a bit of time Planning. By Planning, I mean breaking that intimidating Task down into Prerequisites, which are simpler Tasks that help you to finish some other Task that you care more about, but are not themselves the end goal.
A good Prerequisite is something that you can look at and say, “I think I know how to do that.” It should directly support the goal you’re trying to reach, which is to finish a specific Task. Just like how Key Results help you achieve an Objective, a Prerequisite helps you achieve a Task.
How To Plan
Failing to plan isn’t a kind of planning.
To start Planning, think of a Task you want to do but aren’t sure where to start with or are intimidated by. Use the following ideas to find Prerequisites that will make it as easy as possible to finish that Task.
- List out anything that you require to perform the Task, like materials. Turn acquiring these materials into one or more Prerequisites. If you want to play the piano, make sure you have a piano.
- List out any skills that help you to perform the Task, like drills. Turn practicing these skills into one or more Prerequisites. If you want to play the piano, practice your scales.
- List out any parts of the Task that can be done in isolation, like steps. Turn completing these parts into one or more Prerequisites. If you want to play the piano, play one section of a song at a time.
Planning takes Tasks and makes them finishable one piece at a time. If one of your Prerequisites doesn’t seem simple enough, repeat this process to break down the Prerequisite. Then do your Prerequisites!
A Balancing Act
Admiral Ackbar was right.
Prerequisites are helpful. You could repeatedly attempt a difficult Task until you succeed, but until you’re familiar enough with the Task to break it down implicitly, it will be difficult to correct mistakes as you go. When a writer tells you to “Just Write,” they are hoping that you know enough about stories that you’ll include all the necessary parts without having to be deliberate. But there’s a very good reason that pilots use checklists for everything no matter how many times they fly.
Prerequisites are also a trap. Just like a two-year-old asking “why?”, you can get stuck in prerequisite-land forever. If you want to do a handstand you should strengthen your wrists, but you need more than your wrists to do a handstand. It’s important to get back to the primary Task. The only way out is honesty: What’s doable for you? What’s so daunting that you’ll procrastinate?
This is the real trick: Don’t settle for a Task that’s discouraging or complicated, and don’t settle for a Prerequisite that’s distracting or doesn’t bring you closer to your goal. When you break Tasks down, aim for the “manageable middle.” Your Task should require nothing except what you have on hand — e.g. getting the necessary tools to complete a Task is a Prerequisite — and when you start your Task you should not need to become a different person in the middle of doing it.
If you want to write a story, you should spend a little time figuring out what the story is going to be about. But the time you spend thinking about the story is time you spend not writing the story. It’s a difficult compromise that only being honest with yourself can keep under control.
“That was easy”
Now accepting all unsolicited advice.
At some point when you break things down, “Just Do It” becomes “Just Do That,” and when it does you should strike while the iron is hot. Either do it now while your motivation is high from finding the right Task, or schedule a time later when you know you can handle it. When you know what to do and how to do it, pick a time and a place to do it.
Don’t believe you can continue Planning until a finished Task falls out. It would be amazing if I could just keep outlining a book until it was finished. But no one reads outlines. At some point you will need to take your plan, your outline, and act on it to fill in the blanks with a completely different style of writing. Planning and doing Prerequisites will never take the place of doing what you wanted to do.
Sometimes it really does help to try and take the next step even when you have no idea what it is. Sometimes repeated failure is the best teacher, and you’ll find the steps you’re looking for by accident. Other times you’ll want to spend some time researching, maybe by reading a book or by listening to interviews with experts. No matter what approach you choose, choose an approach. If you don’t know what to do next, try your hardest to find the next step.
Don’t tell yourself that you’re a failure because you expected too much of yourself. It’s easy to get discouraged if you can’t complete the big Task that you started with right away. Each Prerequisite for the big Task is almost as important as the big Task itself and you should feel satisfied for accomplishing them too. Acknowledge that each step is worth it because it takes you closer to your goal.
TL;DR
Pick a difficult or stressful Task. List out the materials you need to do the Task, the drills that make you better at the Task, and each step that you can take to complete the Task one simple piece at a time. These three things are your Prerequisites. If a Prerequisite doesn’t seem doable, break it down as well. Then, pick a time and place to do each Prerequisite and be honest with your progress towards the original Task.
To get something done, spend just the right amount of time breaking it into pieces that make you say, “That’s easy.”
Your turn: What’s one task you wish could break down into easier parts? Leave your responses below!
