Start the Essay

Start the Essay, avoid hesitation, slay procrastination. Ink pen resting on open pad of paper

‘Start the Essay’ – our metaphor for helping you get unstuck, avoid hesitation and slay procrastination.

When we delay starting a task, launching an idea, delivering a solution, making a decision – we first ask why, what’s stopping us? 

  • Is it fear, perhaps it’s unknown territory, not our skill set?
  • Is it complexity, no easy entry or jump-off point?
  • Perhaps we’re overwhelmed by the magnitude of the task (or the size of our To Do list)
  • Is it de-prioritised, other tasks are more pressing? Or has it been un-prioritised – this can wait…. until when?
  • Is there a lack of clarity, no obvious path or too many variables?
  • How about our ego, is it judgement? Are we worried about what others might think of our output?
  • What about quality? Are we allowing perfection to get in the way of progress?
  • Are we bored? Is it just not shiny enough?
  • Perhaps we are in avoidance mode, our reptilian brain attempting to make life easier for us
  • Is it at the edge of our current capacity – either brain bandwith or ability? Is there an imbalance between challenge and skill – too easy or too hard?

Team Cool have all been there – facing a blank screen, a complex project, or a difficult decision and we’ve all prioritised something else more fun, easier, less time-consuming. Procrastination is a frustrating trait that we all share that leads to pesky feelings of guilt and sometimes regret. But we’ve bridged the gap between hesitation and kick-off with our ‘Start the Essay’ guide. It keeps our motivation high, instills a sense of achievement and helps us slay the day – you’re in Cool Company!

How to ‘Start the Essay’:

  • Find the purpose – work with your mindset, what do you want from this?
  • Find the urgency – where does this sit in your priorities, is it of value?
  • What would you advise someone else to do if they were stalling or stuck?
  • Work backwards – what do you want to end up with?  When?  Can you break it down?
  • Gather enough information to feel confident.  How much do you need to simply start?
  • Find the fun in it. Where are the interesting bits?  What is of personal value?
  • Identify the very first step.  How long will this take?  What will you do when you’ve achieved this?
  • Embrace the ‘good enough’. Acknowledge that you probably won’t achieve perfection at first. But, the learning is ALL in the progress, get on the path!

By starting the essay, you can allow your working memory to settle in. Then your sub-conscious takes over for you by looking for data to remove the complexity and pain. It’s way easier to edit and finesse a skeleton outline than a blank screen with a blinking pixel. A project looks less overwhelming when viewing it from milestone one. A wet, cold and windy run always feels better after the first 5 minutes (mostly!). Starting means ‘you’re in’ and that decision helps you make progress towards finding the sweet spot between challenge and skill, then look who shows up! Welcome to your Flow State!

Start the essay and slay procrastination.  Welcome to the ICC Experience.

#getitdone #starttheessay

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