Stop Planning More. Fix This Instead.
"This time it's going to be different," you tell yourself as you spend time on yet another productivity system while you have a pile of unused planners and apps collecting dust. That dopamine rush of finding a new system is addictive isn't it? But the crash afterward, when it comes time to actually DO the things you planned to do? That sucks. I used to go through this cycle multiple times a year, if not every month.
Watch the video below, or read on for the full transcript.
If you're tired of neurotypical and able-bodied productivity advice, you're in the right place. Hi! I'm Cas Winter. I’m neurodivergent and have been chronically ill since I was 14 years old. I spent over 10 years of my life procrastinating on the things that mattered to me and none of the standard advice helped. I figured it out so you don't have to, and today I want to share with you why you're stuck in this cycle.
Most of us believe that if we just get organized enough, the doing will come naturally. We're taught to believe this in two primary ways:
First, for those who are neurotypical and able-bodied, getting organized often is enough for them to take action, and
Second, organization tools and methods are easy to package and sell, whereas doing tools and methods are not.
Here's the rub: getting organized and taking action are two separate skills, and if you're stuck in the cycle of planning but never doing, you have a problem with task initiation, not organization.
Managing your time is a lot like managing money. There's budgeting (deciding where your money should go, planning it out, allocating it). And then there's actually spending it. Those are two completely separate actions. In the case of money, budgeting requires significantly more skill than spending.
Time works in a similar way. Time blocking, planning, scheduling, building out your calendar, those are budgeting activities. Actually sitting down and doing the task? That's spending your time. Just like with money, time budgeting and time spending, aka task initiation, are two separate actions. Unlike with money, however, time budgeting and time spending both require lots of skill.
After graduating from college and losing the helpful structure it gave me, I floundered.
Every few months I would discover a new productivity system. A new planner. A new app. A new method that was definitely, absolutely going to be the thing that finally worked. And I would go all in. I'd spend money on whatever I needed to set it up properly. I'd spend days, if not a whole week, getting everything perfectly organized. Color coding. Templates. Automations. The whole shebang.
And it would feel amazing. That setup phase gave me this huge dopamine rush. I felt productive. I felt like I was finally making progress, like this time was finally going to be different.
And then the time would come for me to actually do the things I had planned.
And I simply… didn’t do them.
I wanted to do them. I just didn’t.
I felt frozen, trapped in my existing habits and routines. That’s when my shame would rise up to crush me, because I had just spent a week setting this up, I had spent money on it, and I still couldn't make myself do any of it.
I went through this cycle multiple times a year for years. And the reason it kept happening wasn't because I was lazy, or because I hadn't found the right system yet. It was because I had a task initiation problem and I kept trying to solve it with time management tools. I was budgeting obsessively, but never working on my ability to actually spend time.
And if you’re still here, you’re probably in the same boat I was.
If you're neurodivergent or chronically ill, there are three main obstacles that make task initiation, aka spending time, even harder.
First up is executive dysfunction, which comes with not-so-helpful symptoms such as time blindness and the inability to initiate tasks. It can feel like there's endless friction, like there's a "wall of awful" standing between you and everything you want to do. Not only can your body feel frozen, but your mind can feel like it's stuck in buffering mode.
Second are pain and energy fluctuations. A time budget is all well and good when you're feeling fine, but if you scheduled your workout for Tuesday night and when the time rolls around you can barely stand because you're in so much pain or too exhausted, you're likely going to stay on the couch.
And lastly there's perfectionism. Just like with executive dysfunction, perfectionism freezes us in place. We may know exactly what to do and how to do it, we may have all the tools ready at hand, but the doing won't come because we're paralyzed by the idea that what we do might not be good enough. At best it won’t be worth it, and at worst will get us cancelled.
Recognizing which of those obstacles is getting in your way is actually a really meaningful first step, because now you're looking at the right problem.
If you want somewhere to start, I created a free tool called the Anytime Reset. Unlike a traditional planning system, it's designed to be used in the moment on the days when you're overwhelmed, frozen, or can't figure out where to begin. It walks you through getting your priorities straight and actually getting started, all in one sitting. It's not something you set up and come back to. It's a same-day reset. You can grab it for free using the link in the description below.
While organizing and time budgeting are valuable skills to develop, if you’ve tried more productivity systems than you can count, you’re not alone, and you’re not broken.
You’ve been trying to solve the wrong problem, in part because that’s the problem you’ve been sold.
You’re not lazy. You don’t lack willpower.
The tools you’ve tried work… for time budgeting, not task initiation.
When you shift your focus to accommodating your task initiation needs, things start to actually change.
I used to think I wasn’t capable of anything, let alone anything meaningful, and here I am still running a business that I started 8 years ago.
Post-college me would be shocked and impressed.
I promise you are capable of following through on the things you want to do. All you have to do is address the right problem.
So of the three obstacles that tend to make task initiation extra difficult for those who are neurodivergent or chronically ill, which one do you struggle with the most? Executive dysfunction, pain/energy fluctuations, or perfectionism? Let me know in the comments!
I hope you liked this video, but more importantly, I hope you feel seen. You deserve advice made by and for those who are neurodivergent and chronically ill. So don’t forget to subscribe so we can stay connected.
I'll be back in two weeks with another video.
In the meantime, here’s a deep-dive post on executive dysfunction, and here’s a post on one approach to making task initiation easier.
Talk to you soon! Bye.
