Have you ever needed to get something done, but found yourself doing something creative, instead, to avoid getting said creative thing done? Yeah, of course you have. You’ll start doing things, like…
- Cleaning the baseboards of your entire home
- Reorganizing your garage
- Going through your old clothes and figuring out what needs to be donated
…just to NOT be productive with the thing you want to do the most.
These creative avoidances lead to us sabotaging success and our overall happiness.
The good news is, though, is that one can use creative avoidance to actually benefit their business!
Here are 2 ways:
Number one: Brainstorm ideas.
When you feel yourself entering this mode of creative avoidance — which we’re all going to feel from time to time as entrepreneurs — start to think about using that creativity to benefit your business. Brainstorm:
- Different opt-in pages
- Premiums and courses
- YouTube video topics
- Instagram post ideas
Bottom line: Use that creativity to fuel content creation.
Number two: Practice avoidance with things that still move the needle in your business.
Let’s say you need to sit down and record a YouTube video, but every time you attempt to film your brain starts to go into creative avoidance. Rather than letting yourself go down the rabbit hole of non-productivity, schedule creative tasks — under the umbrella of the thing you’re trying to avoid — that’ll ensure your growth, like:
- Script future YouTube videos
- Update thumbnails on old videos
- Re-SEO past videos
In other words, use creative avoidance intentionally so that it can still benefit your overall goal. This way, you’re still checking off some of those productivity boxes and, yet, you’re also going to be satisfying your need to avoid the big thing.
Because yes, while sometimes we need to hunker down and really commit to doing that task or eating that frog, there are those times where — for whatever reason — we avoid it. And rather than forcing yourself to just do it (which yes, is helpful from time to time), it’s wise to lean into creative avoidance and use it to your own benefit, as well.
For another great not-so-obvious productivity hack, called intentional boredom, check out the Build Your Tribe episode below:
And don’t forget to subscribe to BYT for weekly episodes dedicated your business growth!
