You're Not Procrastinating, You're Just Stuck (And You Can Fix It!) With Executive Function Coach Sarah Lovell
Point Of The Story
Supportive Accountability and Visual Timers
Lovell recommends supportive accountability, body doubling, visual timers, and normalizing discomfort to start tasks.
Picture yourself at a coffee shop. Noise-canceling headphones in. Oat milk latte secured. You opened the laptop, you pulled up the thing you need to do, you have the document right there — and then you spent 25 minutes reading the Wikipedia page for a movie you saw in 2014.
This is not a hypothetical. This is just a typical Tuesday in the life of someone who struggles with executive function skills.
And if this is you, I want you to know that you are not broken, lazy, or uniquely, specially bad at being a human. You are stuck. And being stuck is not the same as procrastinating, even though we've been using those words interchangeably our whole lives like they mean the same thing!
In this episode, executive function coach Sarah Lovell breaks down what's really happening when you can't get yourself to start the thing — and it is not what you think. We get into perfectionism as avoidance, decision fatigue, why "eat the frog" is objectively terrible advice for ADHD brains, and the concept of a "healthy time crunch" that I have already started implementing and am absolutely going to be talking about forever.
TOPICS & TANGENTS
— We define executive function, obviously
— The difference between procrastinating and being stuck
— Why "name it to tame it" is legitimate science
— The iceberg underneath why you can't start something you actually want to do
— Decision fatigue, demand avoidance, and why Steve Jobs wore the same outfit every day
— The 2009 DJ Earworm mashup that is not on Spotify
— "Eat the frog" is a scam
— How to create urgency when you have no deadlines
— Matching your task to your energy type — Buy the planner even if you only use it for two weeks
POINT OF THE STORY
Stop trying to squeeze yourself into tools and strategies that weren't made for you, and start asking: what actually works for how I'm wired?
Love you, mean it. 🖤
SARAH LINKS
— Follow Sarah on Instagram and Threads
— Check out her website
— Learn about her 1:1 coaching and group coaching
— Grab her freebie, The ADHD Action Plan
— Tune in to her podcast, From Stuck to Started
— Her walkout song
BTL LINKS
— All of my website copy resources: betweenthelinescopy.com/web-copy
— All of my email marketing resources: betweenthelinescopy.com/email-marketing
— Take my website copywriting course: betweenthelinescopy.com/sprint
— Sponsor this podcast (or my newsletter!): betweenthelinescopy.com/sponsorships
— Follow me on Instagram at instagram.com/btlcopy OR instagram.com/capecodcierge
— Subscribe to my marketing newsletter at www.betweenthelinescopy.com/subscribe
— Subscribe to my ADHD newsletter at bysarajoelle.substack.com
— Subscribe to my copywriter-only newsletter at btlcopy.myflodesk.com/open-loop
— Subscribe to my designer-only newsletter at btlcopy.myflodesk.com/for-designers
— Check out my website at www.betweenthelinescopy.com
OTHER LINKS
— Past episode: How to Keep Promises to Yourself (Even With ADHD)
This episode was edited by Adrienne Cruz.
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