prokopetz:

The thing about giving yourself permission to half-ass things is that it’s not just a way to ensure something-as-opposed-to-nothing gets done: sometimes it can also be a way to trick yourself into whole-assing things.

I know this ain’t universal, but for me, executive dysfunction often boils down to my brain balking at the number of steps a job nvolves. If a particular job involves, say, five different sub-tasks, my brain will go: “man, I can’t do five things – that’s too many things; this job is impossible” – even if each of those five things is quick and easy by itself.

So what I’ll do is pare it down. I’ll say to myself: “okay, I’ll only do one or two of the things”. It’ll be an extremely half-assed job, but half an ass is better than no ass at all.

Now, here’s the trick: once those two things are done, it’s much easier to say “hey, since I’ve gotten this far, I might as well do the third thing as well – I mean, I’m already here”. And, well, now that I’ve done the third thing, there are only two things left, and I’ve already demonstrated that I can do two things, so what’s my excuse?

Of course, that was the plan all along. The catch is that I can’t go into it intending to do the five things one at a time; five things taken one at a time is still five things, and my brain goes “nope – impossible”. I have to honestly intend to half-ass it, even though I know that once I start the momentum will probably carry me through doing it properly.

And that’s why brains are dumb.