What to do when you don't want to do anything

The last two weeks have been “Sales and Marketing” on my Goldman Sachs training programme. It’s a full crash course in how to market your business… from customer segmentation, to value propositions, to sales funnels, to see-think-do journeys, to empathy mapping. It’s a lot, it’s a bit overwhelming and I am yet to be convinced by how valuable it all is. I feel like it takes the heart out of everything (I am a marketing sceptic!). Today was supposed to be dedicated to creating a full marketing dashboard to put into my business plan, and instead I have procrastinated to no end - I am just back from my 3rd trip out with Roger of the day, I’ve made some granola, I watched some Great Pottery Throwdown, and all together done everything in my power to avoid the task at hand. Now it doesn’t help that I am coming off the back of a somewhat wild hen-do at the weekend (I definitely don’t bounce back as easily from wine filled nights anymore) so the combination of feeling a bit lacklustre with a slightly overwhelming task of devising a marketing plan, has resulted in zero activity.

Rather than sit staring at the blank page of my marketing dashboard, I thought I would get tapping away at an article all about what I do when I don’t want to do anything. There is so much advice out there about productivity, and whilst I read every single bit of it, I have never been able to stick to any methods. Early mornings last about 4 days in a row then I need a lie in to recover. Time blocking lasts until about 11am when suddenly I go off-piste, and the day is ruined. I’ve bought books on productivity methods, downloaded productivity apps, listened to productivity podcasts – and none of it has made me invincible to those days when I just want to sit and scroll through videos of dogs. No matter how good ticking something off a list feels, sometimes it’s easier to just move those things on tomorrows to do list instead.

In some respects, I am very fortunate to be self-employed, so that when I really don’t feel in the mood to do something, I don’t have to do it. Likewise, I have no children or people I look after, with the only thing demanding attention being a small fluffy dog. However, on the other hand, the jobs I do have don’t go away. I am the only person who will do it and have a team relying on me for that (something I wrote about here). Future Eppie will be resenting the decisions I made today (particularly when I must present my marketing plan to my mentor in 2 days’ time… eek!).

So, I thought I would share a little run down of the things that help me on days like today because, the reality is, at the end of a day where I have just been scrolling aimlessly on my phone or avoiding jobs, I don’t feel good. Sometimes I only go through the first few steps, and I am back, feeling engaged again, or sometimes I make it the whole down the 7-step plan.