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Doing it

Organization i.e. knowing exactly what to do, is much more important than willpower. Make more concrete goals and more concrete steps.

Lack of willpower is our brain’s way of protecting us from overwork. Don’t force your way through stress.

But one way to do things when you don’t wanna is to let the resistance and “this is so boooring” feelings just wash over you and feel them fully. Both sides of you—the side that wants to do it and the side that don’t—need to feel fully heard & consulted, lest they subconsciously revolt (through guilt or procrastination, respectively).

Both sides of your brain need to be in on the decision and which ever side doesn’t gets its way (i.e. the don’t-er, if you decide to do it, or the doer if you decide to don’t it) need to have gotten the opportunity to feel like “OK, I might not like it but I feel like my points were heard and I see the points of the winning side.”

In addition, there is biological variation in the prefrontal cortex that makes executing on things significantly harder for some people. Which is why organization and concreteness makes a huge difference.