2153: Leap Before You Look! Four Times When It's Best to Get Started Without Overthinking by Laura Stack of The Productivity Pro on Overcoming Procrastination

[00:00:00] Best Thing That's Ever Happened To You Financially. Go. Easy. Sold my car on Carvana. Amazing offer. Really? I hit 200 on the scratcher. Did the scratcher come to your house and hand you a check? No. How many scratchers did you hit to get that? I hit a button on Carvana.com once. Okay, that's fair. It's like the lottery, except you always win. Not like the lottery at all, actually. Exactly! Inexplicably good. Offers worth bragging about. Sell your car today on Carvana. Pickup fees may apply.

[00:00:30] This episode is brought to you by Accenture. When your advertising operations fall out of sync, everything else follows. Spotify and Accenture are working together to reinvent the rhythm of ad sales, using automation, analytics, and smarter workflows to simplify campaign delivery and access better data across the business. The result? Less time spent on operations, more time connecting brands with the moments and fandoms that matter most. Learn more at Accenture.com slash Spotify.

[00:01:00] This is Optimal Work Daily. Leap before you look. Four times when it's best to get started without overthinking. By Laura Stack of theproductivitypro.com. Quote, Don't let perfection become an excuse for never getting started. End quote. Mary Lou Henner, American actress. Have you ever felt paralyzed when facing a work project or task to the point where you just can't seem to make a decision or get started? This can happen for a

[00:01:30] variety of reasons. You may suffer from perfectionism, from classic overanalysis, or from what I call the tyranny of choice. Sometimes you just have so many options you can't easily choose. And then there's the fable about the donkey between two mangers, who starved to death because the hay in both mangers looked so delicious he couldn't decide which to eat. Animals are too practical to let that happen in real life, but I see similar situations with people all the time. Sometimes I think too much

[00:01:59] talent and intelligence are a curse, especially when I see very smart people consistently overshadowed by those who just pick a direction and get to work. You might think of workers like that as everyday plotters, but you can learn a lot from them. Those darn ducks. The higher you are in the corporate hierarchy, the more people your decisions affect. But regardless of your position, too much meditation without action hurts the whole team, especially when others depend on your output as their input.

[00:02:28] For example, in some software projects, or when your report, book, or manual must go through an editing process before management releases it to users. Such projects tend to be tightly scheduled, meaning you can't spend too much time arranging your ducks before you pull the trigger. Sure, we all want everything to come out right the first time, but some changes are inevitable no matter what you do. Let's look at some cases when it's often best to leap before you look.

[00:02:54] 1. When you know the task so well you can do it in your sleep. If nothing has changed since last time, why waste time making meticulous preparations? Just check to see that the pool still has water in it before you make your dive and get moving. You can fix any minor problems that pop up along the way. 2. When you need to discover what you can do. Experimentation is important in all aspects of life. You may never determine your full capabilities until you've made a few unprepared leaps.

[00:03:23] This is especially important for creative people and innovative companies. Don't rush headlong into a huge project unprepared, but do make small leaps when you're not 100% sure of what the outcome will be to see where and how you land. It's a great way to expand your comfort zone without endangering yourself or your job. 3. When your company or team needs you to make the leap. A friend of a friend who is a military nurse was asked to take on a difficult position because she was the only

[00:03:53] person in the unit who could. Her leadership knew she was very inexperienced for the position, but she had their full support. So she leaped in with both feet. Although it was a difficult job with a steep learning curve, she's glad now she made the decision to go ahead because it was an amazing experience from which she learned so much. And that still influences almost everything she does. In fact, she's including the experience in a book she's writing. If people who depend on you need you to make that leap,

[00:04:21] and they've got your back, make some quick preparations and go. 4. When you need to prove you're good enough. If the consequences of failure seem minimal or your company doesn't harshly punish initiative, take the chance. If you have confidence in yourself, you know you'll be able to get it done, making adjustments and course corrections as you go. When management needs a volunteer for something new, raise your hand. If something important has

[00:04:47] been left undone, just do it. Leaps of faith. As the saying goes, luck happens when preparation meets opportunity. Some opportunities, like trains and SAT tests, are so well-scheduled you can key your preparation to their arrival. But most aren't, which means you can't always take the time to look when an opportunity arrives. Sometimes if you take time for more than a glance, the opportunity passes. If you've maintained your working edge and made a sincere attempt to maximize your ROI,

[00:05:18] then when opportunity knocks, it may be best to make an Olympic leap of faith without looking. Side note, now isn't always the time to make a big leap, but it's probably the time to make a small one. Making yourself or your team just a little better than you were yesterday can add up over time. And before you know it, you've covered leaps and bounds.

[00:05:43] You just listened to the post titled, Leap Before You Look. Four times when it's best to get started without overthinking. By Laura Stack of theproductivitypro.com. Evening. Buyer's remorse. Buy a new car? I'll be moving in. Let's get started. Uh, sorry, I think there's been a mistake. I bought it from Carvana. You what? Yeah, great price. I even have seven days to love it or return it. So there's no... No, no buyer's remorse. More like buyer's rejoice.

[00:06:13] Ugh, I guess I'll let myself out. Congratulations. I mean it. Buyer's rejoice. Buy your car today on Carvana. Limitations and exclusions may apply. See our seven-day return policy at Carvana.com. This episode is brought to you by Accenture. When your advertising operations fall out of sync, everything else follows. Spotify and Accenture are working together to reinvent the rhythm of ad sales.

[00:06:36] Using automation, analytics, and smarter workflows to simplify campaign delivery and access better data across the business. The result? Less time spent on operations. More time connecting brands with the moments and fandoms that matter most. Learn more at Accenture.com slash Spotify. And a big thank you to Laura for again sharing her work with us today. She is an award-winning keynote speaker and best-selling author of eight books. So there is a reason why she calls herself the Productivity Pro.

[00:07:05] Her engaging personality, combined with over 25 years of experience helping organizations achieve results, have made her one of the most sought-after experts and keynote speakers in her field. Laura has been featured in the New York Times, USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, Entrepreneur, and Forbes Magazine, and has been a spokesperson for Microsoft, Danone, 3M, Office Depot, Xerox, and many more. And if that wasn't enough, her client list includes top Fortune 500 companies,

[00:07:32] including Starbucks, Walmart, Bank of America, GM, Wells Fargo, and Time Warner. Plus, government agencies such as the United States Air Force Academy, the Census Bureau, the U.S. Senate, and the IRS. So to learn a lot more from her, please come by theproductivitypro.com. She's got her videos, books, newsletter, store, and blog all there on the site. Again, that's theproductivitypro.com. And that wraps up this episode.

[00:08:00] I do hope you enjoyed it, and thanks so much for being here with me each and every day. And I'll be back again with you tomorrow, where your optimal life awaits.