Nothing But The Thing

Humans are bad at confronting uncomfortable things. This is a problem, since that's usually the thing us entrepreneurs need to do first.

Here's a tactic that's been helpful for me and our founders — I call it "Nothing But The Thing."

You likely know what the next bit obstacle for you is - maybe you need to speak with a specific customer who's hard / intimidating to get in touch with and you can't really land on a SOM until you do.

First, build on the Sunday email from a few weeks back - the 15% exercise. If you were 15% more assertive, how would you get in touch with this person? Make a list of the ten things you'd do.

Then, sit down at your computer for a set amount of time. Make this 30 minutes minimum, but less than 90. Uncomfortable stuff gets unrealistic for longer than that.

Start the timer. Now, you have two options:

1. Do one of the things from your 15% list

2. Do nothing.

If you choose #2, you can stare at the ceiling, play with your hands, maybe do some air squats (that's a gray area) - but, you can't do anything else on your computer. No answering emails, no looking at LinkedIn - not even other work. You either do the thing from your 15% list or you sit in silence until the timer dings.

This might seem dumb, but we've had at least 5 entrepreneurs whose businesses fundamentally changed once they adopted this mindset. Nothing But The Thing is powerful, because doing nothing gives us the space to think about how much better off we'd be doing the thing. It's the best distraction tool I've found for confronting uncomfortable but clearly valuable work.

Try it out.