Normally when I need to do something and the meds aren't doing their job I usually straight up slap myself on the face and yell "**LOCK IN!!!**," which would generally work for at least a little bit - at least until I fall back apart again. But lately I've shifted away from that and asked myself a significantly more helpful question: what's *stopping* me right now? This question is helpful to ask for two reasons. The first is that if I don't have a very good answer, then I can usually reason with my dumb-aah brain into working with me and doing whatever thing I need to do. But more importantly, it's made me realize that there *is* usually a good reason, and in solving it, I can do the thing, too. Finding out these good reasons makes me better able to tackle stuff that I need to get done in the future. I'll give a few examples. Recently I needed to talk to someone about an account issue I was having, and I kept putting it off until I asked myself what was stopping me from doing it. The answers my dumb-aah brain gave me were: - I don't know the phone number - I don't want to engage in a phone call Once I got those answers, I added the phone number as well as a script for me to just read out to the person on the phone when I did the call to the task in my to-do list app. Now nothing's stopping and I can get it done. Another one! A very big project at work. I would give myself a reason to do *anything* else besides it. What was stopping me? According to Dumb-aah Brain, esquire: - I had questions about the project and wasn't sure what to do next - I didn't have a clear plan to act on the project from beginning to end - The idea of critique about the project scared me I won't again get into the nitty-gritty of the solutions, but the point is that I had answers that I can look at and then say, "here's what I can do to get these things out of the way." Now nothing's stopping me and I can get it done. When you ask yourself this question I bet you'll find all sorts of answers that are worth engaging with. Maybe you're hungry. Maybe you're tired. Maybe you hate it. When you ask, you'll be in a better position to figure out what you need to do next. Hope this helps you as much as it's been helping me!