You’ve established your skeleton: you’re getting at least 7 hours of sleep, drinking water regularly, eating nutritious meals, and moving your body in ways that feel good. You’re ready to start making progress on that manuscript.

You sit down at your computer. You’ve got your water, your gum, your blanket, your tea, your coffee, your notebook, and your favorite pen. You’ve picked the perfect playlist and put on the expensive (but worth it!) noise-cancelling headphones. You’ve turned off your phone and put it in another room. You’ve closed your email and turned off notifications on your computer. You’ve started your time tracker. You take a deep breath and open up Microsoft Word. You start typing. One sentence and then another.

You feel good. You feel creative. You’re in flow state and the words just pouring out of you. The sound of the keyboard clicking away is comforting and melodic. Time and space drifts away. It’s just you and your genius ideas.

But then! A thought pops into your awareness. You forgot to text Joe back about dinner on Saturday night! You should text him back right now. You get out your phone and see a text from your mom. You respond to that, text Joe, and respond to a few more messages. You jump onto the Amazon app to buy the air filter replacement you need.

Ok. Now you’re ready to start. It takes you another 10 minutes to get back into flow state, but you’re ready this time. You write a few more sentences.

But wait! You need to order dog food. Email back the vet. Text the dog sitter. Call the landscaper. Pay the toll bill. Order socks on Amazon. Schedule that dentist appointment. Reschedule that dermatologist appointment.

Constant distractions. The endless chores of life; the to-do list that never ends.

My brain absolutely loves to distract me with procrastivity: procrastinating with productivity. The science behind it makes sense: procrastivity feels good because the tasks usually have a clear end, are easy, and make clear progress. The book Burnout (highly recommend!) explains more behind the science of effort and motivation: if your effort exceeds progress, your brain will naturally just want to give up. But continuously checking easy admin tasks and chores, which take less than an hour, off a to-do list? That’s an easy hit of satisfaction right there. Writing a manuscript that could take years? Not so much.

How do I deal with task avoidance? How do I talk to the voice inside my head that is constantly coming up with reasons I should be doing something else besides that long-term, difficult project? I keep a blank post-it next to my work space with a pen. Anytime I think of a task that needs to be done while I’m engaged in work that involves deep focus, creativity, or flow state, I write the task on the post-it and I tell myself, “I’ll get to that this afternoon.”

Emergencies aside, no matter how urgent the task feels in the moment, I write it down on that little post-it and promise myself I’ll get to it later. I don’t pick up my phone and enter the task into a list or app on my phone because I will inevitably check my texts and go down a rabbit hole for God knows how long. If I’m not able to get to the task that day, I will then export the task into my long-term to do list on my phone or computer. But in the moment, I quickly write it on the post-it and get back to what I was doing.

The point of this is not so that you can be a more productive robot slaving away so that your boss can make more money. The point is so that you can enter into a creative flow state more often and devote time to doing those passion projects you’ve always wanted to do. The goal is to have time for writing without the endless chores and drudgery of everyday life tasks sucking the joy out of your life.

Say it for the people in the back: JUST SAY NO TO CHORES!

And start saying yes to the creative projects that you’ve always wanted to do. Always wanted to learn how to play piano? Write a blog? Finish that book? Collect photographs of dogs? Start a graphic design side hustle? Do that first. The laundry, the dishes, and yes, even the dog, can wait until you’re done with what you’re doing right now. So stop reading this blog and get back to your creative project! Just don’t forget that little blank post-it, which will hold your anxiety for you for the time being.