This is Part 2 of my 5-Part Getting Shit Done Series. Today I’m sharing three reasons why to-do lists don’t work for perfectionists (even though we love them) and the simple productivity you can use that makes it easy to say goodbye to overwhelm and follow through with your plans, even when you’re not motivated.
Find the full episode transcript and show notes at samlaurabrown.com/episode511.
Opening Soon: My Productivity Program, Perfectionists Getting Shit Done
If you’re ready to get out of your own way and take consistent action in your business without burning out, you want to join my productivity program for perfectionist entrepreneurs called Perfectionists Getting Shit Done (aka PGSD).
Enrollment is opening soon but only for one week – from Friday 31 January to Friday 7 February 2025. Find out more about the program and join the waitlist today by visiting: samlaurabrown.com/pgsd.
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FULL EPISODE TRANSCRIPT
Introduction
Hi, and welcome to another episode of The Perfectionism Project, a podcast full of perfectionism advice for entrepreneurs. My name is Sam Laura Brown. I help entrepreneurs release their perfectionism handbrake so they can get out of their own way and build a fulfilling and profitable business. I’m the founder of the Perfectionists Getting Shit Done group coaching program, which is otherwise known as PGSD. And for even more perfectionism advice to help you with your business, you can follow me on Instagram @perfectionismproject.
Sam Laura Brown – (The Getting Shit Done Series)
[00:00:29] Okay. A quick little intro, and then we are just getting right into it. So this is part two of my five part series on Getting Shit Done. It is specifically for perfectionist entrepreneurs who want to stop overthinking, procrastinating, being lazy. burning themselves out. If you want to start building momentum in your business and finally have it feel like a real business, then this series is for you.
[00:00:55] So enjoy part two of the getting shit done series and know that my program Perfectionists Getting Shit Done is going to be open for enrollment from the 31st of January. To the 7th of February, one week only. So if you go to the show notes, you’ll be able to see the page to go to join the wait list and get yourself inside once the doors open. Hope you enjoy part two of this series.
Sam Laura Brown – (Start of the episode)
[00:01:19] If you’re a perfectionist, you’re someone who tends to procrastinate. Overthink, burn yourself out.
[00:01:24] You have the all or nothing mindset. You are scared of judgment, including judgment from yourself. That’s the big one. You judge yourself a lot. Then you want to make sure that you have a productivity tool and a productivity strategy that actually takes your perfectionist brain into account and gets it working for you instead of against you.
[00:01:45] So what I want to talk about today is specifically what that looks like. And I want to begin that by talking about what doesn’t work for your perfectionist brain so that you are really clear on what doesn’t work and so that you can stop doing it and stop expecting it to work. And most importantly, this is huge, especially if you feel behind in your business.
[00:02:10] So that you can actually stop shaming yourself for not being more productive. Because if you think you’re the problem and you don’t actually acknowledge it’s the productivity tool that’s the problem, then you are going to be feeling guilty and ashamed that you keep procrastinating and you keep overthinking and you have all these great ideas and all this potential and you’re not doing anything with it.
[00:02:33] But if you’re like, Oh, actually I can see now, I can see now it is not me. It is actually just, I’m not using the right tool for my brain. For example, like if you need a prescription for glasses and you have the wrong prescription, It’s going to be fuzzy. It’s not that you’re the problem. You just have the wrong assistance.
[00:02:55] You have the wrong tool. You just need glasses with the right prescription. So that’s what we want to get you when it comes to productivity. So to do lists, I want to talk about to do lists and how they’re making you unproductive because this was such a big epiphany for me when I realized it, because as a, I mean, I still love a to do list, but I don’t use that as my key productivity tool for the reasons I’m going to be sharing.
[00:03:23] And I didn’t realize that for so long that the to do list was a problem. And so I just kept trying to be more motivated, trying to be more disciplined, trying to be more organized, just like trying to better myself so the to do list could work. So there’s a few key reasons why to do lists don’t actually work for perfectionists, even though they give us so much hope.
[00:03:48] Even though the to do list just really gives us this sense of like, I can finally catch up. Like if I could actually get this all done, I would be on top of everything. Finally, I wouldn’t be so behind. But what happens is a few main problems. with to do lists, especially a lot of people say, for example, like write a to do list of everything you need to get done for the week and then highlight, you know, the top three things you want to do today and then focus on getting them done.
[00:04:17] That doesn’t actually work for perfectionists in terms of having the most productive use of your time. And so I want to share why, why that is because I know I’ve helped so many perfectionists transition from to do lists and I know we love them and it just feels so good to tick it off. So a few reasons why.
[00:04:36] Having a to do list doesn’t actually work for your perfectionist brain. Number one is that when you have a to do list, you can just go hang it. You can write all the things down on your to do list. It’s very optimistic. It’s very wishful. It’s very well intentioned. Like we are not trying to set ourselves up for failure, but you can write all the things and you might know this.
[00:05:03] If you have a long to do list, And then at the beginning of each week, you’re consolidating all the things that didn’t get done from last week onto this week’s to do list. And as the day goes, you might be ticking a few things off, but then you’re adding more and more and more things. And you constantly are creating this reality where you are always, always, always behind.
[00:05:24] You never can actually Get a sense of completion from your to do list, even though it’s satisfying to tick things off. You never get the ultimate satisfaction of actually feeling completion and actually feeling like you are on top of everything that needs to be done. You’re always behind when you have a to do list and you are always over scheduled and giving yourself More evidence and more proof that you aren’t good enough, that you don’t have what it takes, that you’re not a productive person and that maybe you’re not going to be successful in business.
[00:05:55] So the other reason, well, there’s many, but another reason why to do list don’t actually work for perfectionists is because not only can we completely overschedule ourselves with all of the things, but we put a lot of unnecessary shit on that list. And when we do that, We will tend to gravitate towards ticking off the easy, quick things, rather than the bigger tasks that need to get done, the tasks that will actually move the needle.
[00:06:29] So this is why you might find yourself prioritizing doing things like checking email, checking Instagram DMs. checking any kind of stat related to your business, no matter what kind of business you have, checking, checking, checking, checking. And you’re just, Oh, quickly do this five minute thing here, quickly do that 10 minute thing there, quickly do this little thing over here.
[00:06:49] Because what you want to do is create this feeling of like, I have all my loose ends tied up and then I will actually move on to the bigger thing. But the reason you’re procrastinating on the bigger thing is because you’re scared of not doing it perfectly. And because you’ve put so much pressure. On having that thing work because you’ve put it off for so long.
[00:07:05] So for example, a lot of PGSDers they want to have an email list freebie or actually start building their email list. And they’ve put so much pressure on like that will actually help my business or growing their Instagram following. For example, or launching a course or an app or different things like that, there’s so much pressure around it that the fear of not doing it perfectly creates that procrastination when you’re busy with all these different things in a to do list, then you can get to feel busy without having to actually face doing the thing that you’re scared to do.
[00:07:37] And that ultimately long term, even though you might be Feeling productive during the week. Long term, you’re not being productive, i. e. you are not producing results. Productivity is about producing results, not about amount of time spent working. This is why I’m able to work three days per week and have a multiple six figure business and a very small team is because of my ability and the skills that I have learned.
[00:08:07] And I teach them in PGSD to identify what’s actually important and then to actually be able to get myself to follow through on those things. Even if I have fear and resistance around it, I have different tools to help me be less resistant and to also, in some cases, let myself feel resistant and get it done anyway.
[00:08:28] So that’s another reason to do lists don’t work for perfectionists. And one more that I’ll mention, is that to do lists don’t work for perfectionists because you don’t actually get to ultimately work towards or have an understanding of how you’re operating and how you’re working. If you are just working from a to do list all the time, then you don’t actually start to really understand your work rhythms, what time of day you work best.
[00:08:58] You don’t get to really be able to debrief and reflect on your week. You’re just constantly in this whack a mole of trying to get things done, trying to be more motivated, trying to be more disciplined, hoping to finally get ahead. You’re working in the evenings, probably early in the mornings, maybe you have a full time job, maybe you have kids, maybe you’re full time in your business already.
[00:09:18] But you’re just always needing to spend more time working and you’re not even understanding more about how you are working. For example, that you’re not actually getting to really be able to have an insight into how to improve your productivity because you’re just so busy trying to tick off the list.
[00:09:36] So what I want to do is share with you about. what I recommend doing instead of a to do list. And it might be, you don’t use a to do list. It might be you use a a whiteboard, you use a post-it note system, you use your email inbox for your productivity.
[00:09:53] You do something like time blocking in your calendar. And I just wanna present to you a tool I have developed after my own experiences as a perfectionist entrepreneur and coaching so many perfectionist entrepreneurs and really understanding how the perfectionist brain works as well as how results are created and produced in a business and created a tool that won’t trigger all or nothing mindset that won’t make it easier to procrastinate that won’t hide self awareness from you that will actually be a tool that you can use for your productivity. And to be able to longterm develop the best work rhythm for yourself.
[00:10:38] If you’re someone who wants to have a business that supports your lifestyle, you’re not having to work 24/7, this will really help with that as well.
[00:10:45] Okay, so we talked about why perfectionism impacts productivity. At this point, I’m going to assume you identify as a perfectionist or that that might be something that’s going on for you when it comes to your business and productivity.
[00:10:59] So perfectionists need the right tool for their perfectionist brain. That’s what it comes down to. That’s what it’s a simple matter of is aligning the productivity tool with the brain that you have rather than trying to always be more motivated and be more disciplined and just stop being a perfectionist.
[00:11:16] Perfectionism isn’t a problem if you have the right tool to support your brain with it, with that, and to also support you to be less perfectionistic without having to like work so hard on it. So there’s that. And then secondly, we talked about why to do lists don’t actually work for perfectionists, even though we love them.
[00:11:37] So today, what I want to talk with you about is what does work for perfectionists. And this is a productivity tool that I have developed. After studying so many different productivity tools and methods, after I’m a certified life coach, understanding so much about how the brain works and also how perfectionist brains in particular work and bringing it all together, as well as a deep understanding of business and what creates results in business, not just a coaching business like mine, but I coach entrepreneurs across all different industries.
[00:12:13] Not just online businesses, either all different industries, how results are created when you have the understanding of that, like I do, and then you can develop and have the interest in developing a productivity tool that works with that, you want to share it. So that’s what I’m doing. It’s one of the key things I teach in my program perfectionists Getting Shit Done. And we’re opening for enrollment on the 31st of Jan.
[00:12:36] So with that said, what actually works for perfectionists? So I want to talk to you about flexible planning and how this makes it easy to follow through with your plans. Because ultimately, if we want to have a successful business, you need to be able to execute and follow through with your plans.
[00:12:56] There’s no point having an amazing idea If you don’t actually bring that idea to life, or if it takes you 10 years because of procrastination or because of overthinking and because of perfectionism. So we want to have you be able to follow through with your plans. And a lot of perfectionists, we focus on, I need to be more motivated and more disciplined, but actually.
[00:13:18] You just have a planning problem. Your follow through problem is just a planning problem. It was such a relief when I realized this for myself, when I realized, ah, that I wasn’t actually the problem here. That I could actually just plan in a different way. It’s not plan better and not like, I just take the same tools and use them better.
[00:13:41] But what if I actually plan in a way that works for my perfectionist brain? So that’s a key thing to know. Your follow through problem is just a planning problem. So how do you solve the planning problem? The planning problem is solved by flexible planning. This is being able to have flexible structure for your week that supports you to follow through on your needle moving tasks.
[00:14:06] Those are your essential tasks for your business. that are actually tied to the results you want to create, whether that’s having a full time business, whether that’s making your first thousand dollars, your first twenty thousand dollars, your first million dollars. Having a tool that helps you identify what those needle movers are and actually get them done.
[00:14:29] Get lots of clean, guilt free rest, which is very, very, very important for perfectionists. I won’t go into it in this one, maybe in the next one, I’ll talk about clean rest, super important. But you want to have a tool and with flexible planning that you can actually as well adjust your plans as you go. So a lot of perfectionists, if you’ve tried working from a calendar, have tried time blocking where you have blocks of time, like work on website, Emails, lead generation, rest.
[00:15:01] Like you just have these chunks of time throughout the week and then you have like what the rough activity is that you’ll do in that time. Typically when a perfectionist does this kind of strategy, it’s very idealistic. You kind of act like you’re this perfect little robot who doesn’t need to eat or sleep.
[00:15:18] A lot of over scheduling happens. Then you fall off with the plans, or you burn yourself out by following through with them. We fall off with the plans and typically then revert back to something like a to do list where you can just still over schedule yourself, but it’s a lot less noticeable because it’s all in a list versus all being in a calendar.
[00:15:34] So when it comes to having flexible planning, what were you doing? is having structure for the week. So you’re using a digital calendar and you’re not just time blocking or scheduling yourself. You are planning out your week in a way that first of all, honors your commitments. Second. So for example, if you have like calls with different people, um, family things like all of that, that’s in there.
[00:16:00] It acknowledges and honors a need for clean rest, which is time when you’re not working in your business. So that will be in there as well. And then in the remaining time you will solve for, okay, what’s actually most important in your business. In PGSD, we really teach you. We’ve got the needle mover matrix.
[00:16:16] There are tools and trainings and a lot of support to help you identify specifically for your business and the stage of business you’re in, what your needle movers are. So in the time that you have left in the week, you will schedule in your needle movers in a way that you can actually follow through with them in a way you can actually follow through with them.
[00:16:36] This is so important. And you will give yourself buffer time, review your calendar for workability so that you aren’t just going into the week with this wishful thinking. And if you have done something like time blocking or even a to do list, you will know this feeling. Thank you. If you’re a perfectionist, which is when you make a plan and you already know you’re not going to follow it, or maybe you just experienced this with your alarm that you already know you’re not going to wake up at that time.
[00:17:04] And still we’re like, Oh, but I want to be the person who could. So we set ourselves up to fail by not actually making a realistic plan. And so when you are using flexible planning, and I teach a method called power planning, when you are using that and using the simple three steps of power planning to plan out your week, then you’re Make adjustments as you go throughout the week and then review so your power hour little tweaks and weekly review when you are doing that You are able to follow through with your plans Adjust as life happens because life will be life in like if you don’t already know I’m the mom of three Life can life a lot of times life can really be life in You actually need to be able to take that into account when you’re planning and have a way to adjust your plans Versus falling off the wagon.
[00:17:56] My plans are ruined to be able to actually still have that structure and that clarity of I know exactly what I need to do. That’s going to be most impactful for my business I have enough rest to have the courage to do those things. And if life happens, I can adjust and reprioritize if needed. If I don’t have an as much time as before, so that I’m still every single week making progress in my business.
[00:18:24] That is what happens when you’re flexible planning, when you’re using power planning, which is specifically created for perfectionists who are building businesses. Whether it is an e commerce business, whether you’re a photographer, whether you have an agency, no matter what kind of business, this is designed for you and your perfectionist brain.
[00:18:47] Even if you have a lot of disruptions, you have a lot of distractions, you have a lot of uncertainty. That is all taken into account so that you’re never feeling like you don’t know what to do. And so therefore I should be doing something. So I’ll just check email again, but then you see the email and you probably don’t even reply to the email because you don’t have the perfect thing to say, but then you go back and check again.
[00:19:06] Oh, it’s still there. So we want to have you being able to actually follow through with your plans. And this is what took me from being the person who is smart, intelligent. Has a lot of potential and has $0 business revenue to the person who now has made over $2 million in my business. And just like, I can’t even articulate.
[00:19:33] Maybe I should find a past like video. I didn’t even, I wasn’t even on video when I was in like the thick of my perfectionism, and I still am perfectionist by the way, but when I was in the thick of it, especially in terms of productivity. that I definitely didn’t want to be on video. But I just did not believe in myself.
[00:19:54] I believed, you might be like familiar with this, you believe, but you don’t really believe. Like you have so much deep belief in your potential and so much self doubt. And for me, most days of self doubt would win. Just spend five hours editing a Pinterest graphic or writing a blog post and never actually posting it because I originated as a blogger.
[00:20:15] And so to be able to go from working in an accounting job and having my business be the secret side hustle because I was so scared to even mention it to anyone else, to actually being able to have a business that has made multiple millions of dollars. that supports me full time, that has allowed me to have kids and have lots of time with those kids, and I actually get to do the work that I love doing, which is coaching and helping people with exactly this, that that came through, first of all, me solving for my perfectionism and my productivity and me letting go of I should know better.
[00:20:55] I should be able to be productive because I’m smart. Putting that to bed and just being like, actually, I need to figure it out for myself as a perfectionist. And what would that look like? And then me figuring that out for myself and then me sharing it with my one on one clients. And then me sharing it with more and more people and just seeing how effectively it works for perfectionists across the board.
[00:21:16] So that’s what I want to make sure you know about. And I still use power planning. It’s such a grounding tool for me. It is my mindset tool. It is my productivity tool. It is what allows me no matter what’s going on in my life and times I need to have lots of time off or whatever. It just, enables me to be clear on, I know what I’m doing.
[00:21:42] I know where I’m going and I know what I don’t have to do. And I know that when I rest, I don’t have to feel guilty because I know that I can trust myself when the time to work does come, that I will get shit done. So I want to help you to become a perfectionist who is getting shit done. Hence why PGSD is called What it is, Perfectionists Getting Shit Done.
[00:22:03] And it’s all about doing that in a way that doesn’t involve you burning out, putting obscene amounts of pressure on yourself, having to do everything the right way, as we perfectionists can try and force ourselves to do. It is really about A having a tool, a productivity tool, and also in PGSD, we teach you other frameworks as well that are very simple and effective to help you actually overcome the perfectionism that is stopping you from being productive in your business.
[00:22:30] It’s not just like, just remember done is better than perfect. That never, ever resonated or worked with me. Like that just actually wasn’t a strategy to just write it on a post it note. Done is better than perfect. Like I actually needed a proper tool and other mindset tools as well. And practical strategies to help me.
[00:22:48] So we are in the business in PGSD of taking perfectionist entrepreneurs from being overthinking procrastinators. With a lot of potential and smarts, but perfectionism is stopping them from being productive to actually just using productivity tools that work for their perfectionist brain and being able to actually have their business take off.
[00:23:10] And it’s just my favorite thing to witness. So we are opening PGSD on the 31st of Jan for one week only. So the wait list is samlaurabrown.com/PGSD. Go and sign up. It’ll be in the link in my bio. You’ll be able to go there and do that.
Outro
[00:23:26] If you are ready to get out of your own way in your business, I want to invite you inside my productivity program for perfectionist entrepreneurs called Perfectionists Getting Shit Done. We are opening enrollment for one week only from the 31st of January, 2025 to the 7th of February, 2025. To find out more about the program and join the waitlist so you can sign up when doors open, go to samlaurabrown.com/PGSD.