Technocrastination
I reckon there are four main methods of self sabotage that we solo pro’s employ against ourselves.
I (rather over-dramatically) call them The Four Horsemen of the Solo Pro Productivity Apocalypse.
The original four horsemen of the regular ol’ apocalypse are War, Famine, Pestilence and Death. I reckon each of them has an analog with one of the main ways we waste our time and get in our own way.
They are:
💻 Technocrastination (we’re at War with our tech)
💸 Salesphobia (we go from feast to Famine in sales)
✨ Perfectionism (our unrealistic standards lead to a creative Pestilence)
🥸 Imposter Syndrome (our lack of self belief is the Death of our business)
Let’s talk a bit about the first problem: technocrastination.
In his wonderful book Sapiens, Yuval Harari provocatively asks whether humans domesticated wheat, or if wheat domesticated humans. He wonders who is really serving who, given that wheat is inarguably one of the most successful species on the planet, and yet humans have done almost all the work to make it so.
Similarly, I think it might be wise to ask whether tech companies are providing us with tools, or if we are the tools of the tech companies? We might think or hope we’re going to get value from their platforms and tools, but often they’re just a source of near-infinite time wasting.
Please understand, it’s definitely not that I’m anti-tech.
I’d hate to try to run my business without the support of a few good tech platforms (and I’m happy to share them one day if you’re interested), but I’ve seen too many incredibly talented people waste too much incredibly valuable time on technology implementations that end up going nowhere.
I’ve seen solo pro’s go from failed tech solution to failed tech solution, constantly seeking some digital panacea without ever stopping to see more obvious, straightforward solutions.
I’ve seen solo pro’s migrate from one CRM platform to another, and then to another, trying to find the ideal process for nurturing their clients. Never considering that if they simply picked up the phone and actively nurtured a few of them, that might be a more effective strategy.
It’s technocrastination.
I’ve seen solo pro’s try TweetDeck, and Hypefury, and every other social media scheduling tool under the sun, never considering that if they simply opened LinkedIn/Facebook/Twitter/whatever and typed their thoughts directly in and shared it right now, that might be a more effective strategy.
It’s technocrastination.
Worried that might be you?
If you’re wondering how to decide what tech solutions to pursue and which to let go, I reckon this is a good heuristic to follow:
If a prospective tool was going to be HALF as effective or valuable as you expected, and take TEN TIMES as long to implement, would you still do it?
If you’d still be happy after it took ten times longer than you thought, and it ended up half as valuable, then do it. If not, find something simpler.
The better strategy is often the really, really obvious one that you can do right now with absolutely no preparation or investment whatsoever.
PS - You should really come to the webcast on October the 5th. I'd love to see you there.