There are times when I feel like I can’t move forward because an invisible wall is in the way.
Other times, it’s like a strange program is looping in my head. Or too many things hit at once, and I’ve lost track of what to do next—and how many things I started before getting pulled away from them.
I used to beat myself up mentally and treat that as a character flaw.
Now I have techniques for resetting: dumping ideas out quickly so I can revisit them later, switching to short tasks when I screech to a halt, or changing my physical environment to reorient myself.
AI tools can help too. I can tell one, “Here are the gazillion things I need to do, and I don’t know where to start,” and use the response to get unstuck.
I’ve got Post-its, reminders, to-do lists, and even a poem on my desktop to pull me back into focus.
What works depends on the day and the cause.
But the biggest change has been choosing self-awareness over self-recrimination.