understanding avoidance in your creative process

plus, last call for group journaling on sunday

Photo by Nubelson Fernandes on Unsplash

Let’s talk about task avoidance and creative projects. 

No matter what your writing goals are, telling yourself to ’just do it’ doesn’t always work. 

You may call it procrastination or creative blocks or a lack of discipline. Clients often tell me that when they set aside time to write, they suddenly get the urge to do any + everything else. They suddenly have nothing to say. This is not because of a lack of voice or creative material. It is because of emotional resistance. We can work through creative blocks by seeking deeper self-understanding starting with our inner conflicts and then taking a look at our patterns of behavior.

We can look up all the productivity tips and hacks that we want, but if we don’t address our underlying inner conflicts, they will just keep showing up again and again.

The key to overcoming procrastination is moving from ambivalence to alignment: learning how to get your feelings, thoughts, words, and actions to work together in harmony instead of being in constant contradiction.

Procrastination is a symptom of an emotional inner conflict, so there’s a mindset shift needed to address the source instead of the symptom. (You can explore a path to this mindset shift in my Medium article here where offer a 4-step reflection exercise.)

task avoidance

Even when we do the mindset work, sometimes we still find a block that sits between the intention and the action. Task avoidance refers to a pattern of behavior where an individual actively avoids or postpones completing a task or activity. While it is often associated with neurodivergence, task avoidance can occur for a variety of reasons, including mental health issues like depression and anxiety, as well as uncertainty, perfectionism, overwhelm, or fear of failure.

I began to investigate my issues with task avoidance before I knew what it was called. I just knew that there was an invisible wall between me and my long-term goals. Not just writing goals, life goals too. I wanted to understand why I avoided things that I actually enjoy doing. Why I avoided tasks that were important to me, that improved my mental and physical health in ways that I craved, and still I struggled to initiate them and see them through. I had a creative vision for my life and task avoidance was in my way, which also resulted in shame that only made the vision even more out of reach.

William Dodson, MD developed the ICNU framework to help people with attention disorders to initiate tasks and increase motivation. The premise of the ICNU framework is that we can decrease avoidance if we instill aspects of interest, challenge, novelty, and urgency into our tasks and activities. 

Now that I know task avoidance is a thing and I have the ICNU framework in my toolbox, I feel resourced when I get stuck. As a creative coach, I reference it in working with both neurodivergent and neurotypical clients. When I hear someone say they are struggling to start, continue, or finish a creative project, we have a discussion about mindset and process, not ability.

Here’s some food for thought for how you can leverage these motivators in your creative process. For each one, think about how you can make the concept work for uniquely for you.

Interest

Start every project with clarity around your deeper why. If you're not sure about your why, that’s okay, but keep asking yourself until you get to an answer that feels true. Connect why the task is important to the deeper need, core value, or desire that it’s attached to. This reestablishes the connection between the mundane or uncomfortable task and the more compelling outcome that it facilitates. Try journaling or visualizing for a few minutes about why the task is meaningful to you, what it gives you access to, what it makes possible, etc. 

Challenge

Instead of seeing the task as uncomfortable, complicated, or boring; experiment with making it like a game. Break it down into a list of steps and then break that list down into even smaller steps. Give yourself rewards as you work through the steps. How can you make it fun and playful? Maybe include others with your game. This will increase your motivation even more. Do you thrive on healthy competition? How can you use that? If you're a perfectionist, how can you make the challenge about completion or consistency instead of perfection?

Novelty

If the part of the process you’re avoiding feels boring, experiment with different ways to approach it. Can you change your environment or location? Can you use different tools? How can you make it new and refreshing in some way? Embrace the open-minded, curious mindset of a beginner. 

Urgency

Don’t leave things open-ended. Develop a time-bound schedule and get help from a trusted person or community to hold yourself accountable. Implement light consequences for not meeting your deadlines. Reconnect to your why, and ask yourself, what are the consequences of not taking these steps? What deeper need, core value, or desire are you denying yourself by avoiding this work?

Remember, the answers to your uncertainty are hidden in the work.

If you are seeking support to gain clarity in your creative work or make progress on a specific project, this August through October, I’ll be facilitating a small group coaching cohort for writers and creatives who want to build purpose-driven platforms for their work with their words and stories. If that sounds like you, this offering will be opening very soon. You can sign up here to be notified first.

write with us

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The Practice Session #17: Group Journaling w/ Jolie Doggett on July 21
(paid subscribers can register here | guests can register to drop-in here)

This Sunday, July 21 from 3:30 - 5 pm et, the lovely Jolie Doggett will be sharing more about the benefits of journaling and we’ll work through unique writing prompts to get us thinking about the future! Our future as individuals and the future of the world and humanity. In our journals we’ll be manifesting, goal setting, and getting honest and creative about the legacy we want to leave behind.

Jolie A. Doggett is a writer, editor, reporter, and podcaster based in Raleigh, North Carolina. She produces a weekly newsletter and podcast called Finding the Right Words all about journaling for self expression and self discovery where she shares writing prompts and monthly writing challenges. Jolie also hosts digital writing workshops where she helps people get creative with their inner work. When she’s not writing in her journal, you can find Jolie reading some historical fiction, or spinning around in her local pole dance studio. 

Follow her on instagram @jolie_bean or @findingtherightwords_. Subscribe to her newsletter and podcast on Substack.

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drop in and write with the community this month:

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July 21. The Practice Session #17: Writing the Future w/ guest Jolie Doggett // 3:30 - 5 pm et (free registration for paid subscribers)

July 31. Vulnerability in Personal Storytelling Workshop // 5 - 8 pm et (free registration for paid subscribers)

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