Let’s say you’ve been feeling unproductive for a while. You’re frustrated that your tasks are piling up, bills are left unpaid, and you’re feeling tired all the time. 

When this happens, people keep doing the same things hoping for a different outcome. They think “it’s just temporary” and that “things will get better soon.” 

But when they keep procrastinating and don’t find a way to be productive again, they all of a sudden find themselves out of shape, feeling down, and stuck at their careers.

In behavioral research, there’s a concept called “Optimism Bias” that explains why we keep doing the same things. It’s the false belief that negative outcomes will probably not happen to us. We assume being unproductive has no negative consequences. 

I was recently talking to one of my students who took my course on productivity and overcoming procrastination.

She mentioned that she wanted to start a blog for 10 years! But she never took any action. And she eventually wanted to give up her goal. “Maybe it’s time to move on,” she said.

I can relate to that because I wanted to write for almost a decade before I actually started. I tried several different things and even tried my hand at writing fiction. But my goals never really materialized.

This is something almost everyone I know can relate to. Maybe you want to build a business, write a book, start a podcast, create an app, build a stock portfolio, but you never actually got around to doing it. Why is that?