Everybody stalls
There’s no question about whether you are procrastinating about something. The only question is: what?
Knowledge work creates myriad opportunities for stalling. You can stall about making a salescall, stall about redoing a website, stall about reorganizing your department… the list of areas is so long, it becomes a stall in itself.
But deep down, you already know where you’re stalling. It’s that thing that makes you uncomfortable, probably because it involves doing something you might be held accountable for.
The problem with Google AdSense is that it makes marketers accountable. Unlike Super Bowl ads, you can tell if your Google ads work. And so it’s easy to stall.
The problem with inventing a new product that challenges the status quo is that whoever did it is responsible for whatever happens.
The problem with prioritizing your group’s tasks and publishing the list is that it makes it really clear what you’re on the hook for.
In very tiny, very motivated organizations, new employees are often stunned by how much gets done. That’s because of how hard it is to stall.