I talked about executive dysfunction on “Find Your Dream Job”
Mac Prichard had me on an episode of the “Find Your Dream Job” podcast to talk about something that comes up frequently in my practice and almost never in job search advice: what happens when you know what you need to do, and you don't do it.
Listen to the episode here.
Executive dysfunction is a disruption in your brain's ability to plan, organize, and execute tasks. In a job search it looks like a folder of saved postings you never applied to, six months of "upskilling" that never concludes, or an afternoon blocked out for applications that somehow becomes cleaning the garage. Everyone procrastinates. What I pay attention to is the pattern that keeps repeating, month after month, on the task that matters most.
Mac and I covered three things you can do about it: lower the stakes, build structure, and sit with the discomfort. That last one is what people seem to actually avoid the most.
Let yourself feel the ick
Feel the heck out of it. Every time you sit down to work on your resume and bounce off it, you add a brick to what the ADHD coach Brendan Mahan calls the “wall of awful”. Updating a resume is maybe two focused hours of work. The wall in front of it can be years tall.
You might feel it as a physical thing. That pit-of-the-stomach I would rather do literally anything else. The usual advice is to ignore it and power through. That doesn't work. It isn't a willpower problem. Avoiding pain is a rational thing for a brain to do. If the dread is sitting right there and you're pretending it isn't, part of you is still scanning for the exit, and the exit is anything else that can make you feel busy. Especially if it lets you feel too busy to do the job hunt work!
So try the opposite. Acknowledge it, out loud if you can: “I really hate this. I would rather do anything else. And I'm going to do it anyway.” Feelings run their course if you let them. You stop fighting on two fronts and get to spend what's left on the actual work.
You'll still hate it. But you'll be doing it while you hate it, which is the entire goal. If you figure out a way to make this stuff fun, let me know. We’ll get rich together.
The other piece I keep coming back to: the meta-work is real work. Planning your search deserves a place on your calendar like anything else.
Listen to the full conversation on Mac's List. There's a transcript, too, if that's easier.
