Angela Gargano (00:00)
Hey there and welcome back to What If It All Goes Right? The podcast where we dive into the little ships in perspective that can lead to big changes in your life. I'm your host, Angela Gargano, and today's episode is all about that thing you're dreading doing. You know, the one thing that you've been putting off because it feels like it's gonna take forever. It's gonna drain all your energy or.
Maybe because for some reason it's too overwhelming. Just maybe it's like mentally, but if you know, you know. But here's what I've realized. Most of the time, it doesn't actually take as long as we think. Whether it's getting to the gym, tackling that work project, or even celebrating cleaning out your closet, when you're really breaking it down, these things aren't as time consuming as we might make them out to be.
in our heads. So today I want to dive into how shifting your perspective on time can help you stop stalling and start showing up. So let's get into it.
Ooh, here we are. We're in the time myth. The time myth where things feel like it's gonna take longer and things are gonna be feel bigger than it actually is.
Let's talk about, I had this thought today when I was going to the gym and I want to preface, I didn't really want to go to the gym today. I was dreading going because I was in a role with my work stuff here. I like to sit on my floor, I have a little like floor desk and things and I was like, oh, it'd be so much easier to just like sit here and just keep working because I'm in my groove, I'm feeling it, I don't want to mess it up. But I promised myself this year that I'm gonna keep the promise that I made to myself.
and promised myself I would go to the gym. So even though I was late, I made it there. But after being there, getting my workouts done, took about an hour, I started to think to myself, it's only an hour. And if anything, you don't even need to go for an hour. Like you can go for like way less than that. And then I was like, wait, I'm dreading this thing that's really not taking up much of my life. I'm only doing this like three days a week. So.
Let's talk about the working out for the example. So a lot of people think they need to spend hours at the gym every day to see the result, but the truth is you can work out for 30, 45 minutes, three to four times a week and see incredible changes. So I just wanna break down for you to really put perspective on what a fraction of the week it really is, okay? So four workouts a week at 45 minutes is just three hours.
4 workouts a week, 45 minutes is 3 hours a week and there are 168 hours in a week. So that is literally just 3 hours out of 168 and when you put it into perspective it's literally nothing. But in our heads we like build up this whole drama around it like about this being this massive time commitment and you know it really makes us stall. It's really not that bad.
If you really look at like how long it's actually gonna take you. So why are we stalling? Why do we stall? Why do we keep putting off these things that don't actually take that much time? And for me, it often comes down to overthinking. I was still telling myself, I don't have the time right now or I'm too tired or I'll just do it later. Or like I said, I'm sitting here in my work project, I don't have time to like get up for my work project. I gotta keep working on it. But when I started asking myself, why am I really putting this off? The answer was usually one of two things. I was making it seem way bigger.
in my head than it actually was. I wasn't connecting the task to the bigger picture of how it literally improves your life. And once I shifted my mindset and started looking at the actual time commitment and how literally little it is compared to the total hours that I have in my week, it completely really changed how I showed up. And it also changed how I thought about a lot of other tasks that I'm just kind of like dreading, which is not that bad. So here's something else to think about.
Where is your time actually going? And let's get honest for a second. How many hours a week are you actually scrolling on your phone? How much time do you spend binge watching a show? How often do you procrastinate by doing random things that literally don't even matter? And when I started tracking my time, I realized I was spending way more time than I thought on things that didn't actually align with my goals. And guess what? That extra time could have easily gone towards things I said I didn't have time for, like working out, like
meal prepping or even just taking a break to literally reset my mind to get my mind right so that I could show up and be better for later. So here's a quick exercise that really helps me and think about that thing you've been putting off. Break it down into how much time it actually takes and compare it to the 160 hours you have in your week. And let's say you're putting off a 30 minute workout. 30 minutes is 0.3 % of your week.
Let's say that again.
Let's say you're putting up a 30 minute workout. 30 minutes is 0.3 % of your week, 0.3. When you frame it like that, I feel so much more doable, right? And here's the thing, that 30 minutes of effort will drastically improve your life. It's tiny investment of time for a huge return. So how do we stop stalling and showing up? Like, it's great to say all these things and like having that concept, like how do you actually do this?
And so here's some stuff that worked for me that might work for you. So number one, getting really clear on my why. I talk about this in other podcasts. It always comes up because it's so important. Why is this task important? How will improve your life? Connect to the bigger goal or value to make it meaningful. For example, working out isn't just about looking good. It's about feeling strong, energized, and confident. Also for me, speaking stuff, I know I have the time to sit down for.
Maybe three hours a week, probably more than that, to work on my stuff for my keynotes and do more outreach. Because I'm excited to do more talks and stuff like that. But I keep putting it off as this most exhausting thing. I'm like, it's going to be exhausting. It's like, really, is it that exhausting? You can sit down, Angela, and do that. It's not going to be that bad. Break it down. If the task feels overwhelming, break it into smaller manageable things. Instead of saying, I need to work out every day, say, I'll just do 30-minute workout today. That's it.
It's really breaking out into those micro things, those micro wins, so you can actually show up and make this a reality for you. Setting a timer. So sometimes all you needed to do is a little structure. So set a timer for 10 to 15 minutes and commit to starting. Often once you start, you keep going. This happens with the workout, this happens with work. I had this little block, where is it? It's somewhere. This little block Pomodoro timer, which if you've never done that before, it's like doing 25 minutes of focus work and then five minutes off.
And you literally put the timer on, you put the task that you're working on, you just work on that task. Like phones off, everything like that. You go all in on it. There's something about that structure that works really, really well in order to help you get things done. And track your time. Take a week and literally just track where your time is actually going. You might be surprised how much extra time you have once you account for distractions. I remember I had a day where, and as I'm going to list, actually in an entrepreneur group, I was in this as well. He's like, let's just track our time. Like just have a sheet in your track, literally exactly the task, how long it took you.
And then next to it being like, I actually need to do that? Or where do I actually move the needle? A lot of times you'll be able to see exactly where your bottlenecks are if you track it for a couple of days. That's with anything. Focus on progress, not perfection. This comes up on pretty much every podcast. You don't have to do everything perfectly to see results. Just show up. Even if it's imperfectly, it's better than not showing up at all, right? So here's what I've learned. The hardest part is starting. So once you take the first...
step, you're going to start to build momentum. The momentum makes it easier to keep going. And when you start overthinking, stop stalling and just start, you realize that most of the things you were dreading are literally not that hard or time consuming after all. And the rewards, whether it be feeling stronger, being more productive, or just having more peace of mind are literally so worth it. So here's my challenge to you.
Think about one thing you've been putting off and I want you to break it down into how much time it actually takes and compare it to that 160 hours you have in your week and just start. You'll be amazed at how much you can accomplish when you start stalling and start showing up. So, is this episode with you? I want you to share it with someone who might need a little perspective shift and as always keep asking yourself, what if it all goes right? What if it is already going right?
