178: Taking Messy Action When You Struggle with Motivation

Take the Messy Action

You may have noticed I’ve gone quiet for stretches before, never more than a couple of weeks, but it happens. I don’t batch record. I don’t work from a content calendar. If you listen to other podcasts run by non-ADHD hosts, you’ve probably noticed how consistently their episodes roll out on a predictable schedule. That’s not me, and today, inspired by my own recent stuck stretch, I want to talk about taking messy action instead of waiting for the “right” way to do something.

What the monkey-brained advice sounds like

When I’ve checked in with business coaches and groups about growing this podcast, the advice is consistent: batch record, get on a schedule. Logically, for a monkey brain, that makes complete sense. My inconsistency genuinely does make me less reliable to listeners, my numbers dip during quiet stretches, and it complicates things with sponsors who like to review episodes ahead of time. Meanwhile, my actual process is recording and uploading within minutes of an idea hitting me, editing out heavy breaths and excessive “ums” and “ands,” and that’s about it.

Why I keep doing it my messy way anyway

This podcast, and the business behind it, simply wouldn’t exist if I’d waited to do it according to someone else’s checklist for what a “proper” podcast requires. I would have frozen entirely. The upside of doing it messy is real authenticity: I only hit record when an idea genuinely grabs me, which means nothing here feels forced or fake. I’m willing to trade the polish of consistency for the honesty of only showing up when I actually have something to say.

The proof shows up in the responses I get. I can always tell the difference between a review-swap review and someone who genuinely paused their day to write something because an episode meant something to them. I’ve gotten emails this week from people telling me what finding this podcast meant to them. That kind of result doesn’t show up in a metrics dashboard, and it’s worth more to me than consistent numbers ever could be. If I help even one person stop feeling ashamed of their home or broken because they can’t follow the “correct” way of doing things, the messy action was worth it.

Fish brains can’t see the top of the tree

A monkey brain climbing a tree can look up, count seventeen branches to the top, and know exactly what completion looks like. We’re fish, swimming in twisting, rushing water, often against a current, without a clear view of what’s around the next bend. Any form of forward motion, however messy, is a genuine win when you can’t map out the whole path ahead of time.

Proof this actually works: Madonna’s story

A woman in my free podcast group, Madonna, has been donating items weekly since December 2022, tracked in a running log on her phone. She’s had major surgeries recently and has to rest when her body needs it, so some weeks it’s digital clutter, other weeks paperwork, house goods, or clothing, whatever she’s in front of in that moment. Her running total is in the tens of thousands of items. There are no rules to her counting: a bag of 144 candies counts as 144 things gone, a 500-page stack of paperwork counts as 500 items removed. She doesn’t work room by room or category by category. One fall, she did a scavenger hunt for items in autumn colors. Every round looks different, because she’s never bound herself to a checklist or a specific method. She calls herself the Purging Princess, and she says it feels like purging for peace, an airier, lighter, less stressful home, without ever describing the change in specific, measurable terms.

Your practical, actionable step

Look around right now for one space you’ve been avoiding because you’re not sure you’d tackle it “correctly.” Pull out just one item you’re certain you don’t want anymore. If it’s trash, throw it away. If it’s a donation, put it straight in your car trunk, or start your own weekly donation pickup habit like Madonna’s. It doesn’t need to belong to a category or a specific room. It just needs to be motion, and it’s okay to rest and pick it back up again later.

Until next time, continue to choose joy.