You’re Not Lazy — Your Brain Just Gives Terrible Advice
It’s 10:43 a.m.
You’ve made coffee, straightened your desk, opened your laptop…
…and you suddenly remember you need to reorganize your desktop folders from 2017.
Sound familiar?
Welcome to the quiet horror of procrastination — the kind freelancers know all too well.
It’s not because you’re lazy.
It’s because you’ve been betrayed.
Not by your clients… not by your deadlines… but by your own brain.
Your Brain Is a Professional Manipulator
It’s important to understand your brain doesn’t care about your career.
It doesn’t want you to write the email, pitch the client, or finish the homepage copy.
It wants comfort.
And, if comfort means tricking you into alphabetizing your spice rack instead of writing your About page… so be it.
Because your brain isn’t wired for productivity.
It’s wired for survival.
And survival means avoiding risk, uncertainty, and failure — which just happen to be baked into every creative project you’ve ever touched.
Procrastination Isn’t a Personality Flaw — It’s a Nervous System Strategy
There’s a reason you can binge an entire course on branding strategy but somehow can’t seem to open the blank Google Doc titled, “Sales Page V1.”
It’s not that you’re weak.
It’s that your brain is brilliant at avoidance.
Give it a task with potential pain — like writing copy that might be judged — and it’ll respond with a thousand clever lies:
- “You need to research just a bit more first.”
- “Clean workspace, clean mind. Better organize those cables.”
- “It’s not the right time. You’re not in the zone.”
Here’s the kicker:
Your brain doesn’t even care if you miss the deadline… which will obviously result in pain and discomfort.
It only cares that you felt safe in the moment.
It will gladly trade future success for present relief.
Sally’s Lie: “I Just Need to Feel Ready”
My friend Sally is a freelancer with talent, a half-built website, and a Trello board full of ideas.
She told herself she needed to feel ready before she could publish anything.
So, she waited.
And waited.
Until one day she realized that feeling ready isn’t a requirement.
She didn’t need readiness. She needed a starting ritual.
Something frictionless. Non-negotiable. Almost automatic.
She committed to 7-minute “sprint starts” — no expectations, no pressure, just movement.
And slowly, she stopped waiting for permission from her brain to begin.
What No One Tells You About Creative Work — You’ll Almost Never Want to Start
Let’s get uncomfortably honest — shall we?
Most of your best work will start with a groan.
- Your first sentence will suck.
- Your first pitch will feel weird.
- Your first LinkedIn post might get ignored.
Your brain will tell you not to do it… that your work isn’t good enough yet.
But here’s the truth: Your brain isn’t a reliable narrator.
It’s not trying to ruin your life. It’s just trying to save you from the emotional cost of doing something uncertain.
But that doesn’t mean you should let it drive.
Because the thing that makes creative work meaningful — the risk, the vulnerability, the demand for focus — is that “thing” your brain resists the most.
Why the Work Feels So Heavy
It’s not just the task.
It’s the meaning you’ve attached to it.
You’re not writing a blog post.
You’re proving you’re good at this.
You’re not editing a portfolio.
You’re asking the world to judge your value.
Of course that’s terrifying.
Of course you’d rather alphabetize your bookmarks.
But here’s the deal…
The weight doesn’t go away until you move through it.
There’s no shortcut.
There’s only friction — and your willingness to face it.
Ruth’s Reframe: “It’s Not About Discipline — It’s About Design”
Ruth used to beat herself up for being “undisciplined.”
But discipline is a terrible foundation for creative consistency. It’s unreliable. It burns out.
So, she built a design instead… a system she could rely on.
- Her phone now lives in another room until noon.
- Her browser opens to a blank tab, not a newsfeed.
- She has stopped trying to work 8 hours a day and focuses on 90-minute-deep sessions.
What changed? Everything.
Not because she became a productivity ninja.
But because she stopped letting her brain play boss.
Outsmarting the Liar
If your brain is going to lie to you, lie back.
- Tell it you’re just opening the doc — not writing.
- Tell it you’ll write for 3 minutes — not 3 hours.
- Tell it the first draft is supposed to be trash — you’ll delete it anyway.
These small deceptions can bypass the threat response and get you moving before your inner critic wakes up.
And, once you’ve started?
The resistance melts.
The momentum builds.
And suddenly, you’re not procrastinating — you’re creating.
One More Thing
If you’ve been judging yourself for struggling to focus, please stop.
- You’re not broken.
- You’re not lazy.
- You’re not bad at being a writer.
You’re just working with a brain that has evolved to run from discomfort.
And meaningful work?
It’s uncomfortable by nature.
That doesn’t make you a failure.
It makes you a human.
If you want to go deeper — into how to actually break the procrastination loop and rebuild your workday to support consistent action — keep an eye out for Part 2 of this series (for Digital Copywriter members only). Inside we’ll go beyond theory, and I’ll show you how to create your own system.
In the meantime, remember this…
Your work doesn’t have to start out good.
You just have to start!
