This Ramadan, with limited time to write new pieces, I’m bringing back some of the most loved issues from past years.

Each week, I’ll reshare a carefully chosen piece to help you grow, reset, and realign, whether you’re reading it for the first time or revisiting an old favorite.

This week I'm resharing some ideas on getting hard things done.

Getting hard things done: 3 Ideas to help you get deal with procrastination

Procrastination is something I've struggled with. Especially with hard stuff. It's easy to say be disciplined but it's harder to do it.

Here's 3 ideas I've come across that have helped me understand how to get hard things done.

1. Fixing the Doing Deficit

We don't struggle with a lack of knowledge. We struggle in applying the knowledge.

Anne-Laure Le Cunff, former googler turned neuroscientist and writer calls this the doing deficit.

We fear acting due to: • fear of uncertainty • fear of discomfort • perfectionism

So we don't act.

To get better at something we need to practice deliberately. But if we don't act, we don't improve.

The only way to solve the doing deficit is by doing the work even if it's uncomfortable. It's about finding a way to enjoy the discomfort.

So how can you learn to enjoy the discomfort?

That's where idea 2 comes in...

2. Find a purpose in the doing.

Working without a purpose can feel like a punishment. That's why it can feel so demotivating.

Dostoevsky noticed during his imprisonment the torture that prisoners face when faced with pointless work.

When you do work with purpose, you become invested in the doing.

The process becomes part of the purpose. It becomes the drive that'll get you to the purpose. So you look for ways to realise the purpose faster. Which makes you focus on improving the process.

Instead of seeing the process as work, you now see it as a challenge to overcome. Each attempt at the process is a chance to learn. To improve. To get you closer to the purpose.

Finding purpose in the doing creates a cycle that provides constant motivation to do the doing.

3. Good enough is better than perfect

Stop aiming for perfect results.

Just be good enough, consistently.

Oliver Burkeman has a great analogy for this in his newsletter. He compares our wish to control things in our life to boats.

We think we're navigating a superyacht on smooth waters. But in reality, we're not in a superyacht, we're in a kayak.

But dealing with procrastination isn't sailing in smooth waters.

It's sailing on unpredictable waves.

Each one as unpredictable as the next.

The best we can do in this situation is something good enough to get us moving from one wave to the next.

In the end, getting things done comes down to becoming comfortable with discomfort by finding purpose.

Purpose will help you do something good enough to help you deal with each wave of procrastination, fear and uncertainty that comes your way.

So next time you're stuck, remember: don't wait for perfect conditions.

Start where you are.

Find purpose in the process.

And aim for progress, not perfection.

Pick one task you've been avoiding, and just begin. Good enough is all you need to keep moving.