You don’t hate working (your workflow is just missing these 3 hacks)
My left eye was twitching.
It was 11 AM, and I was on my 4th coffee... which was now cold.
The task?
Manually copy-pasting 500 lines of data from a PDF, into an Excel sheet, and then into a god-forsaken web form.
One.
By.
One. 🤪
I didn’t just “hate working.”
I was ready to fake my own death, move to a small, undisclosed island, and live out my days as “Pablo the goat-herder.”
I felt like a lazy, unfocused, broken human. 🤦♂️
Sound familiar?
Here’s the good news:
You’re not lazy.
You don’t hate “work.”
You hate friction.
Your workflow—the system you use to do the work—is just... terrible. It’s like trying to drive a car by dragging it with your teeth.
Of course you hate it!
You’re not broken. Your system is.
Let’s fix it.
Hack 1: The ‘Idiot-Proof’ Start
The Problem: You stare at the task.
The task stares back.
It’s a “Big, Scary Task” (BST). Like “Write the Q4 Report” or “Build the new homepage.”
Your brain sees the 8-hour monster, can’t find the “start” button, and nopes right out.
“You know what sounds good?” it whispers. “Let’s go learn about the history of sporks on Wikipedia.” 🤷♂️
The Fix: The 2-Minute ‘Start’ Rule
You’re not allowed to “Write the Q4 Report.”
You are only allowed to work on it for two minutes.
That’s the hack.
Set a timer. 120 seconds.
You don’t have to finish it. You don’t even have to do it well.
You just have to start.
Open the document.
Write one dumb sentence. (”This is the report for Q4. It will be... a report.”)
DING. Timer’s up.
You’re now allowed to quit.
But here’s the magic: 9 times out of 10... you won’t.
The hardest part wasn’t “doing the work.”
The hardest part was starting.
You just tricked your dumb brain over the starting line.
Hack 2: The ‘Context-Switch’ Killer
The Problem: Your brain is a pinball.
You’re trying to write code... DING! (A Slack message).
You’re in the Slack... DING! (A new email).
You’re reading the email... DING! (Your phone).
You’re “multi-tasking.”
...which is a polite word for “doing 5 things terribly all at once.” 😂
This is called “Context Switching.”
Every time you switch, your brain pays a massive mental tax. It has to dump all its RAM and re-load a new program.
By 3 PM, your brain is just a smoking crater.
The Fix: ‘Batch’ Your Brain.
Stop “checking” things.
Start “processing” them.
Email: You don’t “check email” all day. You have one job for 30 minutes: “Be the Email God.” You open it. You destroy it. You close it. It is dead to you until 4 PM.
Slack: You’re not “on Slack.” You are “The Slack Master” for 15 minutes. You answer. You ask. You close.
Work: Then, for 90 minutes, you are “The God-King of Coding” (or “The Spreadsheet Emperor”). You turn everything else off. No Slack. No email. Just... work.
You will get more done in that 90 minutes than you did in the last 3 days.
Hack 3: The ‘Eject Button’
The Problem: Your workday never... ends.
It’s 8 PM. You’re on the couch.
You’re “kinda” watching Netflix...
...while “kinda” checking work emails on your phone...
...while “kinda” feeling guilty that you’re not “kinda” working on that report.
Your brain never gets the “all-clear” signal.
It’s in a 24/7 state of low-grade panic.
And then you wonder why you’re a zombie? 🧟♂️
The Fix: The ‘Shutdown Ritual’
You need an “Eject Button.”
A 5-minute ritual that tells your brain, “The kitchen is closed.”
My ritual (steal it):
Close all 97 browser tabs.
Look at my calendar for tomorrow.
Write down my one “Must-Do” task for the next day on a sticky note. (This gets it out of my brain).
Turn off my monitor.
Stand up. Walk out of the room.
The moment that ritual is done, I am “off.”
If the building is on fire, I’ll deal with it.
Anything else... is a “Tomorrow Problem.”
See?
You don’t hate working.
You just hate friction.
You’re not lazy. Your workflow was just... a dumpster fire.
Fix the start.
Fix the middle.
Fix the end.
And go be Pablo the goat-herder... on your own terms. 🤪
Before you run off...
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