It's not you, it's the tool

If you’re assembling a bookcase, and it uses nails instead of screws, you don’t force yourself to use a screwdriver.

You get a hammer. (Duh)

But let’s imagine that the only tool you’re aware of is a screwdriver. To you, every bookcase, everywhere, is put together using screws and a screwdriver.

What would you do when presented with a bookcase that was not assembled using screws, but was instead put together using nails?

And remember, you don’t know that non-screw bookcases are even possible.

Well, you’d probably do your best to assemble the bookcase using the only tool you have: a screwdriver.

And it might even sort of work. Nails are at least the same general shape as screws. Maybe you’d even figure out how to use a screwdriver as a hammer.

But it’d probably be painful and frustrating.

You also might start wondering, “What am I doing wrong? This was supposed to be easy.”

You might even start thinking something like, “I must be bad at assembling bookcases.”

Whereas in truth, neither of these things is true.

You aren’t doing anything wrong.

You aren’t bad at assembling bookcases.

You just didn’t realize you were using the wrong tool.

And this is illustrates exactly why I am so vocal about questioning the typical solutions offered for time management such as routines, calendaring, etc.

Not because these aren’t useful tools.

However, they definitely don’t work for everyone, in all contexts. We know this from plenty of research and experimentation.

But if folks think that these are the only tools to help them get shit done, they start blaming themselves when these tools fail.

When someone doesn’t realize they’re using the wrong tool, they make themselves the thing that is wrong.

That’s just unacceptable to me.

I want y’all to understand that your toolbox is infinite.

And if you need reminders of this (and more tools!), make sure you sign up for my (totally free) resource, the Dopamine Drip, which will deliver toolkit-expanding magic straight to your inbox on the regular. Because everyone benefits from having more tools at their disposal.

There are so, so many ways to accomplish any goal, and there’s nothing wrong with you if you need to do it a different way, using tools you design yourself.