Scan time: 2-3 minutes / Read time: 3-5 minutes
Howdy rebel ideapreneurs 🦸♂️🦸♀️
Leo hosts a weekly podcast about strength training for late beginners.
He started it because most fitness advice assumes you're already fit.
His pitch is simple: it's never too late, and late beginners aren't broken.
And his listeners? They want exactly that — proof that starting at 35 isn't a mistake.
⛳️ Problem:
Leo has 30 episodes recorded.
But episode 31 just sits there, unedited.
Every week he opens the file, stares, and… closes it again.
So he does what we all do — watches a motivation video, swears tomorrow's the day.
Then he forces an hour of editing, quits halfway, and feels worse. Ouch.
His problem: how to name what's actually keeping him from pressing play.
🔥 The recipe
➡️ The unblock method
Picture a tiny pebble stuck in your shoe on a long walk.
You can't out-walk it.
You can only stop and find it.
Turns out an avoided task works the same way.
That's the idea behind Ali Abdaal's work.
He's a former doctor who built a media business teaching people to be productive.
It pulls in over $5 million a year — from courses, a bestselling book, and YouTube.
His take: willpower is the wrong tool for procrastination.
Pushing harder on motivation or discipline never fixes the real cause.
The task you're dodging is boring, scary, or confusing — that's the pebble.
Name which one it is, and the next move shows up on its own.
And get this — name the email you've dodged all week.
You're not lazy.
It's scary; you fear the reply.
Name that, and the move shrinks: send two honest lines.
🚗 The steps
🥱 Step 1 — Check if it's boring.
You know that chore you'd do anything to avoid — folding laundry, maybe.
No spark, just a slow drag.
Some tasks stall for that reason alone.
Ask: am I avoiding this because it bores me right now?
Leo sits with episode 31 and notices something. Not boring at all.
The guest is a 52-year-old who deadlifts twice his bodyweight.
He rules out boring.
🫨 Step 2 — Check if it's scary.
Think of standing at the high dive as a kid, toes curled on the edge.
The water's fine.
It's the jump that locks you up.
Some tasks freeze us the same way — not boring, just exposing.
Ask: am I avoiding this because shipping it puts me on the line?
Leo sits with it again, and his chest tightens.
The guest talked about ignoring every gym he ever joined.
Publishing it feels like faking an expertise he doesn't have yet.
There it is — the pebble. It's scary, not boring.
🪨 Step 3 — Make one tiny move that shrinks the fear.
A messy garage feels impossible until you pick up one box.
You don't clean the whole thing — you just start the corner.
Named the pebble? The smallest next move gets obvious.
Leo doesn't force a 2-hour edit session.
He opens the file, plays the first 5 minutes, writes one timestamp.
The pebble shrinks. He edits 40 minutes that night, no forcing.
The prompt below runs one stuck task through the boring / scary / confusing test.
You just tell it the task you've been avoiding.
🧸 Name the block — boring, scary, or confusing — then one tiny move = the task moves.
🏄♀️ The prompt
Save this prompt as a Skill or add to Project in your favorite AI tool — build once, use often.
Update your input values in the prompt or just run as is, your AI sidekick will use the example values and will give output.
CONTEXT:
- (use what's available, fall back to the inline values)
- If my Voice Profile exists, write in that voice. Otherwise, write in a clear, warm, no-jargon voice — first-person, plain words, no startup-speak, no therapy-speak.
- This is a diagnostic prompt, not a motivation prompt. Be honest and kind. Never blame me. Never tell me to "just push through."
Inputs:
The one task I've been avoiding for at least 3 days (one sentence, specific and picture-able — not "my whole launch"):
{e.g. edit and publish episode 31 of my podcast — the interview with the 52-year-old who deadlifts twice his bodyweight}
What I usually TELL myself about why I'm not doing it (the story I run when someone asks):
{e.g. "I'm waiting for the right energy" or "I want to do it justice" or "I'll batch it on the weekend"}
What I've already tried (motivation videos, hard deadlines, accountability buddies, time-blocking, etc.):
{e.g. watched two productivity videos, blocked Tuesday 9-11am, told my friend I'd ship by Friday — none of it worked}
For Audience: {e.g. me — a guy building a strength-training podcast on the side while still working a day job, scared to publish content my fitter friends might judge}
For Outcome: {e.g. an honest diagnosis of whether the task is BORING, SCARY, or CONFUSING — plus the one tiny next move that shrinks the actual blocker}
Outputs:
1. The diagnosis — pick one label: BORING (no spark) · SCARY (puts me on the line) · CONFUSING (I don't know what "done" looks like). One paragraph of evidence from my inputs.
2. The pebble — one sentence naming what's actually under the avoidance, in my words, no therapy-speak.
3. The one tiny next move — a 5-15 minute action that shrinks the pebble, not the whole task. Something I could do in the next hour.
4. What to AVOID this week — one specific anti-pattern I keep reaching for (e.g. another motivation video, another hard deadline, another accountability text).
Then write me a 3-line closing in my voice that acknowledges naming the pebble was the hard part — without slipping into hype or motivational quotes.
One stuck task diagnosed in plain words.
One pebble named instead of pushed through.
One tiny move that gets the task moving today.
That's it, my fellow trailblazers!
Yours 'helping you build your own AI sidekick, that works and makes money while you sleep' Vijay Peduru 🦸♂️