When Learning Becomes Procrastination: Stop Researching and Start Acting

Learning is valuable. The problem starts when gathering more information stops improving your next decision and starts delaying it. I have talked before about why information doesn't change lives.

Knowledge matters, but eventually knowledge has to become implementation.

That is especially difficult for people who enjoy learning. Research feels productive. Reading another book or listening to another podcast feels responsible. But if you already know the next useful step, more research can become a comfortable way to avoid the risk of acting. That is another version of waiting until you feel ready.

The useful question is not whether learning is good. It is whether the next piece of information is still changing what you should do next. If it is, keep learning. If it is not, take the next step. Action gives you feedback that research cannot, and that is one reason progress beats perfection.

For me, the best balance is to learn enough to identify the next action, take that action, and then return to learning when the result shows me a real gap in my knowledge. That keeps learning connected to a goal instead of letting research become the goal itself. It also fits the same principle behind the simple system I use to finish what I start: make the next useful step clear enough to do.

The goal is not to stop learning. It is to make learning serve action. Learn what you need, move, study the feedback, and then learn the next thing that helps you move again.

In This Lesson

·        How learning can become a comfortable form of procrastination

·        The question I use to tell whether I need more information or need to act

·        Why I have to be careful with research because I genuinely enjoy learning

·        Why research is useful until it stops changing the next decision or next step

·        How repeated versions of the same ideas can signal that you already know enough

·        Why defining what you need to know gives the learning phase an endpoint

·        How small actions create real feedback that research cannot provide

·        When action should send you back to learning

·        How to balance research mode and action mode without getting stuck in either one

Watch the video or read the complete transcript below.

When Learning Becomes Procrastination: Stop Researching and Start Acting

(Transcript edited for clarity.)

Hi, I'm Wes. Welcome to When Learning Becomes a Form of Procrastination.

This is something I have a tremendous amount of experience with, and after fighting this for decades now, I still catch myself occasionally using learning instead of getting started. That's what I mean when I say learning can become procrastination.

So the leading question you need to keep in mind as we go through today is: Am I learning because I need more information, or because learning feels safer than acting?

And I have to take this a step further in my life when I'm considering learning.

Are you addicted to learning?

Now, if you could list all the addictions in the world, being addicted to learning is probably not the worst thing you could be addicted to. But if you're learning and focused on learning so much that it keeps you from ever accomplishing the goals you want to accomplish or reaching the success you want to reach, then it can become a problem.

So I'm not saying any of you are addicted to learning, but you can become addicted to learning.

Here's the thing.

I love to learn stuff. I like to read. I like to research.

I like to watch videos, go to conferences, things like that. I like to learn. I don't go as much as I used to, but I used to go to libraries all the time.

Of course, now the internet is full of just about all the information you can get in libraries, but I like to read books. I like to learn. If I get interested in a subject, the first thing I look for is what the best books are on that subject, and then I'll read those best books.

Some things, I'll read parts of 40 or 50 books on a subject because I need to learn as much as I can. I want to learn.

Now, if I'm interested in a subject because I want to use it for business, that's where I have to be very careful because I can fall into the trap of continuing to learn, and it keeps me from actually taking action.

Here's the thing that helps me, or stops me from using learning as procrastination.

I love to learn, but the fact is I like to win more.

Winning to me, usually when it comes to learning, is actually putting what I learned into action and making it profitable in some way.

Sometimes, like in business, it's profit and money. But in other areas of my life, putting it into play and winning is profitable in a way other than money. I save time, things get easier, I have better relationships with people I want better relationships with, or better family dynamics, things like that.

When I say I like to win more than I like learning, that helps me because there's a goal behind the reason I'm learning. The goal is to learn, but there's another goal beyond learning about it.

So now I recognize that most of the time.

When I start learning more than I need to get started, it triggers in my mind: Hey, you've done this before. Do you like learning or winning more?

That's what I've used as a trigger to help me not turn learning into procrastination.

The other thing I'll do is learn and go ahead and start taking action when I have enough information. Then, in my free time, I'll continue learning. In the evenings or while I'm eating, I might read a book on the same subject to continue learning.

That way, I can continue to take action while I continue to learn.

So research and preparation are useful until they stop changing what your next step is.

Now let's think about that.

When you're learning about something to do something else, like I'm talking about, to reach a goal or whatever, we'll just call it a goal because just about anything you want to do because of what you're learning can be a goal of some sort.

When you're learning, reading, researching, listening to podcasts, whatever, in order to reach some goal, there becomes a point where you've got to take a step toward that goal.

So what I said there was research and preparation are useful until they stop changing the next decision or the next step.

You learn until you know what the first step is. Then it's time to immediately take that first step.

Then, if you need to learn more, you can continue learning until it's time to take the next step.

Don't ever let the seeking of knowledge keep you from taking the next step.

Like I said, you can do both. You can learn and take action at the same time, but you have to train yourself so you don't get stuck in research-and-learning mode as a form of procrastination that keeps you from working toward the goal you're learning for.

Learning can feel productive because you're busy and engaged without taking any risk.

You don't have any risk of failing when you're working toward some goal if you never take any action toward the goal. The risk is if you never take action.

With no risk, you never get the reward.

You can't achieve your goal if you never get started on the goal.

Now, learning and research can be a big part of reaching your goal, but it's only the first part.

The second part is the action part.

So no risk, meaning never getting started beyond learning, means no reward. You can never reach the goal until you start taking action on what you've learned.

Notice when you keep consuming, taking in the same ideas in slightly different forms.

That's another thing. I've seen this in many subjects I've researched.

I'll look at several books. I'll read the top two or three books, and then I'll keep reading books or articles. Eventually, with most subjects, I find that it's the same important things out of the main literature repeated over and over.

It might be repeated in a slightly different way, with different words or different examples, but when you start recognizing that you're researching and learning the same things, even if they're presented slightly differently, then it's time to stop and create whatever the next step is.

Define what you need to know before starting your research so the learning phase has an endpoint.

So think ahead: What do I need to know before I can take the first action step, or what do I need to know before I can take the next action step?

Then you will know: Hey, I'm going to research this, I'm going to learn, and as soon as I figure out what to do next that's an actual action, I need to stop and take that action.

Then you can go right back to learning if that's what you need to do or want to do, but it's all focused on action.

Remember: no risk, meaning no action, means you'll never reach the goal. No reward. So the learning is just a step.

It might be the first step, but you've always got to take an action step in order to reach your goal.

Take a small action that gives you real feedback.

In other words, I talk about small wins, or stacking small wins, in my Small Wins Success System.

That is straight from there. Take a small action. Find the smallest possible action or next step and do it.

That's what the learning is there to support.

Don't keep learning as a form of procrastination, as a comfort zone, or because you're afraid of failure.

No risk, no reward. So it's all about taking action.

So reframe in your mind, if you can, and this might take a while, why you're learning.

Are you learning for a reason? Usually the reason is you want to achieve some goal, so start attaching all of your learning to a goal and then focus on always finding a small step you can take as quickly as possible.

Now, if you learn something, take a small step, and the small step fails or doesn't work the way you thought, that can mean a couple of things, but it's valuable either way.

If it fails or doesn't work, you might need to learn a little bit more, or maybe you need to try something different. Maybe you need to choose another small step.

Then, once you start stacking small steps and small wins, you get one small win, then you get another one.

Those stack on top of each other, and eventually you string together so many small steps and small wins that it either helps you reach your goal or gets you a lot closer to your goal than you were.

Return to learning when the action reveals a specific gap in your knowledge that keeps you from reaching the next step toward your goal.

It sounds simple, but I've fallen into this before too. I'm in full research mode, and then sometimes I'll switch to full action mode.

It's like a mindset: full research, then full action.

Sometimes the research is telling me it's time to take action, and sometimes the full action is telling me, through the feedback, that it's time to learn a little bit more because I'm struggling here.

So it's a balance.

But the main point of today's episode is don't learn so much that it keeps you from taking concrete action, taking steps toward reaching whatever goals you're trying to learn about or learn for.

I'm Wes. This is Your Life Systems. Please like and subscribe.

Take care. I'll see you soon.

What's Next?

·        Choose one goal you are currently researching or preparing for.

·        Write down exactly what you still need to know before you can take the next action.

·        Notice whether the information you are consuming is still changing that next step.

·        If you already know what to do next, stop researching long enough to do it.

·        Take the smallest useful action and pay attention to the feedback it creates.

·        Return to learning when the feedback reveals a specific gap you need to fill.

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