White Shoe Syndrome

You know what you need to do to launch your business, you have the skills, you have the idea, and yet progress is slow. Maybe you have White Shoe Syndrome.

The problem with white shoes is that they are always dirty and need to be cleaned. When it is time to sit down at your desk to do some work that pair of white tennis shoes is in the corner of your office just screaming at you to clean them. Even in the dead of winter when you are months away from lacing up those white shoes for some reason now is the right time to clean your shoes.

Of course it doesn’t have to be white shoes. If you are sitting down to do some work and minutes later you find yourself tidying your office, or mowing the lawn, or re-organizing your stamp collection then you are a victim of white shoes syndrome.

The tricks to overcome this is:

• Isolation – close the office door, put on some headphones or anything else you can do to physically isolate yourself from visual noise and disruption
• Minimize clutter – clear your desk, minimize your office, move files off your desktop, run your software full screen
• Turn off notifications – turn off auto-email checking, disconnect from chat, turn off calendar alerts
• Turn off the lights – working in the dark can help you focus on what’s on your computer screen
• Before or after hours – try working early in the morning, or late in the evening when other people are not around.
• Go somewhere to work – you won’t be inclined to clean the counters at the coffeeshop

White Shoes can be a real roadblock to your success.  Try to do what you can to avoid it.