Soulful Productivity Support: From Procrastination to Progress

Your worth does not depend on your productivity. Your possibilities do.

Welcome!

If you felt drawn to this page, you are probably procrastinating. This is such a common problem for many people! And after having coached hundreds of people about productivity, I finally had an epiphany.

Well, two epiphanies.

Epiphany #1: not all productivity is created equally

My first epiphany was that not all productivity is created equally.

Productivity done wrong (what I call "toxic productivity") can hurt your soul. In contrast, productivity done right (what I call "soulful productivity") can help you heal it.

If traditional productivity feels like getting a quick dinner at a gas station, soulful productivity feels like a wholesome meal a loved one has carefully prepared, just for your enjoyment. This distinction is the underlying philosophy behind my soulful productivity approach.

Epiphany #2: not all procrastination is created equally

My second epiphany was that not all procrastination is created equally, either. In fact, there are different types. And the first step to overcoming it is to figure out which one you are dealing with:

• small: everyday procrastination and

• big: soul-level procrastination.

Small procrastination is often about things you don’t want to do, such as the taxes or annoying work tasks.

Big procrastination is often about something you REALLY want to do that also scares you, such as creating:

• a book,

• a business, or

• a baby.

Here’s the thing: you need different strategies for dealing with small procrastination than for dealing with big procrastination. The approach that help you get your tax return done probably won't help you write your book. That's because big procrastination has different root causes (more on that in a moment). 

Also, it's quite common to experience both small and big procrastination. In that case, it's best if you first get to a place where you are feeling relatively good about your everyday productivity, before tackling your big procrastination.

Small procrastination

If you feel overwhelmed with work and life responsibilities, you are probably struggling with small procrastination.

I invite you to find out more about how priorities can help you address this problem here.

Big procrastination

Maybe you are doing pretty well in your everyday life, but you are putting off your big dreams (I call this “big procrastination”, "soul-level procrastination" or “soul purpose procrastination”).

The core reason why you procrastinate on your dreams:

While there are many contributors to big procrastination, one of its main causes is fear. You see, when it comes to our dreams, we often experience a push-pull: we both really want it—and we are deeply afraid of getting it.

Here’s the thing: this fear is an integral part of your dreams. You cannot have a big dream without fear—the fear is an indication of how important something is to you. Because you want your big goals so much, the stakes are a lot higher: what if it doesn’t work out? What if it does work out?

If you wonder why it’s often so much easier to take action on something you don’t care that much about, this is why: your fear isn’t holding you back because it doesn’t matter that much to you.

It’s similar to asking someone out for a date that you kinda like… versus asking the person you have secretly been in love with for the last decade. Obviously, the latter would feel much more nerve-wrecking.

To solve big procrastination, you have to deal with the underlying fear.

What will probably happen if you don’t address the root cause:

If you don’t address the underlying fear, you will probably continue to procrastinate on your dreams. One day, you might realize that 5 years have passed, without you getting any closer to your big goals.

However, if you deal with the underlying fear, you might surprise yourself with how quickly you make progress on your dreams. One day, you might realize that 5 years have passed… and you feel proud of how far you have come in that time!

Here’s what you need to do to overcome big procrastination:

Before you get started, it’s ideal to get competent support so that you don’t have to do this alone. While you can make progress on your own, not having someone on your side will make it much more likely that you stop moving forward when your fear flares up.

1. Big clarity: To begin the process, you need to get clear on what exactly your big goal is—and make the decision to commit to it.

2. Inner work: Then, you need to learn how to befriend the fear that comes up when you think about your big goal, which will help you reduce it. Often, people try to suppress their fear, or pretend it isn’t there, which only makes the fear stronger.

3. Small clarity: You then need to get clear on the next step to take to accomplish your goal.

4. External work: You need to take action on 4.

5. Repeat steps 4 and 5.

If you would like my help with this process, you can find out more about my “From Procrastination to Purpose” coaching here:

Or read on to learn more about my story and my experiences as a coach:

How I can help you be more soulfully productive

Hi, I'm Dr. Louise, a former lawyer and academic turned professional wizard (I mean, coach...).

Let me share a little bit about who I am and how I got here (you can find my longer story here):

Once upon the time, I was a high-paid attorney working on multi-billion and million dollar cases, qualified for judicial office, about to complete my doctorate from the world's oldest university institute in international law...

....and grappling with the realization that I wasn't doing what I really wanted to do (my big dream).

As a self-declared global citizen with a German passport, I had studied or worked in half a dozen countries around the world when I fell in love with an American I met in Berlin. 

After a long internal struggle, I left the career I had spent a decade building and moved from my native Germany to the US to be with the love of my life.

I also created a coaching business that's aligned with my passion and calling. And after helping hundreds of people as a (somewhat) traditional career and productivity coach, had an epiphany:

A lot of people need something deeper and more holistic than the same old, same old productivity advice. We need productivity advice that honors our entire being, not just our personality. Productivity that helps us accomplish the things that most matter to us and to our soul.

We need soulful productivity. I didn't see this exist anywhere, so I decided to create it.

So, shall we talk about how I can help you overcome procrastination and get things done in a way that feels good?

Some stats about me:

As you can see, I have been doing this for a while. Here are a few testimonials from back in the day (you can find more testimonials here):

In addition to working with people 1-on-1, I also facilitated monthly community challenges for 3+ years. Here’s what Tony Stubblebine, Founder of Coach.me and current CEO of Medium, wrote about them:

“… Not to mention the expert facilitation of Bere Schriewer. If you don’t Bere yet, you will be amazed.” (This was before I started using my middle name “Louise”).

Tony Stubblebine, Founder of Coach.me, CEO of Medium.com

Along the way, I have been fortunate enough to help people from vastly different professional backgrounds, including

• academics,

• accountants,

• actors,

• attorneys,

• small business owners, and CEOs of small companies,

• medical doctors,

• pilots,

• personal assistants,

• secretaries,

• school teachers,

• therapists, and

• many more!

I have also supported

• writers,

• students,

• stay-at-home parents,

• caregivers,

• people who are retired or semi-retired, and

• people who are under-employed, in between jobs or going through a career transition.

But, you know what? You are so much more than your job description. You are more than your current situation. You are more than your professional background.

You are a powerful creator. And I would love to help you bring your next creations into this world.

Here are a few ways you can get my support:

1. as a gift (free tastes of value),

2. text-based coaching: from Overwhelm to On-Top-of-Things

3. phone-based coaching: from Procrastination to Progress on Your Dreams

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1. Gifts (free tastes of value)

My Joyful Growth newsletter:

This is the best way for us to stay in touch. In addition to sharing helpful articles and videos, I regularly invite my subscribers to free events. If you haven’t signed up yet for my email list, I encourage you to do so.

Open Q&A calls: Free First Fridays

I am holding office hours every first Friday of the month, from noon to 12:30 EST. You can sign up for the next one by clicking the button below.

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2. Text-based Coaching: from Overwhelm to On-Top-of-Things

This form of coaching is great for dealing with small procrastination!

Setting daily priorities can help reduce feelings of overwhelm, improve focus and make you more productive. If you could use support with that, my text-based setting daily priorities coaching might be for you.

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3. Phone-based Coaching: From Procrastination to Purpose

This is where the deepest positive change happens and where I can help you make progress on your big dreams! When we work together over time, the results can be life-changing.

For instance, here’s how Anne’s life changed in positive ways:

My situation has changed radically in the year or so that Louise and I have been working together. Not only did I get pregnant for the first time, I also moved twice, developed a closer relationship to my partner and started my blog where I write about family life and happiness. As a result of these changes in my family situation, I’m developing something with my blog that I can also pursue professionally in the longer term. My original intention and what came afterward go together hand in hand.

I made some big internal shifts that resulted in improvements in my outer life. I have less stress, more joy and I’m clearer about what I want. I’ve achieved my goal of working less.

In the beginning, I was concerned that I might be putting too much pressure on myself with doing the coaching alongside a full-time job and if I could handle the time commitment. Then I realized that I wanted to do the coaching because it relaxes me and because it helps me.

For me, an important process happened last year really quickly, without me feeling overloaded by it. I felt supported the whole time. Even though so much happened, it didn’t feel that way. I attribute this to the coaching with Louise which really helped me to not feel overwhelmed in the face of all these changes.

Find out more about my options for ongoing support by clicking the button below:

Questions?

Please let me know if you have questions! :)