The UNBLOCK Method
Clear the three blockers behind any task you keep avoiding
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Time to result
- ~days to results
- Steps
- 6
- Confidence
- 72%
Ali Abdaal frames procrastination against two failing default fixes: motivation, which waxes and wanes and so is unsustainable, and discipline or willpower, which is brittle and often carries aggressive 'no pain no gain' language. His third path is to identify the blockers stopping you and address them directly, so you neither depend on fickle motivation nor rely on discipline as the entire strategy, using only small doses of it to take the next step. The three blockers are uncertainty, anxiety and inertia. You tackle them one at a time: bring clarity and information to uncertainty, work on the underlying negative emotion for anxiety, and take a single small action to break inertia. Sirois adds the crucial grounding: the blocks themselves are created by negative emotions arising from the interaction between you and the task.
Origin
Extracted from Deep Dive with Ali Abdaal. Ali developed the method for the procrastination section of his book Feel-Good Productivity, and tests it live against Sirois's emotion-first research during the conversation.
Core principles
- 01Motivation waxes and wanes, so it is not a reliable engine
- 02Pure discipline and willpower are a brittle, warlike strategy
- 03Find and remove the specific blocker instead of forcing yourself
- 04The three blockers are uncertainty, anxiety and inertia
- 05Every blocker traces back to a negative emotion about the task or yourself
How to run it
- 1
Drop the motivation myth
Recognise that leaning on 'if you wanted it enough you'd do it' fails because motivation naturally rises and falls.
- 2
Demote raw discipline
Willpower and grit help, but as the whole plan they are unsustainable and combative. Keep discipline for small doses only.
- 3
Diagnose the blocker
Ask which of the three is actually stopping you: uncertainty about the task, anxiety and difficult emotion, or inertia in getting started.
Pro tip The blocker got there in the first place because of a negative emotion, so trace it back to the feeling.
- 4
Unblock uncertainty with clarity
If the task is vague or unstructured, gather information, ask someone to lay it out, and understand the why behind the goal.
Pro tip Knowing the purpose of a task stops you going down the wrong route and reduces the uncertainty charge.
- 5
Unblock anxiety by addressing the emotion
Where the block is fear, self-doubt or perfectionism, work on that specific negative emotion rather than papering over it.
Watch out Layering positive affirmations over untouched negativity does nothing.
- 6
Unblock inertia with one action
Just do the thing for five minutes; motivation follows action, and starting short-circuits the ruminative thoughts that stir up emotion.
Pro tip Breaking a large task into small bites lowers stress as much as it builds confidence.
In the wild
Ali keeps skipping a scheduled gym session. Rather than demanding more motivation or willpower, he runs the diagnosis: it is on the calendar, so it is not uncertainty; the block is the low-energy, low-mood feeling around going. He treats that emotion, reframes the session as meaningful, and takes the first small step of getting changed, which breaks the inertia.
→ The session happens because the actual blocker, an emotion, was named and cleared.
Common mistakes
Fixing the wrong blocker
Adding clarity when the real block is anxiety, or forcing action when the task is genuinely unclear, wastes effort on the wrong lever.
Ignoring the emotional root
Treating the block as purely logistical misses that the block was created by a negative emotion, so it reforms.
Is it for you?
Best for
People tired of being told to just want it more or push harder.
Not ideal for
Tasks you are avoiding for genuinely good reasons rather than an internal block.
From the transcript
“figure out what are the blockers that are blocking you from doing the task and address the blockers”
“the three blockers are uncertainty anxiety and inertia”
From the episode
Procrastination Expert: How To Get Over The Procrastination Trap - Professor Fuschia M. Sirois
Professor Fuschia M. Sirois