Spinning My Wheels

When hard work goes nowhere

You're not lazy. That's what makes this so frustrating. You're trying, you're working, you're showing up — and yet nothing actually moves. Spinning my wheels is effort without progress, and it's the cruelest kind of tired. Because the problem isn't a lack of work. It's that the work isn't getting you anywhere.

Effort Without Traction

The spin looks productive from the outside. From the inside, it's exhausting.

Busy All Day, Nothing to Show

You check things off. You answer emails, attend meetings, move tasks around. At the end of the day you can't point to anything that actually changed. The effort was real — the progress wasn't.

Same Problems Keep Returning

You solved this last week. And the week before. The same issue keeps surfacing because nothing underneath has changed. It's like mopping while the faucet runs — activity that never addresses the source.

Starting Over Again

New system. New approach. New plan. But you never get past the early stages where it gets hard. Each reset feels like a fresh start but it's really just the same loop with a different name.

Avoiding the Hard Part

Somewhere underneath the busyness is the one thing you're not doing. The important thing. The scary thing. All the spinning happens right at the edge of it, keeping you close but never quite there.

If that sounds familiar, you're not alone. Spinning happens to smart, hardworking people — especially them. Sometimes the first step is to stop moving and find what's really in the way.

Why the Wheels Keep Spinning

Spinning usually isn't random. There's a pattern keeping you in the loop.

No Clear Direction

Movement without destination isn't progress. Without knowing where "forward" is, any activity feels productive.

Wrong Optimization

Perfecting the easy stuff while avoiding the hard stuff. The activity is real, the impact isn't.

Running on Empty

Traction requires energy. If the tank is empty, spinning is what's left.

Hidden Avoidance

The spin often happens right before the thing you're afraid of. The busyness is cover.

When spinning goes on long enough, it stops feeling like a temporary problem and starts to feel like a permanent state — like you're feeling stuck with no way to break through.

When You Can't Move Forward

Before you can move forward, you have to figure out where forward actually is. Sometimes it helps to stop spinning and look at the real picture.

Find Traction, Not Speed

Getting traction isn't about working harder. It's about working on the right thing.

Stop Moving First

Before figuring out "forward," figure out where you actually are.

Find the Real Blocker

One thing. Not the urgent thing — the actual constraint.

Make It Concrete

"Work on project" isn't an action. "Write one paragraph" is.

Measure Outcomes, Not Effort

Stop counting hours. Start asking: what actually changed?

If the spin is part of a larger pattern — same routines, same feelings, same days on repeat — it might be something bigger. That's when spinning becomes being stuck in a rut.

When Every Day Feels the Same

Stop and Look Down

If you're spinning right now, pause and try these.

Stop and ask: what am I avoiding?

The thing underneath the busyness. Name it.

Write down one outcome

Not tasks. What's one thing that would represent real progress?

Find the next concrete action

Not a plan. One specific thing you could do in the next ten minutes.

Do that one thing

Not the whole project. Just the one concrete step. Then reassess.

Stopping the spin helps today, but if it keeps coming back, the pattern matters. thisOne is a thinking partner that helps you find the real blocker underneath the busyness. You get everything out of your head, sort through what's actually moving the needle and what's just noise, and find where the real traction is. Not another productivity system — a conversation that helps you move forward for real.

What This Really Means

The spin is information. It's telling you something about where the real work is — and it's probably not where you've been looking. Effort matters, but direction matters more. When you stop measuring how hard you're working and start measuring what's actually changing, the path forward usually becomes clear.