The Ghosts That Look Like Work

You're busy. Endlessly busy. Your calendar is packed, your task list is color-coded, and you're "hustling" harder than ever.

So why does your revenue look the same as it did six months ago?

This Halloween, let's talk about the scariest ghost in business: fake productivity. The kind that wears a mask of legitimacy, that looks like progress, that lets you collapse into bed each night feeling accomplished while your actual goals gather dust.

It's time to rip off the mask and face what's really haunting you.

These activities are masters of disguise. They feel important. They keep you moving. They're even sometimes necessary. But they're not moving the needle—and deep down, you know it.

The Social Media Specter
Tweaking that Instagram post for the third time. Obsessing over the perfect caption. Scheduling and rescheduling content. Checking analytics compulsively. Meanwhile, your email list (the one that actually converts) hasn't grown in months.

The Research Poltergeist
Another course. Another book. Another podcast episode about the exact thing you already know how to do. You tell yourself you're "investing in learning," but you haven't implemented the last three things you learned.

The Administrative Phantom
Reorganizing your project management system. Cleaning out your inbox for the fourth time this week. Creating elaborate folder structures. Testing new productivity apps. None of this makes you money.

The Networking Ghost
Coffee chat after coffee chat with "potential collaborators" that go absolutely nowhere. LinkedIn conversations that feel good but produce zero business outcomes. You're "building relationships," but not closing deals.

The Perfectionist Apparition
Your website isn't quite ready. Your offer needs one more tweak. Your funnel could be more optimized. Your branding isn't quite there yet. Meanwhile, your competitor with the uglier website just landed another client.

The Vanity Metrics Demon
You gained 200 followers this month! Your post got record engagement! Your video had great watch time! But your bank account tells a different story.

What's Hiding Beneath the Mask

Here's the uncomfortable truth: these ghosts aren't haunting you by accident. You're letting them in.

Because real growth work is terrifying.

Real growth work means:

• Making offers that people might reject
• Having sales conversations that might hear "no"
• Creating content that might flop
• Raising your prices and losing clients
• Trying something new that might fail publicly

Fake productivity lets you stay busy without being brave. It lets you feel like you're working on your business while avoiding the work that actually builds your business.

The mask protects you from rejection. But it also protects you from results.

Rip Off Your Own Mask: An Exercise

Grab a piece of paper. Be brutally honest.

Part 1: Follow the Money
List the 3-5 activities in your business that directly generate revenue or move you toward a specific, measurable goal. Not the things that support those activities—the actual revenue drivers.

For most business owners, this list includes some version of:

• Making offers/selling
• Delivering your service/product exceptionally
• Creating content that attracts ideal clients
• Building genuine strategic relationships
• Improving your core offer

Part 2: Track Your Haunts
For the next three days, track your time in 30-minute blocks. At the end of each day, highlight which blocks were spent on your Part 1 list.

If less than 60% of your "working time" is spent on actual revenue-driving activities, you've found your ghost.

Part 3: Unmask the Fear
For each fake-productive activity you identified, finish this sentence:
"I do this instead of [real work] because I'm afraid that..."

Be specific. "I reorganize my task manager instead of reaching out to potential clients because I'm afraid they'll think I'm pushy" is more useful than "I'm afraid of rejection."

Part 4: Exorcise One Ghost
Choose ONE fake-productive habit to eliminate this week. Just one. Replace that time block with one revenue-driving activity from your Part 1 list.

Not "reduce"—eliminate. Rip the mask completely off.

The Truth Beneath

This Halloween, the most frightening thing you can do is get honest about what you've been avoiding.

The entrepreneur who makes $500K isn't busier than the one making $50K. They're just ruthlessly focused on the activities that matter and willing to let everything else be imperfect, incomplete, or ignored entirely.

Your business doesn't need you to be busier. It needs you to be braver.

So rip off the mask. Face the ghost. Do the real work.

The only thing haunting your growth is the work you're not doing while you're busy doing everything else.

This week's challenge: Complete the exercise above. Share one ghost you're unmasking in the comments or hit reply and tell me what you discovered. Let's stop being haunted together.