What Are Your Escape Hatches?

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Dec 2, 2025

Avoiding commitment? You're not alone! Discover how 'escape hatches'—like procrastination and divided focus—masquerade as wisdom, keeping you from true potential. Learn actionable strategies like time blocking and setting step goals for creative success. Todd emphasizes the importance of narrowing your focus and defining success metrics to combat backward rationalization. Ready to get braver and more intentional? Identify one escape hatch this week and take a concrete step to close it!

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ANECDOTE

Designer Who Kept Planning

Todd Henry describes a talented designer who endlessly planned to start a studio but always delayed taking the leap.
She wanted the identity of an entrepreneur without doing the risky work of actually becoming one.

ADVICE

Break Work Into Step Goals

Set step goals to break projects into measurable milestones and avoid last-minute hedging.
Use time blocking to protect focused work periods and prevent the temptation to delay tasks until the deadline.

ADVICE

Protect Time Blocks

Time block specific periods on your calendar for important projects and fiercely protect them from interruptions.
Only work on the designated task during those blocks to create accountability for how you spend time.

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In this episode of Daily Creative, Todd Henry explores the subtle ways in which we avoid true commitment to our creative and professional ambitions. Todd discusses the concept of "escape hatches"—the backup plans, excuses, and rationalizations that prevent us from risking real vulnerability and discovering what we’re truly capable of. Drawing from personal stories and practical frameworks, we unpack three common escape hatches that undermine creative and leadership excellence: procrastination and last-minute work, dilution and divided attention, and backward rationalization of success.

Todd also digs into actionable strategies to help you spot these patterns in your work, close escape hatches, and move forward with greater intentionality. Whether you lead teams, dream of launching a business, or simply want your creative efforts to have more impact, this episode offers practical, non-obvious guidance for getting braver, more focused, and brilliant every day.

Five Key Learnings from the Episode:

Escape hatches often feel like wisdom, but are usually just disguised fear. We tend to rationalize delay or avoid commitment under the guise of being "prudent," when in reality it is keeping us from meaningful progress.
Procrastination and last-minute work protect us from knowing what our best effort truly looks like. Setting step goals and using time blocking can counter the urge to push everything to the last minute and drive more consistent creative output.
Dilution and divided attention dilute impact. By focusing on your "Big Three" priorities and carving out protected space to pursue them, you ensure that your energy is devoted to what matters most—and can actually achieve excellence.
Backward rationalization undermines growth. Defining what success looks like in advance and creating external accountability removes the temptation to justify poor outcomes, fostering honest self-assessment and improvement.
Real creative progress requires closing escape hatches, even though they seem safe. The real safety comes from confidence in your ability to adapt, not from having endless backup plans.

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