Hi, I’m Presley Pizzo

I help people who want to stop procrastinating on their trickiest tasks and get back in flow.

So I get it: you’re sick of procrastinating on your work, worrying that you just won’t be able to figure it out, and hoping your boss won’t notice.

You’ve tried committing yourself harder and being more disciplined. But all that commitment probably evaporated when you needed to write a report that no one could tell you how to fill out properly.

And you’ve probably tried time blocking, pomodoro timers, and the latest productivity app. They’re so motivating when they’re new, right? But once the novelty wears off, things go right back to normal.

I know, because I’ve been there.

At my first job as a software developer, my manager wanted me to learn a new programming language and work on a type of project I’d never done before. He helped me with it for one (1) day and then announced that it was amazing how fast I’d picked it all up! 

Reader, I had not picked it all up in one day. 

But I couldn’t say that, right?! So I tried to muddle through on my own, but when I tried to face the tricky parts, I’d suddenly want a snack break, or to research the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow, or I’d get tired out of the blue and feel like I just couldn’t possibly work on something difficult when my brain was this foggy.

Then my manager would ask how it was going and I’d be too embarrassed to admit that I was struggling and get the help I needed. 

And then I’d feel guilty and work late to make up for the time I’d wasted.

I kept telling myself “I should be living the dream” 

I had a well-paying, interesting, work-from-home job – I should have been in the zone at work and finishing with plenty of time to hit the gym and then meet up with friends. But I couldn’t get myself to work on schedule, let alone enjoy the workday. I was powerless to stop procrastinating.

It took me years to realize that this procrastination wasn’t laziness or bad time management or even ADHD. 

It was imposter syndrome. 

I was afraid that if I tried those tricky tasks, I’d find out that I really wasn’t up to the job after all. That they’d made a mistake in hiring me. So I kept trying to avoid the moment of truth.

As a woman in academia and then tech, I’d been subjected to a lot of talks on imposter syndrome, but none of them had ever actually been…helpful. So even figuring out the cause didn’t bring me closer to a solution.

Until I discovered parts work.

Parts work helped me see that procrastination isn’t about a lack of motivation, but a conflict between motivation and avoidance. 

One part of me wanted to do the work, feel accomplished, and go have a life. 

But another part of me wanted to avoid any piece of work that I might fail at. That part of me cared more about saving me from feeling like an imposter than it did about anything else – even doing well at my job! 

Finally, it made sense. 

No amount of guilt over my work could stop me from procrastinating. It all hinged on releasing that fear of being a fraud. 

As parts work helped me do that, it finally sank in that failing at a task doesn’t mean I’m a failure. And once I was less afraid of failing, I could actually try and succeed more often.

I was so impressed with this method that I wanted to learn to guide others through it. I studied the Internal Family Systems style of parts work under the late, great Derek Scott at IFSCA, and then turned to the Aletheia Advanced Coaching Program to learn how to use parts work and other transformational modalities in the focused, goal-oriented manner of a coach.

Now I can just do stuff.

I found my calling as a coach, but I still work on a small tech contract, so I can tell you what it’s like now when I face a tech assignment that I don’t know how to do. And I’ll be honest, sometimes it’s still annoying. But it’s nothing like the old days. 

I don’t get tired or foggy as soon as I look at a hard task. Even the most annoying task doesn’t give me that panicky feeling that my whole identity is at stake. I don’t waste hours trying (and failing) to work, so it doesn’t take over all my personal time anymore.

And I think the most important thing is, I don’t feel miserable during those work hours anymore. 

Life is too short to hate 40 hours of your week!

Speaking of life – outside of work,

• I’m an avid tea drinker (ask me about bug-bitten tea!)
• I’m a serial monogamist for hobbies (most recent was crochet; luckily for my husband, I’m not as fickle with actual humans!), and
• I like to join organizations that are really artsy or activist, and then volunteer for all of the positions that just involve making spreadsheets and sending emails 🤓

Want to get to the bottom of your procrastination? 

Take my free quiz so you can get on your way to resolving it: