Next time you’re feeling stuck, without being prompted, pretend you have a boss that wants an update on how you’re doing. Put together a powerpoint outlining your current state of affairs, goals, concerns, recent things you learned, etc… Try to get your thoughts as organized as possible.
Then read the deck as if it was someone else’s and critique it as if you were evaluating an employee or doing diligence on a deal. What makes sense? Where are the holes? What are the first questions you would ask? Why don’t you have the answers? Then redo the deck until it makes sense from both points of view. Usually several obvious things pop out that you’ve been ignoring or missing.
It’s common for smart people to get hung up on stupid things -and I think this exercise forces you to be accountable to yourself and really apply your problem solving skills to the problems you’re facing.
Essentially, the idea is to be your own boss/mentor/critic, so that nobody else has to.