Often it’s a simple daily chore which reminds me of important concepts in life. Concepts which are true for small things such as cleaning the dishes as well as large and important projects in life and business.
Talking about cleaning the dishes, you probably all have experienced the following situation. You just had dinner or a delicious green smoothie and now you have a choice to make. Either you clean the dishes right away or put them in the sink for the night. If you do it right away, you can clean the pan, plate or blender easily and effortlessly. Just a bit of dish soap, warm water, and the job is done. However, if you put the dishes into the sink they will dry up. Come back a few hours later and it’s manifold harder to clean the dishes. The dirt is dried up and the crust is so hard to clean that you have to begin all over by soaking the dirt with water. In the end, the initial decision to postpone a task made it manifold harder to accomplish it.
Speaking of analogies, I find this to be a great one. Every day, we encounter situations where we need to decide whether we do a certain task right away or postpone it to a later time. Thanks to the initial inertia it is often easier and faster to do some tasks right away instead of postponing them.
It is about facing unavoidable tasks or important conversations right away. Realizing the opportunity costs of taking or not taking action, making a decision fast, and ultimately dealing with the positive or uncomfortable consequences of that decision.
Résumé
Here is the obvious résumé:
- Doing things right away takes usually only a few extra seconds/effort.
- By postponing tasks, they lose their momentum and the effort to accomplish them is multiplied.
- If you do something – you must do anyway – right away, you will not have to do it later.
