Start the day with a difficult task

Let’s face it: not all we do in our own business is easy, either because we feel we don’t know exactly how to do things, or we simple don’t enjoy doing them. Some of us have trouble making customer calls, some don’t like confrontation, some hate paperwork with a vengeance, or are annoyed to call user support to help us with an issue. Any manner of things could be hard to do, and those things usually dangle at the very end of our to-do list, only to appear at the very last moment we can still manage to get them done.

This approach is natural, but also detrimental not only to your business, but also to your wellbeing as a person. Don’t think for a moment that the thought of this monumental task waiting for you to be done somewhere in the future does not hang around your brain at every moment of the day. You may not be aware of it, but your mind knows full well that something difficult is waiting for you to be done. Business is all about business, you say? Well, of course that is part of it, but ask yourself why you have decided to be running your own business… because you want to enjoy life more and be more in control of how things go. Right?

Now consider this idea: why not schedule one difficult task to be done first thing in the morning? Wouldn’t it feel good to get that one hard thing out of the way and feel good about not having to deal with another one once this is done? You could simply go about your normal day after having achieved a huge things. Procrastination is all fine and well, but the reality of it is that you’ll have to tackle it anyway, at some point. So why not get something good out of it after all?

Psychologically, this makes perfect sense. You’ll be anxious about doing this thing at first, but once it is done, adrenaline levels will be as high as they can get, your brain will shoot off fireworks in your honour, and you’ll feel much happier than if you had that dark cloud hanging over your head all day (or week, or month). As a nice side effect, you might actually realise that what you perceived as huge obstacle ultimately turned out to be not that much of a deal, who knows? And that realisation could make it easier to tackle this kind of issue in the future with much less reluctance, thus teaching you something in the process.

That’s looking at the positive side, of course. That task might still be annoying afterwards, and when repeated remain as annoying. In that case, at the very least you have got it out of the way for now, haven’t you? In my book, that would count as a victory. And then you can get going with the ‘easy’ stuff on your daily to-do list, or take that tea break early to give you a treat and the necessary boost to start the next task.