I stared at the massive stack of paperwork in front of me and cringed.
It wasn’t just any paperwork. It was the worst kind of administrative stuff that requires 5 different documents from 5 different folders (btw, I didn’t know where any of this information was).
I was dragging my feet on it for (let’s just say)…months. I kept ignoring the increasingly urgent emails I was getting from my operations team to complete it.
Finally, I booked 2 hours in my calendar to tackle it…and immediately spent the full 2 hours browsing Reddit (though I did find my favorite new subreddit, check out www.reddit.com/r/Whatcouldgowrong/).
Later, I was on a call with a co-worker and mentioned this offhandedly and what she said next blew my mind:
“Do you want me to help? I’m really good at this and I actually love doing it.”
What? She ENJOYED this kind of paperwork? My first thought: “Was this person emotionally stable?”
Second thought: “This might be the best hire I’ve made in 12 years.”
It felt unfathomable to me that there were people who enjoyed filling out paperwork. The very same work I hate doing. And it was a complete revelation that I could find people who would actually enjoy doing this kind of work, leaving me to do the work I enjoy.
Right now, take a look around you: What are all the things you’ve been putting off for weeks, maybe even months? Every day you tell yourself, “I’ll do that later” — which is the universal code for “never”:
We all fantasize about some nice long weekend where we’re going to wake up early, write down all our little “to-do’s” on a yellow legal pad, and spend the next three days cheerfully crossing stuff off the list.
It’s never gonna happen.
Maybe we check off the easiest one or two items… then spend the rest of the day Netflix and chilling.
And that’s totally okay!
I love relaxing on the weekend. I work hard during the week, so sometimes I just want to catch up on my reality TV and recuperate, and not have to worry about paperwork or cooking or cleaning my bathroom.
So if I’m going to do that, then I want to enjoy it, guilt-free.
What else have you been putting off?
It’s not just the little things we’ve been putting off, shunting off from today’s to-do list to tomorrow’s… for weeks at a time. We asked on Twitter, and here’s what we heard back:
GrowthLab
Let’s take a closer look at the last one. Freelancing has a special place in my heart…
Because in addition to hundreds of free articles on freelancing, we’ve already created the best course in the world on how to build your freelancing business!
And if you don’t want help from us, cool. You can search #freelance on Google and Twitter, filter through the hundreds of people who are doing it, and reach out to them.
