When I left corporate in 2013, my employer sent me on a 'voluntary' workshop - I put voluntary in inverted commas because getting the big bag of cash was dependent upon us fulfilling certain obligations - like attending workshops we really didn't WANT to!

I digress... the workshop was about 'mindfulness'. So picture me and my fellow engineers sneaking into the back row and wanting to be desperately ANYWHERE but sat facing the be-sequined 'hippy' lecturing us.

She told us we should only do the things we want to in life. To shape our days around only tasks that fulfilled us.

I thought about the fact that after I'd sat on a train home for an hour, I'd have to pick up my baby up from daycare, cook dinner and load the dishwasher. None of these tasks brought me 'great joy' or filled my soul. 

I rolled my eyes at my soon-to-be ex-colleague sat next to me and when we stopped for a break he told me that one task he HAD to do EVERY day was hold the damned cat down so he could get its medicine down its throat.

He HATED doing that task. He HATED making the cat uncomfortable and it made him feel like a shitty person. But... if he DIDN'T hold the cat down - the cat was going to die.

So what do you do?

Do you let the cat die and "live your best life" only doing the tasks which bring you great joy on a day-to-day basis? 

Or do you set up a system, grit your teeth and get the fuck on with it?

YOU WANT THE OUTCOME - NOT THE TASK!

Well, back in the real world away from the henna-painted hands, jangling skirts and gigantic earrings, we all know what we need to do.

We need to stuff the pill down the damned cat's neck! 

When it comes to business there are going to be tasks which don't fill you with joy. Even though I strongly advocate running your business in a way which you enjoy and doing it the way YOU want to do it - there will be some things which NEED TO BE DONE that you can't just politely decline because they don't fill your soul with joy!

You're going to need to respond to customers who want a refund, or someone who's having a shitty day lashing out at you, you're going to need to MAKE SURE you send a newsletter to your list or whatever else task it is you really hate doing.

There's a ton of info out there about "swallowing the frog" which basically means facing those fuck-awful tasks first thing and getting them out of the way.

But... either I'm a shit person just a lazy bitch , but if I KNOW I'm going to have to start my day with a task I REALLY don't want to do, then I'm going to procrastinate until my working day gets shorter and shorter - and I achieve less. 

Less swallowing the frog and more bringing it to a slow boil and filling my house with the smell of frog!  

On a day-to-day basis I automate as much as I can so that I can attack the parts of the business I DO enjoy - the bits which work for the model I've chosen to create.

And for the shitty jobs - or rather the jobs I HAVE to do, but find less enjoyable? I push them to Friday lunchtime - because then I've got the deadline of "I'm fucking finishing this before the end of the week" because for me it's deeply satisfying to finish Friday on a nigh note - and getting rid of the shitty jobs is one way I can do this.