I think we have established that time is weird for us. A big thing might not feel hard, if it’s a thing that lights our fire. And a small thing can feel overwhelming because it is boring or tedious. I have found one strategy particularly helpful when it comes to getting through those difficult-because-they-are-boring tasks in life. Put simply: know how long things take.
I’m a guy who feels like he can get through almost anything, as long as I know how long it is going to take. Of course, I’m being hyperbolic. There is definitely a threshold at which I will endure only limited suckage. But I’ve found that most of the things that I have avoided in the past just aren’t that bad, once I know how long they will take. And my clients would agree. Here are two examples.
On a more macro level, I used to avoid gathering all the paperwork and statements I need to send to my bookkeeper. It’s a tedious thing I need to do a couple times a year that saps my energy, yet requires attention and EF. Because it ranks pretty high on the suckage scale, I had gotten it into my head that it would take at least a whole afternoon of my work week. That just made it feel more awful. So, a few years ago, I timed it. It only took about 90 minutes, not the 4 hours it felt like it was going to take. I have never avoided it since and it if off the list of things that I dread.
On a more micro level, the dishes. Usually, I cook dinner and do most of the cooking dishes as I go. Then my wife does the after dinner dishes. But, when she works nights, I’ve got the cook and the dishes and the kids. Not my favorite. I remember distinctly a night about five years ago, when I had the kids on my own on pesto pasta night. Pesto is notorious for sticking to my pasta bowls. And, with our old dishwasher also rating very high on the suckage scale, it was a more labor intensive dish night. I also needed to clean the stove and hadn’t done the pots and pans. After eating, at the end of a long day, my first inclination was to soak the dishes and do them in the morning. But, I knew the following day was busy and I really didn’t want to start it with a sink full of cold pesto water and dirty dishes. But I still felt overwhelmed. So, I put on a favorite podcast and timed how long it took.
13 minutes. I was overwhelmed by a task that only took 13 minutes. And, since that was pretty much the worst case scenario for the kitchen/dishes, most days would be ten minutes or less. This blew my mind. I still do not enjoy doing the dishes. But in the five or so years since, I have never left the dishes overnight again. I can always muster the energy to do ten minutes of work to set myself up for a good tomorrow. Of course, I’m a bit maniacal. But even if it’s not all the time for you, I bet you can make a lot of things in your life a lot easier a lot of the time, just by knowing how long they take.