The Buffer blog is great. Last year, they posted this gem about doing painful things first. That is a common theme I notice among successful entrepreneurs; they don’t shy away from the painful things.
In fact, they embrace doing things others view as painful. It gives them an advantage.
The post I linked to above contains the great advice to do painful things first, stacking the pain at the front so that you can finish with enjoyable things.
I’d modify that advice to say stack the painful things upfront that you know have to be done sooner or later. But if there is a chance you will not need to do them I would just ignore them to see if those tasks just go away. Methodical procrastination can be a wonderful thing, as long as you avoid procrastinating merely to avoid painful things that you know you need to do.
Here are some painful things that should just get done:
- Cold calling
- Website development so that your customers have a nice experience
- Meticulous testing in software development, both of the code (unit tests) and of the customer experience (usability testing)
- Writing blog posts and marketing copy
- Anything requiring deep concentration
- Firing a bad apple
What are your thoughts on doing painful things first? What things are painful to you?
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