Every once in a while I’ll try to pick up the house before I go to work in the morning. Usually my whole family is still in bed. A lot of times we’ll have the kids pick up the house before they go to bed, but sometimes it doesn’t work—especially on Sundays when we come home from our evening church gathering and put everyone straight to bed.

The house is still mostly dark, and it’s early. But I don’t want my wife to wake up to a messy house. She cares more about that kind of thing than I do, and I don’t want that to be the way she starts her day, especially on the first day of the week.

It would make sense for me to make a plan and pick up the house in a logical order. But it doesn’t normally work out that way.

• I see some toys scattered on the rug so I put those away.
• Then I notice the jackets that got piled on the floor by the back door so I hang those up.
• Then I notice the cups all over the counter, so I stack those in the sink.
• Then I’m back to the door where shoes are strewn everywhere.

And so on and so forth, I flit around the house addressing the little things that I see.

It’s probably not as efficient as it could be. But it gets the job done.

And at seven a.m., when it’s still dark out, and I’m also trying to find some breakfast and get out the door—it gets the job done.

In writing and small business circles, we talk a lot about opportunity cost.

As a writer, at any time there are a thousand things you could do that would be helpful. “Opportunity cost” is the idea that when you choose to do one thing, you’re choosing not to do something else.

So the theory of opportunity cost says, “Don’t ask if this task is a good thing to do, ask if it’s the best thing to do with the time and money I have available.”

There are always lots of things that are good to do. But you can only do one at a time. So what will be best? If we had a device that could measure the likelihood that you’ll be successful as an author, which task will move the needle the most?

Most days this is the right way to think. If you can capture and apply this idea, you will reach your goals faster.

But sometimes we’re just not there. Sometimes it’s still dark in the house, and we’re just trying to do what we can before we have to get out the door.

As an author and a business person, sometimes considering opportunity cost will just get me spinning in circles. I’ll spend more time thinking about what to do than actually doing anything at all.

Sometimes I have to tell myself, “Just do anything.” Anything that’s on mission will move me towards my goal. It might not move the needle on our success measurer the most, but it will move the needle.

And moving the needle a little is better than not moving the needle at all.

There’s also something to be said for passion. We have to be careful with this line of thinking, but it is true that sometimes working on a task I’m excited about will move the needle more than forcing myself to do something just because it’s “better.”

Facts are facts: there’s a lot of hard work standing between where you are now and where you want to be. You’re going to have to do a lot of things that you don’t want to do.

If you’ve been hanging around for very long, you know I’m the kind of guy who says, “Get your butt in the seat and do the work.”

But when you’re overwhelmed, I want to give you permission to just do anything. As long as you’re doing something on mission, you will move towards your goal.

And that’s always better than spinning in circles.

-Brad Pauquette
Director, The Company

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