Self Leadership

have been talking a lot about brain function lately, because I have been learning about it, but also because it is so critical for leaders and knowledge workers to take good care of their brains. In a recent post I talked about Baumeisters work and noted how important it is to make desicions or do the stuff that is going to require serious brain power first - while you are fresh, fueled and rested. This came in from a colleague who heard me speak on this topic I hope you enjoy it as much as I did:

So you know how you are telling people to do the things that are the hardest first I have a story to share.

We have a nonprofit that we started as the vision of our daughter last year in 2012 Taxes forms are due May 15^th since Jan 1, 2013 I have been stressing about that process we are a startup so we arent hiring someone to do it each month with intent to do it I found something else to focus on. The day I sat down to do them this weekend I was pleasantly surprised to learn that if we took in under 50K in the year (which we had done just under 30K) we could go online and do a e-postcard.

There were 7 questions, my name our website our tax id and a box or two to check and we were done. I think it took me 3 mins! I laughed so hard!!! I had lost sleep on many nights because I didnt want to do the task yuck and what if I did it wrong and the responsibility for the nonprofit etc. So you were in my head Do the hard things first we might be surprised as to how easy they are and then we can get them out of the way!

Just wanted to share (also I have a new treasurer that will just take care of it for me in the years to come so I am really good to go now!) Thanks for the teaching and now that I have had this experience I will be doing the hard stuff first moving forward hopefully as a daily practice!