The work that hides behind chores

Every small business has a pile of tasks that must be done and do not need much of the owner. Matching receipts to payments, renaming files, chasing the courier, reformatting the same price list for the third time this month.

These are chores. They are necessary. They come round again and again, everyone already knows how to do them, and nobody's future depends on who does them.

Founders and freelancers spend a surprising share of the week on them. Ask why, and the answer is usually money. Handing them to someone else costs something, and right now every pound feels tight.

I do not think money is the real reason.

Chores are comfortable. They come with a finish line and a small feeling of having been productive. The alternative is the work that does not repeat and has not been proven: the new offer nobody asked for, the difficult conversation with a supplier, the page that has to be written from nothing. That work is uncertain and a little frightening, and a full inbox is a respectable place to hide from it.

The trap is that chores never run out. There is always another file to rename.

If the hard work goes well, it pays for someone else to handle the routine many times over. If it never gets started, the routine quietly fills every hour that was meant for it.

Doing chores carefully and with good humour is a fine thing. It just may not be the thing that is yours to do this week.