Lay the Hard Stone First

Every day’s Trestle Board seems to have one piece of work we’d rather leave until later.

The difficult phone call.

The conversation we’ve been avoiding.

The task that requires more concentration than we feel like giving it.

The apology we know we owe.

The decision we’ve been putting off.

So we do the easier things first.

We answer an email. Straighten the desk. Check something off the list. Stay wonderfully busy while carefully avoiding the one piece of work we know really needs our attention. 😂

But here’s the problem:

The work we avoid doesn’t disappear. We carry it.

What if, instead, we looked at today’s Trestle Board and asked:

What is the hard stone?

Then lay that one first.

Not necessarily the biggest project.

Not necessarily the thing that takes the longest.

The thing you already know you’re most likely to avoid.

Once it’s done, something changes. The task isn’t following you around anymore. And you’ve reminded yourself that discipline—not convenience—gets to decide the order of today’s work.

Today’s Work: Identify the one important thing you’re most tempted to postpone today. Make it your first piece of serious work—and finish it before moving on to the easier things.

Masonry works when it’s done daily.

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