Unfinished business in your mind: Why little things take so much energy

Why chaos in business costs so much energy

Over the last few years as a virtual assistant, I’ve had the opportunity to look behind the scenes at a wide variety of companies. I’ve worked with coaches, consultants, online entrepreneurs, senior management teams and boards of directors. Different industries, different business models, different personalities.

And yet, time and again, I come up against the same challenges.

Passwords that nobody can find anymore. Files with names like ‘final’, ‘final_new’ or ‘final_final_really_final’. Invoices that have vanished somewhere between the downloads folder, the email inbox and cloud storage. Tools that were introduced but nobody really uses anymore.

The interesting thing is: most of these people wouldn’t describe themselves as disorganised.

On the contrary.

Many are extremely well organised, successful in their field and tackle an impressive number of tasks every day. From the outside, everything seems to be running smoothly.

And yet their business often takes up more of their energy than is actually necessary. The cause rarely lies in major projects or demanding clients. The real energy drainers are often the many little things in the background. The login that isn’t working right now. The file that was saved somewhere. The receipt you’ve been meaning to file away for ages. The note you know exists – you just can’t remember where.

Each of these interruptions might only last a few minutes. Sometimes just a few seconds. But when you add them all up, the result is something many self-employed people are familiar with: the feeling of being constantly busy yet never quite having everything under control.

And to be honest? I know that feeling too.

Not in every area, but certainly in some. Over the years, I’ve therefore developed a few strategies that help me keep things tidy without having to constantly tidy up and organise. I’ll come back to that later in the article.

Why our brains hate chaos

When we talk about chaos in business, many people’s first thought is of wasted time. In reality, however, time is often not the biggest problem at all.

Let’s take a simple example: you’re looking for an invoice and find it after three minutes. Objectively speaking, that’s no big deal. Three minutes are over in a flash. Yet the situation often feels far more stressful than it really needs to be.

The reason for this isn’t the three minutes themselves. Whilst you’re searching, you interrupt another task, switch your focus mentally and suddenly find yourself dealing with something that shouldn’t really deserve your attention at all. Afterwards, you have to find your way back to what you were originally working on.

It is precisely these small interruptions that add up surprisingly quickly in the daily life of the self-employed. A login isn’t working here, a file can’t be found there, or a tool isn’t doing what it’s supposed to. Each individual situation seems harmless. Our brain, however, doesn’t treat them as trivialities. It has to decide, prioritise and switch gears all over again every single time.

But I find something else even more interesting. We don’t solve many of these small problems straight away. We put them off. Not because we’re lazy or don’t feel like working, but because we already suspect that there’s even more work waiting behind the actual problem.

A missing invoice suddenly turns into the ‘Organise receipts’ project. A forgotten password becomes a resolution to finally get all your logins properly organised. And an overflowing downloads folder leads to the realisation that you really ought to overhaul your entire folder structure.

So we do what most people would probably do: we put it off until later. After all, there are more important things right now. Clients, projects, deadlines or tasks that seem more urgent.

The only problem is that the task doesn’t disappear as a result. It lingers in the back of our minds. Every time we stumble across the same mess again, our brain reminds us that there’s still something left undone. And it’s precisely these loose ends that often cost significantly more energy than the actual task itself.

Perhaps you know this feeling. You’re sitting on the sofa in the evening and can’t quite put your finger on why you’re so exhausted. The day wasn’t particularly difficult, nothing dramatic happened, and yet you feel drained. Often, this isn’t down to the big tasks, but to the sum of all those little decisions, interruptions and loose ends that demanded your attention throughout the day.

That is precisely why I am convinced that organisation in business has far less to do with perfection than many people think. It is not about every folder looking immaculate or every file being filed away perfectly. It is about organising the things that drain our energy unnecessarily every day.

Why we put off precisely the things that would make our lives easier

The longer I work with self-employed people, the more I notice how similarly we humans react in certain situations. Most of them know exactly what would make their lives easier. They know they should organise their passwords better, that the downloads folder is long overdue for a clear-out, or that the filing system has become somewhat chaotic over the years. Yet, surprisingly little often gets done.

In my view, this has little to do with a lack of discipline. Rather, it is because many of these tasks offer no immediate reward. When we complete a job, win a client or successfully deliver a project, we see the result straight away. The work has a visible benefit. With organisational matters, it’s often different. Nobody applauds because the downloads folder is empty again. Nobody sees that passwords are now properly managed or that receipts finally have a fixed place.

At the same time, it is precisely these tasks that become increasingly daunting as time goes on. The longer we put them off, the more overwhelming they seem in our minds. What starts out as a small tidying-up job suddenly turns into a massive project in our minds. We resolve to reorganise everything at some point, to overhaul the folder structure, to sort out our passwords or to finally get our digital filing system in order. And because this supposedly requires a whole day off, often nothing happens at all.

The problem is that the task doesn’t disappear. It lingers somewhere in the back of our minds. Every time we stumble across the same unfinished business, our brain reminds us that there’s still something left to do. Perhaps you’re familiar with this thought: ‘I really ought to…’ It’s precisely this phrase that crops up surprisingly often when it comes to the things we’ve been putting off for ages.

At some point, I realised that it wasn’t the actual task that was draining my energy, but the constant burden of carrying these unfinished projects around with me. The constant awareness that there was still something that needed to be done. That’s exactly why I eventually stopped waiting for the perfect moment when I could sort everything out in one go. Instead, I started building simple routines and systems that prevent the chaos from getting out of hand in the first place.

My personal strategy for tackling chaos

At some point, I stopped believing that there would ever be a moment when everything would suddenly be perfectly organised.

Perhaps you’ve had this thought too. You resolve to set aside a whole day at some point to finally get things in order. Tidying up the files, organising the passwords, sorting through the paperwork and tackling all those little tasks that have piled up over months or years.

It never worked for me.

Not because I’m disorganised, but because everyday life gets in the way. Clients, projects, family, spontaneous ideas and everything else that demands attention. So at some point, I started thinking about it differently.

Nowadays, I no longer try to create perfect order. Instead, I focus on the areas that bring me the greatest benefit in my daily life.

A good example of this is my password management. I used to treat passwords like many other people: stored them somehow, jotted them down somewhere, or trusted that I’d find them again. Nowadays, I consistently use a password manager – for work, in my private life and together with my family. This not only means greater security, but above all less mental effort. When I need a login, I know where to find it. I don’t have to search for it, reset anything or spend time trying to remember some password or other.

Another area that has made a big difference for me is my digital filing system. For some time now, I’ve been making a point of tidying up my Downloads folder and my desktop every week. It usually only takes a few minutes, but it stops hundreds of files from piling up over weeks, which would then have to be sorted out later.

I take a similar approach to my workspace. Before I head into the weekend, I usually tidy up my desk and my office. Not because I’m particularly tidy by nature, but because I’ve realised how pleasant it is not to be confronted with the remnants of the previous week first thing on Monday morning.

That doesn’t mean, however, that everything runs perfectly for me.

If I’m honest, there are still areas today that I’d like to tackle more consistently. My mobile phone photos definitely fall into that category. Time and again, I resolve to sort through them regularly and get them organised. And just as regularly, I find that more has accumulated there than I’d like.

That’s exactly why I don’t believe in perfection.

For me, organisation doesn’t mean that every area of my life has to be flawlessly organised. It’s more about identifying the few things that drain my energy unnecessarily every day and finding simple solutions for them.

After all, you often don’t need huge projects or complicated systems. Sometimes all it takes is a simple routine to stop a manageable task from turning into a never-ending mental headache.

What I’ve learnt over the last few years

When I look back over the last few years, one realisation has remained constant: most people don’t need more discipline. Nor do they necessarily need more time.

Often, they simply need less friction in their daily lives.

Many of the self-employed people I work with are incredibly dedicated. They work hard, look after their clients and drive their projects forward. The problem is rarely a lack of commitment. Often, there is simply a lack of structure in the background that takes the pressure off them, rather than costing them extra energy.

It’s not about organising everything perfectly or optimising every detail. Very few people have the time or inclination to spend hours dealing with folder structures, passwords or filing systems. Nor do they need to.

Far more important is the question of which areas of daily life repeatedly demand attention, even though they really shouldn’t, because that is often where the greatest leverage lies.

A password you have to search for every time. A downloads folder that’s constantly filling up. A bill that’s nowhere to be found. A filing system that’s never quite finished being organised. Taken individually, these are minor things. Taken together, however, they can tie up a surprising amount of energy.

That’s why my view on the subject of organisation has changed over the years.

These days, I no longer see structure as an end in itself. It’s not about appearing as tidy as possible or setting up a perfect system. It’s about clearing your head for the things that really matter.

For clients. For new ideas. For projects that bring joy. And sometimes simply for an evening when you’re not constantly left with the nagging feeling that there’s actually still something somewhere that needs doing.

Perhaps that is precisely why this topic still preoccupies me to this day. Not because I love order, but because I see time and again how much easier running a business can feel when the little organisational issues aren’t constantly demanding attention.

And that’s exactly why Back-Office in a Box exists

Many of the issues I’ve written about in this article are ones I come across time and again when working with clients. Not as major problems or acute crises, but as small organisational challenges that drain a little energy every day.

That’s precisely why Back-Office in a Box was created.

Not because I believe that every self-employed person needs perfect systems. Nor because everything suddenly has to be organised down to the last detail.

But because I see time and again how much easier everyday life feels when the basics are working in the background.

When passwords are where they belong. When you don’t have to hunt for receipts. When files have a fixed place and every little organisational task doesn’t demand unnecessary attention.

That’s why Back-Office in a Box isn’t just another course you should look at at some point. It’s a guided introduction that helps you build the most important foundations for your digital back office – step by step and without technical chaos.

Because sometimes, big changes aren’t needed.

Sometimes, it’s enough to sort out a few of the small issues that have been draining your energy for far too long.

If you’d like some help with this, you’ll find all the information about Back-Office in a Box here.

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