The Task That We Keep Putting Off – The Health Consequences
We only have eleven customers left in our car business. Crazy as it may sound, the last one won’t be paid off until the end of 2026. Eleven accounts may not sound like much, but the daily and monthly banking entries haven’t shrunk one bit. Phone bills, banking fees, checks, it all still has to be entered into our accounting software for tax and business reporting.
And guess who’s stuck with it? Me. The one who hates math and accounting. The one who once thought she wanted to be an accountant, went to college for it, and quickly realized: no way in the world.
Every time I even think about sitting down to do the banking and software entries, my chest gets tight and my brain freezes. Not because I’m afraid of money, gain or loss, it just feels overwhelming to my nervous system.
The Why Behind the Avoidance
So why was I two months behind on the upkeep of the business entries? Because of how the task makes me feel. It’s not the work itself, it’s the emotion that comes up when I sit down to face it. And that feeling? It traces back to something much older than a stack of bank statements.
When I was eight or nine, living in Ahwaz, Iran, my dad was drilling me on multiplication tables out on our front patio. He asked me what 8 x 7 was. I froze, my mind went completely blank. When I couldn’t answer, he shamed me. The answer, of course, is 56, but all I felt was stupid and small.
I could spell any word, find any word in the dictionary, but when it came to math my brain froze. My mind came to a complete stop.
I know my dad was trying to help, drilling kids on spelling words and multiplication tables is what “good parents” do, but that moment has resurfaced in my mind again and again. Even now, decades later, a simple stack of bank statements can light up the same shame I felt on that patio. My body doesn’t know the difference between multiplication drills and balancing the books, it just reacts.
That old discomfort doesn’t just bring back a memory; it created a backlog that weighed on my health. The discomfort of the task meant I avoided it, which meant I had not done the entries for two months. And every single day, it was in the back of my mind: cortisol racing through my veins, the guilt and self-judgment piling on top of the undone task.
And science backs this up. And science backs this up. Psychologists call it the Zeigarnik Effect (here’s a short article about it): the mind holds onto unfinished tasks, keeping them alive in our awareness whether we want it to or not.Layer that with an old memory of shame, and you’ve got a perfect recipe for stress. Each undone item doesn’t just sit on paper; it sits in your nervous system.
Why Unfinished Business Hurts
Here’s what happens:
Chronic stress: When tasks stay undone, your body holds a low-level stress response. Cortisol rises, heart rate ticks up, blood pressure climbs. Over time, that pattern is linked to health risks, even heart problems.
Energy drain: Every little “open loop” eats at your focus. Closing them, checking off even small tasks, creates mental space, improves mood, and frees energy. Dopamine even gives you a reward hit when you mark something as done.
It’s not that one overdue task will give you a heart attack. But a lifetime of “never done” adds up.
Facing the Pile
Until a week ago, I was two months behind on the banking. How did I let that happen? Because when you run a small business, the reactive things of the day crowd out the tasks you dread. And if you avoid it long enough, the weight just grows heavier.
I knew all of these facts, so I knew I had to just get it done. It was time to face it whether it killed me or not. Whether I felt stuck or not.
So last Sunday, I sat down for three hours. I dug through mismatches, reconciled every entry, and fought the rising panic each time my chest tightened. Instead of running, I breathed. I faced it head-on. I told that tightness in my chest to shut up and get out of my way, while honoring that little seven-year-old who felt stupid.
Because although this math block shows up all the time, even when I’m making change at the checkout counter, I am not stupid (a word that comes up in my head all too often).
And just like that, I was caught up. I even took a moment to celebrate, because now I could move forward and do better going forward, for me.
What I Changed Going Forward
Now I’m doing it differently. Each morning, the first thing I do when I get to the office is print off the overnight banking activity, even if it’s just one entry. I do it first, no excuses. If someone interrupts, I jot their request down but don’t stop. When I feel like doing an easy task first, I catch myself and I don’t. Just the banking.
When the banking is done, I take a breath and move the paper aside. At the end of the day, no matter what, I put the banking paperwork back on the top of my stack of things to do the next day, front and center.
This tiny routine has cut the mental noise. That “you’re an idiot, you suck at math” voice has started to fade. Each day I finish, I give myself a little “atta girl.” The reaction in my chest is smaller. My stress is lower. I feel lighter. The commitment keeps me accountable.
A Question for You
What do you put off? What sits undone in your life, gnawing at you? Can you delegate it? Or do you need to find a way, like me, to face it, finish it, and take back the energy it’s been stealing?
Unfinished tasks don’t just clutter your desk. They clutter your body, your mind, your health. Clearing them might just open the space for something better, maybe even money flowing in, now that I’ve cleaned up this little mess.
Let’s see.