I haven't done my own washing in years

Not every job deserves your time just because you're physically capable of doing it. That's the whole idea here, and once you've properly got hold of it, there's no going back to not knowing it.

If a task drains you and someone else can do it, pay them to do it. That's not laziness. That's knowing what you're actually for.

I've always had a cleaner. Always. I take precisely zero pleasure in cleaning, none, and I'm not going to pretend otherwise for the sake of sounding wholesome. I pay around fifty pounds for two hours a week. In that time the house gets done properly, by someone who's good at it and genuinely wants the work, and I go and earn considerably more than fifty pounds doing what I'm actually good at instead. That's not a flex, before anyone starts, and it's never once been guilt either. My entrepreneurial brain has always seen it the other way round, paying someone else to do a job I don't want isn't something to feel bad about, it's a job I'm creating, for someone who might genuinely rate doing it. It's just maths, and a bit of honesty about what I enjoy and what I very much do not.

And let's be honest, with the way my brain rotates between things, leaving wet washing sat in the drum was standard for me. Beyond annoying, beyond wasteful too, each load getting two or three washes simply because I'd clean forgotten it was even in there and had to run the whole thing again.

The laundrette story is the one that actually broke that habit for good, years before I could have put any of this into words. Our washing machine broke down the weekend before a work conference, we had a case to pack and no working machine, so in a proper fit of desperation we hauled the lot to the local laundrette. One of those huge IKEA blue bags, absolutely rammed, washed, dried and folded for about twenty quid. I stood there doing the maths on what my time was worth against twenty pounds, and against every load I'd already rewashed twice out of pure forgetfulness, and made a vow on the spot. Never done the day to day washing since.

Jeans, t shirts, underwear, leisurewear, bedding, towels, the lot goes to the laundrette now. The way that works without turning into a weekly panic is stock. We keep proper multiples at home, enough socks and pants and spare t shirts that nobody's ever caught short, and I've got seven sets of work scrubs even though I only wear three in a week, so there's always a clean one rotating in. It's a system, not an indulgence, and once it's set up it just runs itself.

Meal kits are the same principle in a different coat. Gousto, HelloFresh, Mindful Chef, whichever one you fancy. What they actually save you isn't the cooking, it's the deciding. The what are we having tonight, the annoying little top up shop for the one ingredient you're missing, the mental load of menu planning stacked on top of everything else in your week. If you love cooking and planning meals and it genuinely destresses you, brilliant, crack on, you're doing it for the right reason. If you don't, stop doing it out of some vague sense that you ought to.

It holds up just as well in a business, and this is the bit worth sitting with if you run one. Have a proper look at what you or your staff are actually spending time on. Are you asking someone who could be earning at their real rate to clean the office instead. Are you still sat there once a year battling your own books, when most accountants now do a monthly payment plan and will happily take the whole thing off your desk. You shouldn't really be doing that yourself. Same principle, just wearing a suit.

Time and energy are the actual currency. Money's just how you buy them back.

None of this is about being extravagant or precious about it. It's about being honest with yourself over what genuinely lights you up, what drains you, and what you're realistically never going to stay on top of, then having the nerve to act on the difference.

It's also, if you look at it properly, the exact thinking behind Let AI Do It. A lot of what makes a week feel heavy, the repetitive admin, the drafting, the chasing, the deciding, is exactly the kind of dreary task this whole piece is banging on about. AI can take a fair share of that off you too now, at home and in a business, much the same way a cleaner or a laundrette does. One more thing you no longer have to do yourself. Have a look at letaidoit.shop if you want to see what I mean.