Short term pain long term gain

It’s fair to say I felt rather ordinary two days after I lined up for the Astra Zeneca COVID vaccine. Exactly 24 hours after the jab, my body started protesting about this new thing in its system. That’s a good thing though, as I view it as a necessary step to being able to live a relatively normal and safe life at some time in the future. Its short term pain for long term gain.

I also took the chance to take some more pain for long term gain by tackling some of those important but non urgent tasks that will allow me to utilise my team more effectively and have Think Agri perform more efficiently.

I often talk about the value of using systems and processes in farm businesses to improve communication and efficiency – but I must admit, I’m naturally intuitive and spontaneous so it takes effort for me to put such things in place. I am guilty of avoiding these tasks. I guess it’s a bit like the builders’ house that’s never quite finished.

After a few hours though, the Google drive and the laptop drive are better for the clean-up, the relevant folders are shared and I’ll get a lot better value from our investment in business support.

It’s a bit like cleaning up the farm workshop and making sure to put the spanners and the socket sets back in their rightful home. It doesn’t take long, and everyone benefits. Making that first phone call about where to start on complex issues, like succession planning, or even raising that dreaded topic at home, are other examples. Or perhaps there’s some constructive feedback to be given to a family or non-family colleague or a service provider, and the thought of it is making you feel uncomfortable.