“I’ll do it later” is costing you more than you think

Let’s talk about the phrase we’ve all said, and almost always regretted:

“I’ll do it later.”

On the surface, it sounds harmless. Sensible, even. Strategic, if you squint.

You’ve got client work. You’ve got emails. You’ve got a sick toddler, a jammed calendar, a half-finished proposal, and your brain is already fried.

Of course you’ll write that onboarding checklist later.

Of course you’ll update that policy once someone actually asks for it.

Of course you’ll document that system when you have more time.

Except later rarely comes.

And in the meantime? Everything keeps moving - without the structure to support it.

Here’s what “I’ll do it later” really looks like inside a business:

📋People starting without proper onboarding

🧠You repeating yourself four times a week - minimum

🧾Errors creeping in because there’s no clear way to do things

📧Team members waiting for answers because there’s nothing to refer to

😩You wondering why no one can just figure things out

🤯And secretly blaming yourself for being the bottleneck (because you are)

Why it hits harder when you're a woman running a business

Women don’t just put off tasks - we internalise the fallout.

We blame ourselves for the disorganisation.

We absorb the mental load.

We convince ourselves we “should have sorted this by now.”

And we keep showing up, over-functioning to cover the cracks.

We’re not just juggling. We’re firefighting with a smile - while wondering if we’re doing enough, being enough, leading well enough.

And it’s exhausting.

You can’t build a business that runs smoothly if you’re always deferring the structure that holds it together.

“I’ll do it later” is:

• Why your new hire is confused

• Why you’re drowning in emails

• Why you still can’t step away without everything stalling

• Why your energy feels permanently low, even when the work technically got done

This is what we call leadership debt - the cost of delaying the behind-the-scenes stuff that actually keeps your business functional.

And the longer you delay it, the more expensive it becomes - in time, energy, and your own leadership capacity.

Here's what that delay is actually costing you:

💸 Time - because you’re stuck explaining, fixing, and redoing what should’ve been documented once

💸 Energy - because nothing is streamlined, so everything takes more brainpower than it should

💸 Momentum - because no one else can drive things forward without you, and you can’t hand anything off properly

💸 Growth - because you can’t scale chaos, and you definitely can’t delegate vibes

If your team (or your future team) needs to constantly check in with you to get anything done, you haven’t delegated - you’ve just multiplied your workload.

And if your brain is full of “I’ll get to it later” tasks, your business will always feel like it’s teetering one task away from collapse.

Let’s be clear: This isn’t about perfection.

You don’t need a 48-page SOP or the world’s prettiest Notion template.

You don’t need to build an entire internal wiki by next Tuesday.

You just need to stop doing everything from scratch, every damn time.

What we see most often with our clients

Women who are brilliant at what they do - but are running their business with:

• No job descriptions

• No onboarding plans

• No policy documents

• No clarity on team roles

• No centralised info for anyone else to access

Everything lives in their head.

Which means if they’re unavailable, on leave, or even just off that day - the whole operation wobbles.

That’s not being a leader. That’s being a single point of failure.

So how do you shift out of this?

It’s not about becoming a systems queen overnight.

It’s about recognising that “I’ll do it later” is just code for “this feels hard, so I’ll ignore it and hope it goes away.”

Spoiler: it doesn’t.

Start here:

✅Pick one thing your team regularly asks about

✅Write down the steps it actually takes to do it properly

✅Save it in a shared folder

✅Let your team know it’s there

✅Ask them: “Is this clear enough to follow without asking me?”

If it’s not? Fix it.

If it is? Repeat the process for the next task.

This is how you reduce your mental load.

This is how you actually start building operational resilience.

This is how you stop being the bottleneck in a business you worked so hard to grow.

A leadership reminder for the week:

Leadership isn’t about being the busiest person in the room.

It’s about removing roadblocks - especially when you are the roadblock.

You’re not failing because you’re overwhelmed.

You’re overwhelmed because you’re trying to scale a business with no backend.

Fixing it won’t happen in one sitting.

But it will never happen if you keep putting it off.

Your action this week:

Grab the one task you’ve been avoiding.

The one you’ve thought “ugh I should really get to that.”

And do it.

Not perfectly. Not with branding colours. Not with a fancy cover page.

Just get it out of your head and into a shared doc.

That’s the leadership move.

Stop trying to lead from the chaos.

Your business deserves better. So do you.

Ash ✨