We shouldn’t have to work during our holidays.

Yet many of us do, squeezed by meetings, emails and other people’s expectations until there’s nothing left for the work that matters.

I’ve been living that tension in my personal life, too.

Back in the first lockdown of 2020 I started a cookbook. The spark? My brother, Neil, bumped into me as I lugged home a haul of Chinese ingredients to recreate the Hong Kong meals I love. “Write a couple down for me?” he asked. I did. I started. I didn’t finish.

Five years on, with my daughter now at university, I promised myself last year I’d complete it. I didn’t. Instead, my office floor is still festooned with recipe offcuts, scraps and print-outs:

I’ve learned a lot from my five-year failure: writing a good cookbook is hard. I’ve also learned that the internet already holds a close-enough version of most recipes. What people actually want from me isn’t a polished compendium: they need the names of the dishes worth trying and the core bottles and spices you need to buy once so the rest becomes easy.

In other words, people want focus. Not everything. Just the essentials.

Justin Welsh’s latest newsletter sums up the problem of deferring and deferring and deferring: deferral is a decision.

His Five-Day Decision Rule helped me see what my half-written cookbook really was: an identity I liked carrying without doing the work.

We see the same in schools all the time:

  • The curriculum review “for next term.”

  • The middle-leadership development “once the inspection window passes.”

  • The strategic plan “once accreditation is complete.”

  • The tough conversation “after results.”

  • The brand refresh “when we have more time.”

Future You will not have more capacity. Future You will have less. Meanwhile, the cost of deferring compounds: the tricky conversation curdles; the bloated meeting culture expands to fill every gap; your best people burn out doing their actual job and the job of pretending they’re going to get to the other job they’ve deferred.

Let’s use the cookbook lesson. Most kitchens don’t need 200 sauces; they need a short shelf of bottles that unlock dozens of meals.

Leaders are the same. You don’t need twenty initiatives; you need a small rack of commitments everyone can reach for.

So why not try Justin’s Five-Day Decision Rule this week?

Step 1: List your deferrals.

Take 10 minutes to write down everything you’ve been “getting to soon” for 3+ months. Not active projects, just the lurkers.

Step 2: Ask the uncomfortable question.
For each item: “If I admit I’m never going to do this, what does that say about me I don’t want to face?” Write the answer. That’s the real blocker.

Step 3: Decide within five days.

There are only two options:

A) Schedule it in the next five days, and deliver come what may.

or B) Say it out loud: “We’re not doing this.” Then either delegate, replace it with a smaller move, or let it go.

There is no “later.” Later is a mirage.

I’m not writing a 200-recipe book. I’m sharing the dishes worth trying and the handful of bottles to buy once so you can cook with confidence. That’s the work that actually helps my brother and daughter, and maybe even you.

Now it’s your turn.

Run the Five-Day Decision Rule this week.

Let’s stop pretending Future Us will fix it. Decide, do, or delete… by Friday.