Jonathan Swanson

It's paying bills.

Those are things that don't require any cognitive load, don't require any creativity.

It's not why people get up in the morning.

And so starting there reduces this just kind of like cognitive load

weight that you carry every day you've got to do xyz but you take those things off and then the things that remain are higher order it's planning its goals its aspirations and those higher order things are much more exciting more energy uh giving and that is uh that's a wonderful trade so cognitive offloading is a mental upgrade here in that regard

Exactly.

Yeah, the more you offload, the more time you have for the highest order things in your life.

I'd like to say assistance like a cognitive prosthetic for remembering, planning, sequencing.

And just like inflammation damages your body and health, chronic to-dos damages or impairs your mind.

And so the more we can free ourselves of those things, the freer and the more upgraded our mind can be.

So the number one, I call pride.

This is the thinking it's better or faster to do it yourself.

This is the cardinal sin of delegation because it's true.

It actually is faster and you will be better at doing something the first time, whether it's sending an email or...

planning a party, but the hundredth time you do it, you won't be faster and better.

And so it takes effort to delegate and to hand that off, but you have to get over the fact that you could do it faster or better, but you could be doing something else.

So that's the first thing, which I call pride.

The second is guilt, which is really on the other end of the spectrum, which is I don't even feel good about having this person manage the minutiae of my life or wait on hold all day long.

And for these people, my reframe is you're giving this other person a job.

And, you know, at companies like Athena, we recruit people who are excited to support and take care of you.