There is a phrase in English: it’s not brain surgery which means it’s not very difficult to do or understand. Many times we are afraid to do a job which may not be actually challenging but for various reasons gets delayed. You might have some reports to submit, a few household chores to complete and a few emails to reply to. But you have been delaying them – for various reasons.

One reason for not taking up any particular task may be a feeling of being incapable to handle it. Some activity needs a special kind of knowledge which you might not possess ready at hand and therefore might feel that it’s brain surgery, beyond your ability to perform. However, the required skill might be easy to acquire. It might be as easy as downloading software from the internet and installing it on your desktop – initially a herculean task but once you watch 2-3 youtube videos, it becomes a child’s game.

The second reason might be fear of adding more responsibility and activities to your already busy schedule. You have to take a call if it’s doable or not. Whether it is worth doing or not. But having an initial negative block in mindset is certainly like the feeling of brain surgery. Better to give it a thought and then analyse how will it affect your life, if you undertake it. Many of the acts which seem to be demanding, turn out to be completely automated. So, without fear, give genuine consideration, and then make a decision.

The third reason might be simple procrastination. We tend to avoid many of our regular works for no particular reason. It is not difficult to finish them if you start. They may not affect your other work much.

The fourth reason may be it is actually a brain surgery, i.e. very technical and difficult for you.

However, the best solution to overcome the pending list of things to do is to have a look at them once again, with a fresh mind. As you read the list, keep saying in your mind that it’s not brain surgery. Go through the list. Identify what you can easily complete and shelve. Maybe seven out of ten of your pending things would fall in the category of easily doable. Take them up. Keep reminding yourself of the phrase it’s not brain surgery and complete them. Once started, they will take their own space in your schedule and get to a logical end.

Then turn to the remaining three, which might be actually like brain surgery. For them, you will need a brain surgeon. Hire one expert, a brain surgeon, and ask her/him to do it for you. It won’t take very long to finish them with an expert’s help. What you need to do it just take up them for the next step.

If we can simply remember this phrase, and convince ourselves, all the pending acts may be resolved rather quickly and easily than we might have thought of. We just need to keep calm and keep doing something to make it happen because it may not be actually a brain surgery kind of difficult task.