You have a boulder. I know you do. It’s that thing you keep meaning to get to. The project that’s been on your list for months. The initiative you know would change everything—if only you had time.

You’ve pushed it to next week so many times that “next week” has become a running joke. A dark one.

But here’s what you might not realize: that boulder isn’t just sitting there, inert, waiting patiently for its turn. It’s actively costing you.

The Hidden Tax of Undone Work

Every undone important task occupies mental real estate. It sits in your brain, taking up space, consuming background processing power. Even when you’re not actively thinking about it, some part of you is tracking it—remembering that it exists, feeling the weight of its incompleteness.

Psychologists call this the Zeigarnik effect: incomplete tasks are remembered better than completed ones. Your brain literally won’t let go of unfinished business. It keeps pinging you, reminding you, draining you.

The Compound Cost

The longer a boulder sits unmoved, the more expensive it becomes. Not just in terms of opportunity cost—though that’s real—but in terms of the drag it creates on everything else.

When you’re carrying something heavy, you move slower. You have less energy for the things you are doing. You’re more tired, more distracted, more prone to decisions that are good enough instead of actually good.

That boulder you’re ignoring isn’t just one thing. It’s affecting everything.

The Relief Is Real

I’ve watched it happen dozens of times: someone finally moves the thing they’ve been avoiding, and it’s like a weight lifts off their entire life. Their shoulders drop. Their breathing changes. Their focus sharpens.

Because it’s not just about getting that one thing done. It’s about reclaiming all the energy that thing was stealing.

You Don’t Have to Move It Alone

Sometimes the reason a boulder stays stuck isn’t that you can’t move it—it’s that you can’t move it while also doing everything else on your plate. The math just doesn’t work.

That’s when you need another set of hands. Someone who can take the boulder while you keep the rest of your world running. Someone who can move it—fast, clean, done—so you can stop paying the hidden tax.

What’s your boulder? How long has it been sitting there? And what would it feel like to finally have it gone?