Yak Shaving

The Hotpot| November 2025 | By Lisanne

14.11

Sometimes, the work that matters most doesn’t look like work at all.

You sit down to write an essay, and suddenly you’re cleaning your office space.

Then, once you walk towards the kitchen, you realize you’re out of dishcloths, and decide to run to the store.

On your way out, you notice your bike has a flat tire, so you drop it off at the repair shop first.

And the next thing you know, you’re at the repairman, shaving a yak, all so you can write your essay.

That’s yak shaving.

A term born at MIT in the ’90s after an episode of The Ren & Stimpy Show, describing the chain of small, tedious tasks you do before the “real” work begins.

It can feel like procrastination.
But sometimes, it’s not.

Because yak shaving is the work—or at least, part of the work that matters.

Those small, indirect, and tedious tasks are training. Scaffolding. Quiet, unglamorous preparation. The indirect effort that makes direct progress possible.

It’s moving through the noise instead of fighting it. Understanding that the detours are not wasted time — they’re the training ground.

They teach patience. Systems thinking. Problem-solving. Resilience. They build readiness. For women building meaningful, lasting work, yak shaving is not a distraction—it’s forging.

Let’s embrace the invisible work. Let’s lean into it. The mundane, the messy, the seemingly trivial tasks are our muscle-building.

When we look back, we’ll see that every detour was a step forward. Every yak shaved was progress disguised as distraction.

Our power isn’t just in finishing. It’s in our endurance. It’s in knowing how to navigate the noise, the clutter, the tasks that seem small—and turning the chaos into progress.

Because every yak we shave teaches us how to keep going when the path isn’t clean —
and that’s what could separate the ones who finish from the ones who only start.

Thank you for reading! The journal prompt of today:

Curious to see more reflections like this? Click through to see the rest of the series on success. I’d love to hear what resonates with you.