Yak Shaving

Decoded | 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 and thinkers building meaningful, lasting work, yak shaving is not a distraction—it’s forging.

We are told to focus on visible results. But brilliance often grows in the quiet space of the indirect, the unseen, the yak-shaved.

Embrace it. Lean into it. The mundane, the messy, the seemingly trivial tasks are your muscle-building.

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

Your power isn’t just in finishing. It’s in your 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 you shave teaches you how to keep going when the path isn’t clean —
and that’s what separates the ones who finish from the ones who only start.

Thank you for reading! The journal prompt of today:

Please let me know in the comments.