One of my favourite household chores is ironing. Yes, I know, I must be insane, but there's something rather therapeutic about taking crumpled clothing, running that big hot metal weight over it, and watching smooth fabric come out behind it - I can literally stand at the ironing board for hours on a Sunday afternoon, ironing everything in my laundry basket while watching movies. But even I must confess that I absolutely hate ironing bedsheets.

Those endlessly broad expanses of cotton and silk are a nightmare to iron. Such a handful! Holding them still on the ironing board long enough to run the iron over them koraa is a headache on its own, not to mention the annoying fact that by the time you get to the bottom, the top is crumpled again. There's just no denying it - bedsheets are the torture rack of ironing.

I always used to put them off 'til last whenever I had lots of stuff to iron, but the knowledge that I still had those blighted bales to battle with at the end of my task, sucked the joy out of the more fun fabrics I ironed first. I could never shake the cloud of gloom that hung over me every time I bent down to pick a new item from the laundry basket and caught a glimpse of the thick, heavy-folded bundles sitting at the bottom, just waiting to torture me.

Until one day, I decided to iron the bedsheets first. It made a world of difference. Yes, they were still awkward and clumsy and unruly, but boy, the sense of relief I felt once I was done with them and all I had left were the delightfully simple shirts and t-shirts and trousers I so love to iron. By getting the big jobs out of the way first, I rid myself of the mental - and physical - burden they represented. I sorted the worst part first, so I could settle down and truly enjoy the fun part of ironing.

So why am I boring you on a Tuesday morning with this dismal dirge on the dubious delights of ironing bedsheets? Well, it's because life is like that. We all have obligations and responsibilities and jobs and duties and tasks and callings, and assignments and missions to accomplish. Some are a delightful pleasure, others are a nightmare chore. But they all need to get done, don't they? So how do we accomplish them all without losing morale, motivation or momentum?

Well, as Bishop Dag reminded us recently, nature has a lot to teach us. It says so right there in Job 12: 7-10: “But ask the animals, and they will teach you, or the birds in the sky, and they will tell you; or speak to the earth, and it will teach you, or let the fish in the sea inform you". So let's obey the Word of God. Let's ask the Buffalo.

Buffaloes are fascinating creatures. Individually, they are nothing more than wild masses of bone and super-hard wele, but as a herd, they often display shocking levels of intelligence. I read somewhere that all other wild animals run ahead of rainstorms, hoping to stay dry by outrunning the weather - which never works. But buffaloes are different. They really hate rainstorms, so guess what they do when they see bad weather approaching. They run towards it.

Yep. Right into the storm. And straight through it. That's the genius of the buffalo. They know that by running back through the rainstorm, they will spend the least time getting wet, because it will pass over them faster. Other animals misguidedly run away from the rainstorm, which eventually catches up with them and soaks them for ages, because they are running with it instead of through it.

I'm sure it doesn't take much to see where I'm going with this. The instinctive thing for all of us is to run from problems and avoid challenges. Nobody wants to do the biggest pile of work. Nobody wants to deal with the angry customer. Nobody wants to spend hours filing boring tax returns. Nobody wants to take the tough decisions. Nobody wants to start reading that 100-page report. Nobody wants to save rather than spend. Nobody wants to tighten their belt and forgo luxuries.

We put off the boring, taxing, challenging stuff for as long as we possibly can - which means that we always have the burden of a difficult job not yet done hanging over our heads. It doesn't go away. It hovers over us and keeps us soaked in pressure and stress - just like the wild animals running with the rainstorm; just like the bedsheets at the bottom of the basket.

My dear friend, if the blow is inevitably yours, then you might as well encounter it earlier, and extricate yourself from further hostilities. This translated (and then paraphrased) Ghanaian proverb is about priorities and productivity. Deciding what order in which to get things done can sometimes spell the success or failure of any endeavour. Get the tough jobs out of the way. Make the toughest decisions first. Tackle the toughest problems before you turn to the smaller ones. Because once the big burden is behind you, the rest are that much easier to bear.

The converse is also true. If you switch on your office computer in the morning and start your day by logging on to Facebook, it just increases your chances of having to stay later to finish your work. If you spend your money on fun stuff now, it just means it will take longer to build that house. If you eat that burger now, instead of that salad, it just means you will have to spend much longer on the treadmill to get rid of that unsightly bulge that makes people keep asking you when the baby is due. If you inherit an impoverished country and you declare that your "priority of priorities" is to build a half-a-billion dollar cathedral, it just means you are accelerating the return of the IMF. Make no mistake: your priorities predict your progress.

Mark Twain once said, "if it's your job to eat a frog, it's best to do it first thing in the morning. And If it's your job to eat two frogs, it's best to eat the bigger one first". We are at the start of a brand new week, and God only knows what trials and tasks, what stresses and struggles, what pressures and pains await us. But if I can offer anything to help you through it, then it's this: be a buffalo. Run into the rainstorm. Iron the bedsheets first. Start with the bigger frog. Put in your best effort while you're freshest from a restful weekend. Climb the hill now, because once you reach the summit, it's downhill for the rest of the week.

My name is Kojo Yankson, and I am a buffalo.

GOOD MORNING, GHANAFO!