I recently came across this video via OrgJunkie's post about finishing what you start. As you know if you have read any of my posts on the subject, procrastination and I are frenemies. When I saw this little tongue-in-cheek video about Age-Activated Attention Deficit Disorder, I recognized myself. This phenomenon of being busy but accomplishing little seems to be quite universal.
YouTube commenter Ihorseportrait had this wonderful observation to share:
"...it's not AAADD, it's called Proximity Prioritization Syndrome: that which is closest to you gets your immediate attention. It is a direct result of having children. There is no cure. It is a chronic condition that can be supported by diet, exercise and detailed list making. Until the dog eats the list or your youngest uses it for toilet paper and you are back where you started."
Yes, yes - that's so completely and totally me! So please join me, fellow Proximity Prioritization Syndrome sufferers, and let's show this thing who's boss. Which would be us, in case there is any question. Unless we've lost our lists, of course.
"Much of the stress that people feel doesn't come from having too much to do. It comes from not finishing what they started." ~David Allen
Showing posts with label procrastination. Show all posts
Showing posts with label procrastination. Show all posts
Wednesday, July 6, 2011
Tuesday, June 14, 2011
The Procrastination Files
As I discussed in this post, I find that by indulging in procrastination - particularly when in tandem with the other activities that I engage in as I merrily skip down the path of living unintentionally (sleeping in, reading during the day, and spending time online) - I bring both inner and outer chaos to my life. Although it is a bit tongue-in-cheek, I have described this blog to friends as a place to shame myself publicly into making some changes that I wish to bring to my daily life. In all seriousness, this is a place that I wish to use for introspection and to engage with others who find themselves in a similar place. I'm okay with the fact that my posting frequency has slowed down a bit from where I started earlier in the year, but as I look back over what I have been posting lately I don't see as much introspection as I would like. To that end, I'm here today with the Procrastination Files.
Sometimes I end off putting something off because I don't take the minute (or less!) that is needed to complete a task intending to come back to it later and then forgetting about it. This is a particularly embarrassing example of that. The kids and I came back the other evening after E2B's karate class to find that the cat had thrown up and had a bout of diarrhea in Miss Intrepid's room. I immediately cleaned it up and while I worked on treating the spots on the carpet I moved the trash basket full of smelly sickness out onto the front porch so that the room could air out and I could then take the basket out to the large trash can we keep outside. As you might have guessed, I forgot all about it. Do you know when I remembered it? That would be when someone came to my front door, in the heat of summer, and had to stand next to this. Seriously, if I had taken 30 seconds to walk around the corner and throw it away instead of waiting until I completed the longer task of stain treating the carpet I could have avoided this procrastination fail.
Sometimes I end up putting something off because I think that it is going to be more involved than it actually is and by doing so I actually make things more complicated and, in this case, more expensive. Last March, after having both our washer and dryer worked on several times, we purchased a new and more energy efficient washer and dryer. As soon as the good folks who delivered and installed them left, I noticed that the felt strip around the edge of the dryer lint screen was loose at the bottom right hand side. It was easy enough to tuck back in and slide in without issue, so although I thought about calling the store where we bought them to get a new and undamaged lint screen, I just rolled with it and never did it because it seemed like the easier, and less time consuming, path to take. Over the past year that strip has come further and further detached making the lint screen more and more ineffective. Finally, about 15 months after noticing that there was a problem, I called to see about getting a new one. Because I didn't call within the first year, when the dryer and its parts were all under warranty and I would have been given a free replacement, I had to purchase one myself. Rather than making one phone call that would have taken a few minutes right away, I spent more than a year trying to fix it and then I spent considerably more than a few minutes making calls and researching what part I would need/where I could find the most reasonable price online. The fact that replacing a lint screen is more expensive than I would have guessed was frustrating as well. Why, why, why didn't I just take care of it when it came up?
Of course, I know logically what I need to do. Take care of things right away and just do what needs to be done in the moment. What I don't necessarily know is how to change my patterns of behavior. I do think that the first step is in admitting what the problem is and that's where putting this out there publicly comes in for me. Much as I found that committing publicly in this space to cleaning up certain hot spots around my house during Simple Mom's Project Simplify helped lend me the motivation that I needed to get it done, I'd like to make a public declaration about my plans at this point. I'm going to give the 21-Day Trial Program a try in managing my kitchen clutter. Every night for 21 days I will not go to bed until all clean dishes have been put away and any dirty dishes have been washed or loaded into the dishwasher. I will not go to bed until any other items that don't belong sitting on my kitchen counter are put back into their proper place. And I'll check back in here to let you all know how it is going. This isn't a life changing habit I'm cultivating here, but it seems a good place to start.
Happy Tuesday, friends!
"To think too long about doing a thing often becomes its undoing." ~Eva Young
Sometimes I end off putting something off because I don't take the minute (or less!) that is needed to complete a task intending to come back to it later and then forgetting about it. This is a particularly embarrassing example of that. The kids and I came back the other evening after E2B's karate class to find that the cat had thrown up and had a bout of diarrhea in Miss Intrepid's room. I immediately cleaned it up and while I worked on treating the spots on the carpet I moved the trash basket full of smelly sickness out onto the front porch so that the room could air out and I could then take the basket out to the large trash can we keep outside. As you might have guessed, I forgot all about it. Do you know when I remembered it? That would be when someone came to my front door, in the heat of summer, and had to stand next to this. Seriously, if I had taken 30 seconds to walk around the corner and throw it away instead of waiting until I completed the longer task of stain treating the carpet I could have avoided this procrastination fail.
 |
| Welcome to my house...sorry about the poop. |
Sometimes I end up putting something off because I think that it is going to be more involved than it actually is and by doing so I actually make things more complicated and, in this case, more expensive. Last March, after having both our washer and dryer worked on several times, we purchased a new and more energy efficient washer and dryer. As soon as the good folks who delivered and installed them left, I noticed that the felt strip around the edge of the dryer lint screen was loose at the bottom right hand side. It was easy enough to tuck back in and slide in without issue, so although I thought about calling the store where we bought them to get a new and undamaged lint screen, I just rolled with it and never did it because it seemed like the easier, and less time consuming, path to take. Over the past year that strip has come further and further detached making the lint screen more and more ineffective. Finally, about 15 months after noticing that there was a problem, I called to see about getting a new one. Because I didn't call within the first year, when the dryer and its parts were all under warranty and I would have been given a free replacement, I had to purchase one myself. Rather than making one phone call that would have taken a few minutes right away, I spent more than a year trying to fix it and then I spent considerably more than a few minutes making calls and researching what part I would need/where I could find the most reasonable price online. The fact that replacing a lint screen is more expensive than I would have guessed was frustrating as well. Why, why, why didn't I just take care of it when it came up?
 |
| When your lint screen looks like this, you may as well distribute lint all over the inner workings of your dryer yourself because the screen isn't collecting all that much. |
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| You're looking at my $50 lint screen ($37 on sale through an online appliance parts store). Way to go procrastination! |
And sometimes I end up putting something off because I simply don't feel like dealing with it. Let me introduce you to one of the biggest clutter gathering areas in my home - the counter area around my kitchen sink. Looking at this photo - taken this morning - you will see dishes in the drying rack, with overflow onto the counter beyond it, waiting to be put away. You see a sink full of dirty dishes, overflowing onto the counter in the foreground, waiting to be hand washed and put into the drying rack or loaded into the dishwasher. Although you can't see that this is so, the dishwasher is full of clean dishes and for the past day and a half I've been pulling bowls, plates, and utensils out one at a time to put them on the table as we've needed them. Oh yes, and there's the cup and saucer I took out to photograph for last week's Thrift Share post still waiting to be put away. I also see the tops to some thrifted canisters waiting to be cleaned up from two weeks ago (I'll share them once I get my act together). I don't know why I persist in ignoring trouble spots like this, but my kitchen counters look like this a lot more than I'd like to admit.
Of course, I know logically what I need to do. Take care of things right away and just do what needs to be done in the moment. What I don't necessarily know is how to change my patterns of behavior. I do think that the first step is in admitting what the problem is and that's where putting this out there publicly comes in for me. Much as I found that committing publicly in this space to cleaning up certain hot spots around my house during Simple Mom's Project Simplify helped lend me the motivation that I needed to get it done, I'd like to make a public declaration about my plans at this point. I'm going to give the 21-Day Trial Program a try in managing my kitchen clutter. Every night for 21 days I will not go to bed until all clean dishes have been put away and any dirty dishes have been washed or loaded into the dishwasher. I will not go to bed until any other items that don't belong sitting on my kitchen counter are put back into their proper place. And I'll check back in here to let you all know how it is going. This isn't a life changing habit I'm cultivating here, but it seems a good place to start.
Happy Tuesday, friends!
"To think too long about doing a thing often becomes its undoing." ~Eva Young
Wednesday, April 6, 2011
Rockin' My To Do List (sort of)
As I've mentioned before, I'm a list maker. Between my tendency to take on more than I can comfortably fit into my days - I often seem to underestimate how long it will take to do just about anything (especially if it involves my children) or to overestimate how much time I have to get it done - and my tendency to procrastinate when I'm feeling overwhelmed, I end up with items perpetually residing on my to do list that never seem to get accomplished. There they sit weighing heavily upon my mind and drawing me further into a bog of inactivity. Ironically, many of these niggling to do items wouldn't take much time to just do and cross of my list. So earlier this week, I finally tackled a grouping of tasks that had been staring at me from my list for longer than I had intended.
What were these niggling tasks? They were items that I needed to pack up and mail. This is the fourth week that I've linked up to Apron Thrift Girl's Thrift Share Monday - where I've hosted a giveaway for a previously thrifted item instead of sharing newly thrifted items - and until this week I hadn't mailed any of the giveaway items that have been awarded to their respective winners. A big part of it has been that mailing vintage Pyrex is tougher than I had planned for - these pieces require careful packing and don't fit into standard sized USPS Priority Mail boxes (my preferred mailing method). But certainly there has been an element of simply not getting it done right away, so these particular "to dos" started to loom larger and larger on my list, and rather than just take care of them I adopted the if-I-don't-acknowledge-them-then-they-don't-exist approach. This is a perfect case of good intentions, but not enough deliberate intention + a dash of procrastination + too much "clutter" on my to do list = creating unnecessary stress for myself. Nonetheless, they are on their way.
But my Thrift Share giveaways aren't the only thing that went out in the mail this week. Don't get me wrong, I was excited to cross the giveaway mailings off of my to do list and to know that the recipients were excited about what they will be receiving in the next day or so, but I was even more excited about mailing these!
There are several great organizations out there that accept hair donations and I've chosen to support the Pantene Beautiful Lengths program. Pantene pays for wigs to be produced using hair donations and they are then distributed, at no cost to the recipient, through the American Cancer Society to women who are facing hair loss due to cancer treatment. This was my second donation (the last time was when I was pregnant with Miss Intrepid and I was so relieved once it was long enough to cut - throwing up 10 times a day is miserable anyway, throwing up 10 times a day into your own hair is beyond disgusting), though I'm not sure how many more donations I'll be able to manage because hair becomes unusable one it is more than 5% gray. As someone who has been graying since my late teens, I feel safe in hazarding a guess that I'll be at 5% soon.
Between now and reaching that 5%, though, I'd love to know what you do to stay on top of your to do list. I can use all the help I can get here!
"Forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the winds long to play with your hair." ~Kahlil Gibran
What were these niggling tasks? They were items that I needed to pack up and mail. This is the fourth week that I've linked up to Apron Thrift Girl's Thrift Share Monday - where I've hosted a giveaway for a previously thrifted item instead of sharing newly thrifted items - and until this week I hadn't mailed any of the giveaway items that have been awarded to their respective winners. A big part of it has been that mailing vintage Pyrex is tougher than I had planned for - these pieces require careful packing and don't fit into standard sized USPS Priority Mail boxes (my preferred mailing method). But certainly there has been an element of simply not getting it done right away, so these particular "to dos" started to loom larger and larger on my list, and rather than just take care of them I adopted the if-I-don't-acknowledge-them-then-they-don't-exist approach. This is a perfect case of good intentions, but not enough deliberate intention + a dash of procrastination + too much "clutter" on my to do list = creating unnecessary stress for myself. Nonetheless, they are on their way.
But my Thrift Share giveaways aren't the only thing that went out in the mail this week. Don't get me wrong, I was excited to cross the giveaway mailings off of my to do list and to know that the recipients were excited about what they will be receiving in the next day or so, but I was even more excited about mailing these!
 |
| Eleven inches of what used to be my hair on its way to be combined with hair from other donors to make a wig for a woman facing hair loss on top of battling cancer. I had my hair cut back in February. My intentions were good, but this hair wasn't actually going to make it into a wig sitting in my closet. |
There are several great organizations out there that accept hair donations and I've chosen to support the Pantene Beautiful Lengths program. Pantene pays for wigs to be produced using hair donations and they are then distributed, at no cost to the recipient, through the American Cancer Society to women who are facing hair loss due to cancer treatment. This was my second donation (the last time was when I was pregnant with Miss Intrepid and I was so relieved once it was long enough to cut - throwing up 10 times a day is miserable anyway, throwing up 10 times a day into your own hair is beyond disgusting), though I'm not sure how many more donations I'll be able to manage because hair becomes unusable one it is more than 5% gray. As someone who has been graying since my late teens, I feel safe in hazarding a guess that I'll be at 5% soon.
Between now and reaching that 5%, though, I'd love to know what you do to stay on top of your to do list. I can use all the help I can get here!
"Forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the winds long to play with your hair." ~Kahlil Gibran
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
How To Live Unintentionally
As I work towards approaching my days with greater intention, I have to examine what it is that inhibits me from doing so. Some days I feel invigorated and I greet the day with a great sense of purpose, a "can do" attitude, and the energy to make it all happen. The best part about these days is that I feel more peaceful, I am more positive in my interactions with others, and I am able to handle bumps in my day with more grace. Some days I find it hard to get anything accomplished and I indulge myself in activities and behavior that are counterproductive. The worst thing about these days is not the outer chaos around me (though I am not a fan of having a messy house, dropping the proverbial ball on any number of commitments, running late, etc.), but rather the resulting inner chaos that seems to go hand in hand with the outer unrest. It is these days when I have very little patience and I am more apt to take it out on the people around me - especially the kids. Sure, everyone needs a day off now and then and I don't think that every day needs to be a veritable bastion of productivity. However, I haven't gotten myself to where I am now by just taking the occasional mental health day.
So upon reflection, I have identified what I think are the four things that I do - sometimes on their own and sometimes together - that stop me from enjoying those great days more often. This is how I live unintentionally.
1. Sleeping in
For me this means skipping my morning workout - something that I was very good about not doing until the last few weeks - and staying in bed until I have to get up to get the kids moving for school (with little to no time to spare). It may also mean hitting snooze on my alarm repeatedly. Often it means doing both of these things. Not only do I feel better and more energized after a workout, but I know that the kids and I all have a better start to the day when we have had the time - because we are up earlier - to move slowly in the morning and, quite honestly, putz around doing a bit of nothing.
2. Reading during the day
I absolutely love to read! I enjoy reading books that teach and energize me. I enjoy reading about different times and places. I enjoy reading books that show me a slice of someone else's life. And I admit to enjoying the occasional fluff book with no redeeming qualities other than its pure escapism and entertainment value. It is usually this last category of books that gets me into trouble. I can easily get sucked into a compelling story and all of a sudden I find that my day is gone. Either that, or I stay up ridiculously late finishing up a book because I just have to know how it ends.
3. Spending time online
As Rachel over at Small Notebook discussed so ably in a recent post, it is easy to find ourselves in inspiration overload and I certainly have the need to protect my time from too many good ideas. I find myself cruising the blogosphere and reading about all sorts of great things that I'd like to do - ideas about parenting, cool places to go, ideas about gardening, interesting activities, beautiful crafts to make, and more...oh so much more! When I spend way more time planning great things to do rather than actually doing them, that is a problem. Rachel has followed up her discussion about inspiration overload with a post about breaking up with old hobbies - it is well worth the read and I, for one, have some breaking up to do.
4. Procrastinating
Need I say more?
Numbers one, two, and three on this list can be great things. Sleeping in occasionally is not only a treat, it is an important way to help me get much needed rest that often is lacking as the parent of young children. Reading is tremendously enjoyable and is the primary way that I treat myself to something just for me (something that is important for everyone and absolutely necessary, I think, for anyone who spends most of their time taking care of the needs of other people). Connecting with others through email, staying on top of world events, and finding inspiration in the blogosphere absolutely enhances my life. But I find - for me - that these things are only good in moderation and I can have a hard time keeping myself in check.
As for number four on the list - this one is the most troublesome and often can be found skipping hand in hand with my other time wasters. Sometimes I procrastinate because if I can't do something perfectly I don't want to do it at all. Sometimes I procrastinate because I would simply rather do something else. But procrastination really drags me down when it is a result of having so much to do that I don't know where to begin and I feel overwhelmed by the day ahead. If I allow me to psych myself out, then I just end up making the situation worse by putting off until later what I should be doing right now. For example - this week is a particularly busy one with a variety of commitments (more than usual) around here. Today I started the day knowing that I had a lot that needed to be accomplished. So how did I spend my morning? Feeling overwhelmed, floating around the house getting a few small things done here and there, flipping through a book, and sitting like a lump in front of the computer in my pajamas. Sure, I rallied eventually and got a lot done during the second half of the day. But still, I could have accomplished more and I would have felt better about my day had I just taken baby steps this morning.
For now I'm going to sit with these four things and see where this awareness takes me. There will certainly be more to share in the coming months. In the meantime, what are your time wasters and how do you keep yourself on track during the day?
"The perfect is the enemy of the good." ~Voltaire
So upon reflection, I have identified what I think are the four things that I do - sometimes on their own and sometimes together - that stop me from enjoying those great days more often. This is how I live unintentionally.
1. Sleeping in
For me this means skipping my morning workout - something that I was very good about not doing until the last few weeks - and staying in bed until I have to get up to get the kids moving for school (with little to no time to spare). It may also mean hitting snooze on my alarm repeatedly. Often it means doing both of these things. Not only do I feel better and more energized after a workout, but I know that the kids and I all have a better start to the day when we have had the time - because we are up earlier - to move slowly in the morning and, quite honestly, putz around doing a bit of nothing.
2. Reading during the day
I absolutely love to read! I enjoy reading books that teach and energize me. I enjoy reading about different times and places. I enjoy reading books that show me a slice of someone else's life. And I admit to enjoying the occasional fluff book with no redeeming qualities other than its pure escapism and entertainment value. It is usually this last category of books that gets me into trouble. I can easily get sucked into a compelling story and all of a sudden I find that my day is gone. Either that, or I stay up ridiculously late finishing up a book because I just have to know how it ends.
3. Spending time online
As Rachel over at Small Notebook discussed so ably in a recent post, it is easy to find ourselves in inspiration overload and I certainly have the need to protect my time from too many good ideas. I find myself cruising the blogosphere and reading about all sorts of great things that I'd like to do - ideas about parenting, cool places to go, ideas about gardening, interesting activities, beautiful crafts to make, and more...oh so much more! When I spend way more time planning great things to do rather than actually doing them, that is a problem. Rachel has followed up her discussion about inspiration overload with a post about breaking up with old hobbies - it is well worth the read and I, for one, have some breaking up to do.
4. Procrastinating
Need I say more?
Numbers one, two, and three on this list can be great things. Sleeping in occasionally is not only a treat, it is an important way to help me get much needed rest that often is lacking as the parent of young children. Reading is tremendously enjoyable and is the primary way that I treat myself to something just for me (something that is important for everyone and absolutely necessary, I think, for anyone who spends most of their time taking care of the needs of other people). Connecting with others through email, staying on top of world events, and finding inspiration in the blogosphere absolutely enhances my life. But I find - for me - that these things are only good in moderation and I can have a hard time keeping myself in check.
As for number four on the list - this one is the most troublesome and often can be found skipping hand in hand with my other time wasters. Sometimes I procrastinate because if I can't do something perfectly I don't want to do it at all. Sometimes I procrastinate because I would simply rather do something else. But procrastination really drags me down when it is a result of having so much to do that I don't know where to begin and I feel overwhelmed by the day ahead. If I allow me to psych myself out, then I just end up making the situation worse by putting off until later what I should be doing right now. For example - this week is a particularly busy one with a variety of commitments (more than usual) around here. Today I started the day knowing that I had a lot that needed to be accomplished. So how did I spend my morning? Feeling overwhelmed, floating around the house getting a few small things done here and there, flipping through a book, and sitting like a lump in front of the computer in my pajamas. Sure, I rallied eventually and got a lot done during the second half of the day. But still, I could have accomplished more and I would have felt better about my day had I just taken baby steps this morning.
For now I'm going to sit with these four things and see where this awareness takes me. There will certainly be more to share in the coming months. In the meantime, what are your time wasters and how do you keep yourself on track during the day?
"The perfect is the enemy of the good." ~Voltaire
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