I just spent the whole weekend not checking email. It would have been so easy to do it. I was home most of the time. The computer is just downstairs in my office. I even knew that there were a couple of important emails waiting for me, since my sister had phoned and said, “I’ve sent you a couple of important emails” which was a pretty reliable clue.
But I didn’t do it.
The garden was calling and there were a million things to do out there, and the sun was out most of the time and the air was fresh and spring is almost here, and I just kept telling myself, “At four o’clock,” or “After dinner,” or “Over breakfast Sunday morning.”
It’s so easy to avoid doing the things you should be doing and don’t want to do, when there are other things you should be doing that you actually enjoy. The garden really needs a lot of attention after being neglected over winter, so it’s not like I was just slacking off and going shopping. I was working hard, out there!
But still, it was an avoidance strategy, I’m not going to kid myself on that.
And now it’s Monday morning as I’m writing this, and there were something like 112 emails in my in-box and my slackness over the weekend has risen up to haunt me. It’s taking all morning to deal with the content of the emails, and write the pony club newsletter, and all those other tasks that I do at my computer but that aren’t actually writing and that I don’t actually want to do at all.
It’s beginning to be clear that checking email is one of the top tasks on my Procrastination list right now. Another task also currently featuring on that shameful list - and I know some of you are going to yell at me about this one, and rightly so – is scheduling a routine mammogram. I’ll make that phone call this week, I really will.
Filing papers, also on the list.
Tidying desk.
A couple of other phone calls I need to make, but haven’t.
The list is getting disturbingly long.
Taking some bags of clothing to the charity bin.
Um, really ashamed now, another medical thing, a routine blood test. (But at least I’m up to date on the dentist.)
How about you? What items on your To Do list just keep filtering their way to the bottom and don’t actually get done? Any tips on how to motivate yourself to do them?
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I would say filing is my worst offense! LOL I have piles of papers and documents waiting for the day I decide to put them in their places. I would say one of the best ways to get things done is….to have your mother-in-law come to visit for a week! heehee Mine just visited and I did manage to get a few things done before she arrived that I had been putting off. Really though, I need to buckle down to get myself doing those things I should have done long ago.
You are making me laugh Rhiannon! With me, it’s my mother not my mother-in-law who is the stickler for order. In a couple of weeks we are having a big 80th birthday lunch for my uncle. He is a wonderful man and I want to have the house nice in his honour.
Lilian, I encourage you to make your mammogram appointment right now! That’s your friend speaking.<3 I have a long to-do list, but this month it's all about the deadline. My father always encouraged me to make a list if I felt overwhelmed so I could cross off whatever I got done even if I didn't get EVERYTHING done. So you should include gardening on your list.:) I have a hard time getting things into the mail, so I have to put asterisks beside them to get them done! Good luck to us all!:)
I made it yesterday, Leanne! For next week, and I made a doctor’s appointment, too. Have to admit, it felt good.
Leanne makes two good points– GET that mammogram AND make a list and include what’s important to you (gardening) on it.
What do I put off doing? Creating a “bible” of all the characters that are in my current RX for Love miniseries, set in Jackson Hole. Not doing this means I have to sometimes go back to my original manuscript if I can’t remember what color someone’s hair is or what their backstory is…
Oh, I know that feeling, Cindy. You think, “Of course I’ll remember,” and then you just don’t.
Lilian, more encouragement on making that mammo appt. I feel your pain on the email thing. I actually bought an iPad so I could take it places and check email while waiting for things like…drs appts. That way I do something useful while sitting there instead of reading the out-of-date, dogeared Ladies Home Journals on the waiting room tables. Although, must admit, I really enjoy those tattered magazines.
Yep, those magazines are when I catch up on celebrity gossip.
I’m getting pretty close to buying an iPad for that same reason, but then there will be no escape!
Oh man *sighs*. I have to get the boobies squished too. And get my eyes checked for new glasses – it’s been 2 years.
With not a lot of rain in the states, my grass hasn’t grown. Except for this patch of really narly grass by the curb. I’ve been putting it off for 2 weeks and now it’s looks to be a foot tall. Time to get the weed whacker out.
Marcie, are you my long lost sister? I *know* my glasses aren’t quite right anymore.
I’m having the squishing next Thursday. Hope you pick up that phone, like I did!
Oh my gosh, where in the world do I start with this topic? Boy oh boy, I am so guilty of this – all I have to do is look around our house – I need to start working on the stash in my bedroom, mom’s bedroom, the kitchen, the back porch and basement (don’t get me started on those!) – I would much rather be absorbed in a book, watch TCM or the Olympics…LOL
Speaking of mammograms, I had my very first one done last year (and I am 48 years old) – thank God everything was OK – I need to go for my next one – mom just recently had her second one done (she is 85 and had a mastectomy done 2 1/2 years ago due to breast cancer)!
Wow, I am really glad so many are identifying with this topic!
We should all cheer each other on. Maybe I’ll do a follow-up blog in a few weeks and see if we can all report back that we’ve done one of those tasks we’ve been putting off?
My chest got tight just reading your blog, Lillian! My mind and body revolt when I insist on doing things I don’t want to, so I’ve learned over the many years to do what I want. The other stuff will be there when you get around to it. However, mammograms must be done and so must blood work. I usually put my labs off because I have to fast first. Who likes to do that?
You sound like a super busy lady, but I’m sure your garden appreciated all the attention it got this weekend.
I have a fasting blood test I’ve also been putting off, Lynne. Funny, I just… don’t… seem to get to that one, at all. It’s just for a routine check, so it’s easy to say, oh, another day.
Funny thing is that I use my email as a procrastination technique! Anytime I want to avoid doing something, I’ll go check my email or facebook. Of course, my email rarely has to do with my actual work, so I bet that helps a lot. I am really good at procrastinating with any kind of cleaning, and my recycling pile will be overflowing before I actually take it out.
Speaking as a medical provider, I concur with all the ladies on the importance of mammograms. I will throw in there routine labwork and colonoscopies as well. It’s much easier for us to fix a problem before it becomes an actual problem!
Fortunately, my children are tasked with taking out the recycling… but they procrastinate on it, too.
Hi Lilian – I have many forms of procrastination, especially when it comes to doing office things like filing etc. Many of these have four legs – dogs need walking, horses need feeding – anything to avoid being one of those organized people I envy. Sticky notes on my computer are the only way I remember things like doc app’s. Great post
Four-legged forms of procrastination! I like that. Our horse doesn’t live with us, so is not that useful on that front, and cats won’t co-operate, will they?
I have been hemming my new pants for 4 months now. Still not motivated.
LOL. You will just have to buy some *new* new pants. I don’t think you are allowed to call these ones new any more!
My To Do list is getting bigger now that I will have to get back to teaching next week. I am a procrastinator… need the dentist, dermatologist, renew passports, shop for school supplies… I don’t even want to think about it.
Sometimes I can get on a roll with those things and do them all at once – or at least start by making the phone calls and appointments. Once I start, it’s never as hard as I think.
When something really needs to be done, I tell hubby who puts it on his to do list. Unless, of course, the great Aunts are coming… clean kitchen, vacuum, clean bathroom… Too funny.
Send your great aunts over here, Linda. I need some motivation.
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