Strange Inertia

[steve(thelil)]

Are there some relatively painless, quick and/or easy tasks that for some reason you have to muster up the motivation or energy to do?

I find that I have to psych myself up to put ice from my ice trays into a little cooler. It takes about 1 1/2 minutes total to do it (and refill the trays), and yet on days I do it I have to psych myself up first.

Similarly,flossing and brushing my teeth requires an internal motivational speech. (I always do it though) Same with making the bed: a minute and a half of work following a much longer period of mental preparation.

It's just weird the things that seem daunting that aren't at all.

Anybody want to share similar areas of slightly neurotic-procrastination?

Edited June 11, 2013 by steve(thelil)

[BeBop]

I don't know how many years ago that someone (or more like "everyone") told me to "get a life". And here I am.

Actually, my life (365 days a year traveling/in hotels) keeps me from too much procrastination. I can't procrastinate about household stuff, with no house. All my worldly possessions are with me all the time (exaggeration, but you get the idea), so I can't claim some inability to access a critical element of getting the task done. Work is job-to-job; gotta finish one to get paid and go on to the next.

My only valid excuse to procrastinate is 100+ hour workweeks. Hence the stalling on getting a life.

"Never put off until tomorrow, what you can blow off entirely"

[Dan Gould]

Maybe I'm not normal but I don't make the bed and I don't need a pep talk to brush my teeth. I take the garbage out when its full, fill the dog's water dish when its empty and enter debit card transactions in the checkbook the same day they are incurred.

Little things aren't a problem, but I'm a world champion at procrastinating on the big ones, like studying for the agent's exam or approaching the boss to make sure he doesn't screw me over on my bonus.

[JSngry]

Why would you ever need to floss except the night before and they day of your dentist visit?

Not sure I understand the concern...

[BeBop]

Why would you ever need to floss except the night before and they day of your dentist visit?

Not sure I understand the concern...

I'm usually doing it in the waiting room.

[JSngry]

Well, yeah, that's just common courtesy.

[uli]

This morning I had to mow the lawn. Fortunately I could wait until the grass was dry.

[BeBop]

It's been years since I've had to mow a lawn, but it used to be one of those tasks where I'd never procrastinate. I'm always eager to do a task that yields quick, visible results. A task my "wife" might even notice. Painting almost fits in that category, if it's somewhere I don't have to do much clean-up/drop-clothing, like a fence. I'll wash a really dirty car in an instant. Or toss an animal carcass out of the yard.

[Quincy]

Well with the ice you're going to get those fragments that end up on the table or counter top and possibly the floor. If it's the countertop no big deal but the table is wood, and even with the countertop I'll hear about if it's left with a small puddle that mosquitos could breed in. So then you have to wipe that off with a bacteria laden sponge, and then you'll have to wash your hands after touching the sponge, and then the face guilt of using a paper towel (or do if you live in Eugene, Berkley, places like that) to dry your hands or use one of the cloth dish rags that are also probably not as clean as they should be. Oh, and then sometimes a whole ice cube ends up on the floor and they can be hard to see, so if you step on one you could end up flying heel over head like in a cartoon. Hell, you might even die if you head hits the table on the way down. So see, it's a daily brush with death filling those trays.

I used to delay cutting my toenails in part to having a phobia about cutting the nail on the small toe. Surely I'll cut too much nail off or maybe even the whole damn pinkie toe. But I realized in my early 20s that I'd better lick it (the phobia, not the toe) as I didn't want to be some kind of long toe nailed freak who had to walk around in clown shoes to house the nails. Plus once I reached the age where I was buying my own socks (last week) I realized I'd save quite a bit of money keeping up with such basic grooming. But even now there will be days where I decide to delay doing it a day with the main excuse being not having time to do it right after a shower. And then I think of clown shoes and try to do after dinner that night.

Edited June 11, 2013 by Quincy

[Jim R]

Well with the ice you're going to get those fragments that end up on the table or counter top and possibly the floor. If it's the countertop no big deal but the table is wood, and even with the countertop I'll hear about if it's left with a small puddle that mosquitos could breed in. So then you have to wipe that off with a bacteria laden sponge, and then you'll have to wash your hands after touching the sponge, and then the face guilt of using a paper towel (or do if you live in Eugene, Berkley, places like that) to dry your hands or use one of the cloth dish rags that are also probably not as clean as they should be. Oh, and then sometimes a whole ice cube ends up on the floor and they can be hard to see, so if you step on one you could end up flying heel over head like in a cartoon. Hell, you might even die if you head hits the table on the way down. So see, it's a daily brush with death filling those trays.

I follow you.

[steve(thelil)]

Quincy speaks the truth. I'm now laid up from today's attempt to fill the small cooler with ice.

Also ,I wouldn't make the bed either, but 1) my wife works much harder than I do, 2) makes more $, 3) she does most of the cleaning/housework chores and 4) and I'm in bed when she leaves for work. 5 And I can't even imagine how annoyed she'd be I didn't make the bed.

If I think (but I'm not sure) that she's not coming home on a given night (she sometimes doesn't) I don't make the bed that day, but I DO call to find out for confirmation that she's not coming home, and if plans change I get home before she does, specifically to make the bed.

[.:.impossible]

It was enough to type this response, full well knowing that I had nothing worthwhile to add.

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

I used to delay cutting my toenails in part to having a phobia about cutting the nail on the small toe. Surely I'll cut too much nail off or maybe even the whole damn pinkie toe. But I realized in my early 20s that I'd better lick it (the phobia, not the toe) as I didn't want to be some kind of long toe nailed freak who had to walk around in clown shoes to house the nails. Plus once I reached the age where I was buying my own socks (last week) I realized I'd save quite a bit of money keeping up with such basic grooming. But even now there will be days where I decide to delay doing it a day with the main excuse being not having time to do it right after a shower. And then I think of clown shoes and try to do after dinner that night.

With you there, Q, particularly on not having time after a shower. Now I've started buying patterned socks, I'm a good bit better at toenail cutting, because they're more prone to snagging than plain ones.

Hoovering is another thing I dislike - I do upstairs, my missus does downstairs. She does downstairs early in the morning; I spend the day psyching myself up to it until mid-late afternoon. This is only since we got a heavy Dyson hoover about 3 years ago.

MG

[TedR]

I guess it's not too outrageous to share that I have to gear myself up to drink Metamucil every day. Normally I'd think that was TMI, but not anymore. :-)