First, let me just say – if being an
adult means working through Halloween, then I don’t care for it!
On another note, I’ve discovered that
working from home = not working that much. While I was working from a
friend’s couch during hurricane Sandy, it was all too easy to fall into the
regular procrastination habits developed in my youth and honed at my alma mater.
Procrastination is super annoying, because I usually know exactly what needs to
be done, and why, but my actions tend to veer from what my brain knows I should
do. (Unless you, reader, are super-human, I’m probably preaching to the
choir.) And of course, that train
of thought made me think about all of the ways I (and my friends) have learned
to trick our brains into accomplishing things.
Outside of cleaning my bathroom, laundry is my
least-liked household chore.
Something about committing 2+ hours of my time to stay home and time the
wash & dry cycles … is really hard.
Yes, even though my extracurricular activities are eating cheese, reading
my own blog, and hating on the Kardashians while watching their shows, all
things I can do from my apartment, there’s such an opportunity cost to knowing
that I HAVE to stay home.
Consequently, it’s about 1-2 weeks from idea (“I need to do the
laundry”) to execution (“Ok, I’m doing the laundry now”). So I was absolutely cracking up when my
friend told me that he hides a pair of underwear every time he does laundry!
That’s right, he’ll hide a pair of underwear,
so that when he inevitably gets into the situation where clean clothes are gone
& the laundry’s not done, he can save himself another day, and put off
laundry for the next day. Brilliant,
amazing, etc.
I trick myself with financial tasks: by setting
up automatic withdrawal from my paycheck into my 401K account, I literally
never see (and mostly don’t miss) the money. You can bet that if it was deposited into my checking
account first, I wouldn’t be able to afford the contributions I’m currently
making. I also tell myself that
rent is due by the first – it’s actually the 5th, but by pretending
it isn’t, I have a convenient buffer (and have actually paid by the 1st
every time).
Any awesome tricks for how you out-smart yourself? I'd love to hear them!
Generally I tend to be too smart to trick myself about deadlines. Although, when the power goes out five times a week, like it does here, there really isn't much else to do accept tidy up your room :) And I do laundry at the house of a friend of mine who works at the US embassy, and it is combined with Games of Thrones watching, so it is enjoyable as can be! Maybe have a bi-weekly laundry-doing movie marathon party? Of course with cheese - God, I miss good cheese. Also, the ability to not procrastinate should so be a superpower comic book.
ReplyDeleteThe laundry-doing bi-weekly movie marathon party sounds amazing! Also, I promise that when you come home for the holidays, I'll come over and bring you some awesome cheese :)
DeleteI totally used to use that underwear trick until i found something better - quite by accident. I have recently acquired some shrunken boxers that fit in all kinds of uncomfortable ways courtesy of my dry which seems to devour clothes that should have no problems going through it when it feels like it. Anyway, instead of tossing them, in true procrastination spirit (I had brought my room's trash can downstairs and did not want to get it just yet), I threw the boxers in my dresser with the rest of them. Next time laundry time came around, I procrastinated and had to wear them... Now when I think about procrastinating with laundry, I have to consciously decide if I am willing to endure another one of those days of utter discomfort... ::shutter::: It has worked like a charm so far.
ReplyDeleteOh, and are you feeling like procrastinating when you know you have to clean your kitchen/living room/general hang out place? Invite friends over to hang out. Need to clean your bedroom? invite a lady/manfriend over for the night. Vanity is a lovely tool to curb procrastination.
ReplyDeleteMe, vain? Nevah! ;)
DeleteProductivity-at-work trick: Use google chrome history as a way to track your productivity. Every couple hours, add up all the times you don't use the internet for procrascination purposes as your "productive time". Then, only leave work until you spent a certain amount of time productively (as opposed to spending 8-10 hours AT work, regardless of how much time you spent working). Also keep track of how productive you are in an excel spreadsheet. Technically this is not a way to trick your brain, but more of a way to shame/motivate yourself into working - more needed when you do a PhD and don't really have outside motivation (i.e. a boss).
ReplyDeleteHmm, interesting. I would be pretty depressed, probably, if I tallied up the amount of time I spend on facebook & forced myself to look at it. It's a good point, though, that the hours we spend working aren't necessarily correlated with how much time we spend *actually* working. I think about this a lot, because I work crazy-long hours, and find myself thinking that I could be smarter and get my work done in less time. Still trying to figure out what the best way to do that is -- is it a break to work out during the day? Or forcing myself to leave at a certain time, hence needing to get work done by then? Meh.
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