Have you tried writing short lists of “Things to do Today?”
No more than six things to do each day, and it would be better to write down three.
Don’t write lists for the entire week or month. That’s too daunting.
Then just do the things on the list, and cross them off. Crossing off things on a list gives me such a thrill of accomplishment and completion that I find much more satisfying than procrastination.
Making lists works when I’m heading into Easter or Christmas. Just at the time when we are sometimes told to throw away our to-do lists!
Some things can’t go on a list:
I want to tell a story: We live at the end of a sewer line. Now, when the toilet doesn’t flush well, the problem could exacerbate: We can actually have the sewer back-up into our basement. New to me! So, how long does it take for us to figure this out, how can it be prevented, who to call, etc.!
We find that if nothing is done immediately, the situation can escalate into something rather terrible.
First time, in denial. Didn’t call the city maintenance even. “Just a hard rain coming in back basement door.”
Second time, a discussion ensued about the cause: historical precedence was mentioned (nothing like this in 50 years.) Still some denial, could it be just water? City maintenance called and responded. Told by them that it is difficult to determine after the fact … it wasn’t. City Hall doesn’t respond though, we are in this alone.
Third time, the situation was caught as it happened still a serious mess. Family was called, opinion sought. Blame put on city maintenance - non existant? City Hall called - left message, so, police called maintenance because it was a holiday. It was Christmas Eve, in fact!
Fourth time, caught at the start despite ignoring a red flag by household member. Paid for a professional who found a a palmful of hair-like roots. City maintenance in denial; this time, they are we think. We had stopped our water usage as soon as we caught the overflow, to ameliorate the situation.
Fifth time, red flag cited by woman of the house, not ignored and the city is called immediately. All water activity is ceased until the city maintenance check. A major blockage found and cleared. (Roto-router not called for advice, per usual, we tell the city about our innocence.) We were able to have a day of high water usage, despite snow melt and rain, high flood levels elsewhere in NW OH.
Procrastination by ourselves, one might ask, where? One simply needs to think, discuss, get a head of things. It could be something involving one’s children. Can you see the red flags, do you know how to get help, does one have to wait until the situation is extremely unbearable, when one’s soul is endangered, perhaps.
(Our city *is *seeking money to update the sewers: They want to separate them and they want to have electronic monitoring of the flow. After 50 years of never having this situation with the city: We will need to be watchful in order to ameliate it and to call immediately. I know this is small compared to NOLA, or even local flooding in cities with rivers.)
