Do you procrastinate? Most of us do, at some time or other. I've been putting off a job that has needed to be done since early in the new year. I think I've begun to turn procrastination into an art form. I have cleaned out closets, cupboards and drawers and even rearranged a room just to avoid going though one box that's been sitting on the floor of my office for months now. I have put this job off because I really didn't want to do it.
I had removed all these things from my desk when I got a new computer and flat screen monitor and put them in a box. The reason I kept putting off getting into that box is that I really don't know were to put any of that stuff. It's always been on be on my desk, but now there is no room.
I put the task off so well, that after promising I would do it last week, I didn't de-clutter anything at all, and so I basically skipped week 20 of the de-cluttering project. Today I figured I had better get on with the job.
I no longer had any idea just what was in the box, so I found a few surprises along the way. There was a coat hook, shaped like a dog, for instance. I don't know where I got that, but it will go in the donation box, as I have no use for it. There was a disc of free Casino software and supposedly $250 to play with. I know that came in the mail, but I'm not sure why. It went to the trash basket. There was an envelope full of Red Hatter photos, that I will have to sort through and decide if they are for my album or for giving away. I also found 3 audio tapes that I will have to check out as I have no idea what is on any
of them.
There were several years of dateline calendars, which kind of act as records of when things happened. I went through them and copied out any important dates, and trashed the books. I also forced myself to dispose of numerous brochures from past studio tours. My hand painted pencil box was in there too. I'll keep that, but there is no longer room for it on this desk. I was delighted to find a few notepads as I was planning to buy some new ones and now won't have to. I also found over $10 in change, all rolled up and ready for deposit. There are some papers with information I want to keep, so I guess I'm going to have to find a way to file them. In the meantime, they went back into the box, as did an envelope full of addresses I want to bump against my computer address book, to make sure I have them or the ones I have are up to date. A few other things found new places to belong. Though I made a dent in the contents of the box, there is still work to do with the rest of it.
I put off doing this job because I knew there were things I didn't know what to do with. There are still things I don't know what to do with, but fewer of them now, and a few plans of action for some of the remaining stuff. I wonder how long I'll put off finishing this job. I do procrastinate, but in this case, at least I understood why I was doing it.
F.R. Scott once said, "Do nothing by halves that can be done by quarters." I may not have finished the job, but at least I made a good stab at it.
Meanwhile, on other fronts, at least I got my tomato garden ready to plant.
I put the task off so well, that after promising I would do it last week, I didn't de-clutter anything at all, and so I basically skipped week 20 of the de-cluttering project. Today I figured I had better get on with the job.
of them.
There were several years of dateline calendars, which kind of act as records of when things happened. I went through them and copied out any important dates, and trashed the books. I also forced myself to dispose of numerous brochures from past studio tours. My hand painted pencil box was in there too. I'll keep that, but there is no longer room for it on this desk. I was delighted to find a few notepads as I was planning to buy some new ones and now won't have to. I also found over $10 in change, all rolled up and ready for deposit. There are some papers with information I want to keep, so I guess I'm going to have to find a way to file them. In the meantime, they went back into the box, as did an envelope full of addresses I want to bump against my computer address book, to make sure I have them or the ones I have are up to date. A few other things found new places to belong. Though I made a dent in the contents of the box, there is still work to do with the rest of it. I put off doing this job because I knew there were things I didn't know what to do with. There are still things I don't know what to do with, but fewer of them now, and a few plans of action for some of the remaining stuff. I wonder how long I'll put off finishing this job. I do procrastinate, but in this case, at least I understood why I was doing it.
F.R. Scott once said, "Do nothing by halves that can be done by quarters." I may not have finished the job, but at least I made a good stab at it.
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Sigh, I've got a few boxes like that. I've even emptied a couple only to put most of the stuff back in again. It's hard.
ReplyDeleteProcrastination is my middle name, along with Excuses. Good job at paring down the pile a bit, any progress at all is still progress.
ReplyDelete