Not as Important
My plant collection has grown in the last year and requires more watering time. Sometimes I walk past a plant and notice that it looks like it could use a good cold one based on a little wilting or even some change in color. I think plants have that in common with us. Each of the new varieties needs a little different amount of water and some even require just a dropper or two at a time. The joy of having succulents is in gazing at them and not thinking about how terrified I am of overwatering them. After all, these are living things and I would be the one providing the plant police with the details of the death.
Important for another time
The determination of whether some smallish task might get done is how mission critical it is. And if I am in the mood. Some may label this procrastination or even laziness but I know it isn’t that. In reality, those small tasks like lightbulb changing, filing important family intel, deleting poorly focused pictures from my phone and even moving that box of old clothes from the closet have little reward for completion. Sure, you may see a little better with a brighter bulb but you were okay with the situation and really didn’t want to get out the step ladder to change out the broken one. These kinds of tasks need a special kind of motivation.
Avoiding the inevitable
I have had some luck with pairing a bunch of these thankless tasks into a one time event and felt pretty good as they were done but also pretty bad when I realized that they each took ten minutes and should have been done a long time ago. I have no confidence that completing any of these little jobs will enrich my life much but it does reinforce the fact that when I finally get around to doing them, my avoidance of little future tasks decreases due to the confidence I get from muscling ahead. At least, in the near future. The solitary struggle of avoidance can make us feel as if we are the only ones putting things off. Once we get them done, it always seems seductively easy, which makes the whole dilemma worse.
Never alone
What really helps is realizing that I am not the only one affected. Maybe putting off seemingly unimportant tasks is really a way of letting us review whether tasks are essential. No one ever said that I couldn’t keep a box of soon-to-be-donated clothes in the closet. As long as they get dropped off to help someone else, the timing might be perfect. Getting through that mail on the counter gets done and the bills get paid on time because there are real consequences. I need to prioritize these mini-errands and remember that the most important ones to complete will benefit someone in need or someone I love. Even if I don’t know that someone yet. Just thinking about the good that results from the finishing of the task will be my baseline. That is definitely not a thing to put off.
Do you have task obstacles tugging at you? Can you elevate their importance and enjoy the good they do for someone else as an inventive? What is really happening when something doesn’t get done on time?
