The old one was made of some unpleasant synthetic material, which was itchy, made me sweat, and didn’t absorb water post-shower. The new one is thick luxuriant absorbent towelling, and really pleasant to wear.
Time taken to go to the store and buy it: 15 minutes.
Cost: £30.
I changed my windscreen wipers.
They didn’t really wipe the rain, just moved it around a bit. Given that I live in the UK, it rains an awful lot, so they were a constant source of annoyance. It was in fact dangerous, particularly at night. The new ones are very efficient and took 5 minutes to fit.
Time taken to buy and fit them: 15 minutes.
Cost: £10.
Why do I mention these trivialities? Because I have been saying to myself that I need to replace these things for FIVE WHOLE YEARS, and only just now got around to them.
It’s not like I am completely apathetic - my house is reasonably clean and tidy; I get to work on time; my clothes and myself are clean. But these two little things that increase my quality of life a tiny bit, or are in fact a serious safety consideration, I didn’t get round to.
Does anyone else have these sorts of mental blocks? What on earth is this sort of procrastination caused by?
I can totally identify with that. There are so many little things that I ought to be doing RIGHT NOW but I just never get round to. Thing is, when I’m at work (which is a lot of the time), I’m always thinking “If only I was at home now I could be doing X, Y and Z,” and then when I do actually have a day at home I just spend all my time doing unproductive things like, well, replying to this thread.
However, today I have actually accomplished something I’ve been meaning to do for months, namely building a spare set of wheels for my bike so that I can have road tyres for commuting during the week and off-road tyres for mountain-biking at the weekend, without having to piss about taking tyres off. I bought the bare wheels off a friend about six months ago and it has taken me this long to actually buy the other bits I needed.
From Wikipedia:[INDENT]Parkinson’s Law is the adage first articulated by Cyril Northcote Parkinson as the first sentence of a humorous essay published in The Economist in 1955:
Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion. [/INDENT]
Some people are more resistant to Parkinson’s Law than others, but personally I have trouble finishing anything unless there’s deadline pressure.
About that bathrobe, I’ve got a non-absorbent one and damn it’s annoying. It’s like getting out of the shower and putting on a plastic raincoat.
On my last birthday I asked for a cotton bathrobe and my family couldn’t find a plush one – but at least there’s a thin summer-weight model in the closet now.
I bought fabric three years ago so that I could make curtains for our downstairs. The curtains are cut and just need to be hemmed. This would probably take me less than an hour once I sat down to do it. They have been in a pile in my sewing room for three years. I am seriously considering just buying some damn curtains from Target at this point.
Are you fully covered for life insurance/critical illness cover/income protection? I’m not, but I’m still planning to get round to it - sometime. In other words, I can relate to the OP, and my position is potentially a lot more serious. Of course, changing the windscreen wipers may mean that your need for life insurance is not quite as great as before :).
I procrastinate on the same sort of thing (thinking of my barely working windshield wiper blades) but look at it this way. Sometimes the smallest little mundane things give you the biggest sense of accomplishment.
I could find a cure for cancer, but that will in no way be as satisfying as when I finally get around to cleaning all those clothes that don’t fit out of my closet and donating them. It wouldn’t even come close.
I cleaned out my junk drawer about a month ago. Whenever anyone walked into my house, I’d take 'em by the elbow, drag 'em into the kitchen and proudly open my neatly organized junk drawer. I’ve lived in my house for seven years. That was the first time I’d ever cleaned it out.
Do they generally replace windshield wiper blades if they need it when you take your car to the dealer for an oil change and other maintenance? If not, that’s something I probably should do.
I totally understand your mindset. I moved into my house a freaking year ago and I still have an entire spare bedroom room stacked to the ceiling with boxes I haven’t unpacked.
Oh, and my new license plates sat on my dining room table for over a month before I got around to putting them on the car. I’m lucky I didn’t get a ticket because I don’t think the cop would have been sympathetic to the excuse that I was too lazy to put them on.
I guess this probably is the issue. Though sometimes I spend half a day in my bathrobe - but if I’m in my bathrobe I’m usually not in a position to go and buy one.
Anyway, get a towelling bathrobe everyone. They’re a revelation.
BTW my main Ford dealer wanted like £60 to replace the wiper blades during a regular service. They can bite me. In fact I’m never getting a main dealer service again.
You’re a pretty big procrastinator when it comes to gift-buying too.
I have two nice watercolors that I acquired almost by accident about six years ago. Unfortunately, they’re in horrid frames. So I got a fever and obsessively hunted down a really easy gilding kit (and even called up the company to make sure it was what I wanted, etc.) and even planned where they’d hang after I re-did the frames.
The unopened box with the kit in it is still sitting on my mantelpiece and the painting are sitting in my closet.
Oh, and let’s not take about the antique-y sofa I dragged home last summer that’s still standing on end in my living room.
Two years ago I had a door way in a bad position in my house so one day I knocked out the door frame and removed the door. A year later I came back and framed out the wall and drywalled it. 6 months later I went back and textured the wall. About 3 months ago I moved all of the furniture out of the room so that I wouldn’t keep putting off the work because moving the furniture was too big a pain. I haven’t been back in that room since. All that is left is painting and adding the base board. Hopefully I’ll get off my ass this winter. In the end it’ll be almost a 3 year project to remove a door.
I’ve got some rear-hatch pistons that I’ve needed to install for about a year now. It would take a grand total of 15 minutes to put them on. They’re still sitting by the front door.
I’ve had some shelves for the outside closet that needed to be assembled for also about a year. They’re stacked up deteriorating on the back patio.
When I really think about it, it’s work (my job) that’s to blame. It’s not a strenuous job (IT manager – nerd herder), but it’s so mentally taxing by the end of the day that I just want to vegetate for the rest of the night until the alarm clock rings the next day. Weekends, doubly so.
While I’m at work, and compiling, I think of all the productive things I’d be doing at home. It’s because I don’t want to be here.
Thanks to you guys, I now have Arkansas Traveler stuck in my head.
. . . So the stranger said Now the way it seems to me,
You’d better mend your roof, said he.
But the old man said as he played away,
I couldn’t mend it now, it’s a rainy day. . . .
ARKANSAS TRAVELER, 1854. The problem has been around for awhile.
