Procrastination - Read This NOW!

[Femme Folle]

They're mostly empty, but they don't have a lot of packing material either. They were mostly shipments of pet food in tins and cat litter. Not a lot of packing materials needed for those.

[Nocturnal Submission]

Do they have to be broken down before you take them out or can you fit the smaller ones in the bigger ones, Russian doll stylee?

[Satchmo Distel]

If you leave them out in the rain for a bit, they become much easier to break down.

[Sits]

Sorry I called you a hoarder FF.

[Femme Folle]

The boxes have to be broken down and bundled together with twine.

If sorting out the boxes in that photo was the only thing I had to do, they would be done. Unlike most of you lovely people offering helpful advice, I live alone. There is no one to help me do these things and there are chores that are higher priority, like cleaning dishes and scooping litter boxes--those get done with regularity. And, as I've whinged about elsewhere, I work too many hours at my job. What would be nice is if one of my nephews were thoughtful enough to check on me once in awhile and ask if I need help with anything, but apparently my sister and her husband didn't raise thoughtful sons. I regret spoiling them--that turned out to be a bad investment.

Sits, you didn't, did you?

[Sporting]

Maybe if you simply asked one of your nephews to help? I obviously don't know them but there are some people around who are fundamentally ok but lazy/thoughtless as hell.

[ad hoc]

Is there a way that you could get someone to do odd jobs for you? I was going to say "put an ad on that noticeboard in the local supermarket looking for a teenager to do odd jobs once a week, for example" but then i realised that things have probably moved on and there is more likely some form of app/website called obbjobly or something.

[HORN]

The opening post was awfully long, but I aim to get back to reading it at some point.

Unlike most of you lovely people offering helpful advice, I live alone. There is no one to help me do these things

Having someone around to help or even to shame me into getting stuff done helps immeasurably. I'd be a useless asswipe if left to my own devices.

[ad hoc]

I had some work to do this morning, and rather than getting on and doing it, I said to myself "I've been meaning to read that article on procrastination that NS posted", and so I did.

[Sits]

Sits, you didn't, did you?

Well no, but my post was a bit clumsy.

[Femme Folle]

I appreciate all of the good advice. I'm sure this will work itself out, but I think I need to get my work schedule under control.

Here's why I have no time or energy to tackle those stupid boxes--this is last week's working hours:
Monday 10.5 hours
Tuesday 10.7 hours
Wednesday 13.7 hours
Thursday 10.1 hours
Friday 11.5
Total 56.5 hours

This is a lot of hours, to be sure, but it's made doubly depressing because I won't even get paid for 16.5 of it--that's like working 2 days for free. The week before that was 51 hours, the week before that was 58 hours, so this has been going on for a while.

My life is pretty miserable right now, I won't lie.

[Antepli Ejderha]

Really sorry to hear this FF. I hope that you'll get some help with work as has been promised to you. Thanks for feeling that you could trust us, it's a step in the right direction.

[HORN]

My experience of working from home was that I would logon very early in the morning yet still end up working until late.

I attribute this to:
- guilt at working from home
- a constant desire to prove myself ("Yes, trusty me, always here to help")
- not having the discipline to compartmentalise my life ("ah well, I was only going to watch tv tonight. I might as well spend my evening finishing this task instead").

A long-time work from home colleague was almost always offline by 5pm, having begun at 7:30. I eventually adapted the same regime. It felt so liberating.

[Femme Folle]

HORN, yes, I sometimes work on the laptop while watching TV at night.

[Nocturnal Submission]

Really sorry to hear that things aren't so good at the moment, FF. Hopefully the promised assistant will ease the work side of things considerably.

As for the clutter, would getting one of those home organisers in be an option for you?

[Femme Folle]

Thanks, NS. What I really need is someone with a strong back and a box cutter. Preferably not a terrorist, however.

[Gerontophile]

What you really need FF, is a holiday.

[Femme Folle]

You can say that again.

[Antepli Ejderha]

What you really need FF, is a holiday.

In all seriousness is a holiday possible for you? Or just a break away from work?

[Femme Folle]

I have some important projects that I want to get under control first and then I will take a few days off. If I don't do it that way, an even bigger mess will be waiting for my return.

i have to cross the river to go to my shrink's office tomorrow, so that will be like a mini break from work. The weather is supposed to be nice and I can bring Teddy along. It's been a while since we've been in the city together. We'll probably spend some time in the park before heading back. Maybe we'll even share a hotdog.

[Antepli Ejderha]

That sounds nice, a hotdog in a park with a real dog. Enjoy and best of luck.

[Nocturnal Submission]

The distraction component: https://www.bbc.com/ideas/videos/fiv...-mind/p07v2qvt

[Nocturnal Submission]

Some people might find this useful: https://www.bbc.co.uk/ideas/videos/w...ck-to/p07zqc7w

[Nocturnal Submission]

I am, it must be said, on a bit of a roll at the moment. I'm in the middle of a period of sustained, focussed activity, with long-delayed tasks being ticked off and plans progressed with.

When these vanishingly rare occasions manifest themselves I try to pinpoint the triggers or the context that sustains them, in order that I might take note and apply in the future. I think the current positivity was prompted initially by having the house to myself for a while, decent weather, social events to break things up a bit and look forward to, a relatively harmonious domestic environment, the jobs going well to keep the momentum up and, on one occasion, a bit of a push as a result of fixed time constraints.

Thing is, none of the above comes as any great surprise. I know I need to be free of distractions and have an ordered domestic situation before I can get going on difficult tasks but even when that's the case it's usually hard to get going. Maybe it's the gentle kick up the arse of a looming deadline that's the X factor that I need to introduce. Hmmmmm.

Anyway, it's nice to be getting things done. There's one great big shitty Sword of Damocles that's been hanging over my head for ages. If I can knock that bastard off I really will be popping the champagne corks!

[WOM]

Memo to self: replace missing screw in Sword of Damocles mounting bracket.