I've learned a bit about procrastination this week - for both me and members of my family.
I'm sure I've mentioned before that I am a list-lover from way back. Over the last few years I have lost my list-loving ways and have been floundering about just doing the next urgent thing. Yesterday I found a beautiful daily list template from Ann Voscamp called "The Day's Draft" and thought maybe I should try a little bit of goal-setting. A little bit of list-writing. A little bit of doing what I wrote down.
Did you know that writing things down can motivate you to get things done? I wrote down all the things. I planned when I would do all the things. And you know what? I got all the things done. It's amazing what a little list-writing can accomplish. Today I'm still on track.
One of the things on my list was to wash my whites. Dh is the laundry guru man around here. He gets twitchy if he doesn't get to wash stuff so I have learned not to get in his way. He starts washing clean stuff and becomes a bit unreasonable about the whole thing about doing laundry. But I don't let him loose on my whites. We don't sort much around here. I never did and he certainly doesn't. But I don't want my whites with the blacks (which is like 99% of his wardrobe, thank you coffee industry). I don't want new greys! So I tend to end up with a small little load every now and then and I do it myself.
Yesterday when I was in the laundry overcoming my procrastinating ways I discovered a whole bunch of empty bottles. You know, things like bleach and stain remover spray. Stuff like that. Stuff that looks a lot like other people's procrastination.
I have learned something about my boys and their laundry-ignorant ways. Neither one of them cleans up after themselves in there. Dh uses the washing machine but that's it. The linen is piled up in a basket because he doesn't put it away after he's washed, hung, brought in and folded it. Mr Busy doesn't deal with used-up bottles of things to clean toilets with. So I gave Mr Busy a little demonstration that went like this:
Me: When you use up the last of something you pick it up like this *demonstrated picking up bottle* and you take it to the bin like this *walked the container to the bin - about 10 steps*. You put it in the bin like this *you get the idea*. At some point we will ask you to empty those bins and you'll take the whole bunch out to the bins outside and then you'll take them to the curb. The bin men will come along and voila - it will all vanish never to dealt with again. Go it?
Yesterday when I was in the laundry overcoming my procrastinating ways I discovered a whole bunch of empty bottles. You know, things like bleach and stain remover spray. Stuff like that. Stuff that looks a lot like other people's procrastination.
I have learned something about my boys and their laundry-ignorant ways. Neither one of them cleans up after themselves in there. Dh uses the washing machine but that's it. The linen is piled up in a basket because he doesn't put it away after he's washed, hung, brought in and folded it. Mr Busy doesn't deal with used-up bottles of things to clean toilets with. So I gave Mr Busy a little demonstration that went like this:
Me: When you use up the last of something you pick it up like this *demonstrated picking up bottle* and you take it to the bin like this *walked the container to the bin - about 10 steps*. You put it in the bin like this *you get the idea*. At some point we will ask you to empty those bins and you'll take the whole bunch out to the bins outside and then you'll take them to the curb. The bin men will come along and voila - it will all vanish never to dealt with again. Go it?
Mr Busy: *grunt*
Because, you know, 14yo boys pretty much grunt when there is no answer they are prepared to offer. I'm taking it mean acquiescence. He probably thought "If I don't answer one way or the other she'll forget we had this conversation and I won't have to put other bottles in the bin".
He would be wrong.
So my son is a seasoned procrastinator and apparently it is my job to teach him the merits of efficiency.
Pray for me.
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