Kevin's Watch

...Does anyone have the same problem as I do?

I avoid (and fear) various little ordinary tasks to a degree that is... inordinate? ...incommensurate with the amount of trouble they actually are?

The ones that inspire the most dread:
* Making phone calls to deal with administrative details (even straightforward ones like activating a credit card)
* Throwing out food that I know has gone bad in the fridge.
* Typing up my tutoring "lesson summaries."
* Sending almost any kind of e-mail.

Sometimes it's irrational; sometimes it may have "made sense at one point," but no longer does.

What are other people's favorites in this category?
(where by "favorites" I really mean "most dreaded and hated tasks")

There are a few things I procrastinate on, Linna, such as:
1) Like you, making an administrative phone call

2) Going to bed when I need to do so

3) Sending a personal e-mail

4) The big one---FLOSSING! (Must, must, MUST work on that one!)

5) I often procrastinate on finishing lists once I've gotten past item #4

Yeah, I'm not a big fan of the administrative phone call.



--A

Appointments. Particularly the dentist and optometrist.

Also, making calls to potential clients and asking for work. I never know how to word it so that it doesn't sound like begging

I am really bad a self care. Ask me to make an appointment for someone else, advocate on the phone for someone else and I am on it. But my stuff seems to be put aside and aside and aside.

Especially administrative stuff. Calls that require me to be polite and solicitous are the hardest. The ones with the nasty worker with the attitude on the other end. I have been avoiding dealing with my pension issues because I cannot face dealing with angry uneducated drones with a chip on their shoulder. Ever since I left my job I feel like I have no tolerance and pop my cork at the slightest hint of their crap. BANG.. ........I curse them out and hang up and I am back at go.

Cord Hurn wrote:Going to bed when I need to do so

This.

Phone calls, appointments, and (of particular note now that the annual need to do so is upon me) writing constructive feedback for other people's performance reviews. Even more so, writing my own self-review for my manager...

Self-reviews are easy for me. I go back through my admin e-mail folder and make note of all the projects I was involved with for the firm over the year. Then I list them on my self-eval. It often happens that the secretarial manager doesn't know about all of them, because I've worked with another department on them.

Anyway. Things I put off:

* Phone calls, even with friends (I'm sorry to say...) -- I'd much rather send an e-mail.

* Going to bed on time is a big one, yeah.

* Stupid stuff like brushing my teeth. Flossing? Yeah, no.

That'll do for now.

Oh, that a self-review for this outfit was so simple as a list of accomplishments. Nope. On top of that, I need to rank my strengths and weaknesses against various technical measures and our "Leadership Principles."

Somehow, I don't think "A weakness is a strength misapplied and a strength is a weakness that has found its proper application" is going to cut it...

Cord Hurn wrote:2) Going to bed when I need to do so

This is a big one...

Cord Hurn wrote:4) The big one---FLOSSING! (Must, must, MUST work on that one!)

Aughh!
When I found out that I had gingivitis... and then the dental hygenist showed me how I needed to floss... The pain was just shocking.

I've been thinking about it now and then... and I'm thinking I want to get up the nerve to ...next time I see a dentist, ask:
"Do you know people who actually ...take the necessary actions... (i.e. flossing) ...to recover from this? Does it kind of timeline does that happen on? Does it need to be done every night in the beginning or should a person start out more slowly to let gums have more than 1 day to heal? Please 'sell me' on this."

lorin wrote:I am really bad a self care. Ask me to make an appointment for someone else, advocate on the phone for someone else and I am on it. But my stuff seems to be put aside and aside and aside.

Savor Dam wrote:writing constructive feedback for other people's performance reviews. Even more so, writing my own self-review for my manager...

Yuck... in the somewhat-parallel I have (entering lesson summaries) ...it feels like I'm not likely to accomplish much good but am likely to accomplish harm; so easy to be mis-understood in text.
I've shifted to describing which subjects we cover, (and still dread it!) but it sounds like you don't have that particular "out."
And I kind of dread evaluating. Even though it can be really really helpful.



And finally... I also procrastinate on making posts, and sayin' stuff!

LH/et al...floss after every meal asap ..for the rest of your life. There is a procedure kinda like root canal , where they open up your gums and scrape the teeth and what not and attempt to kill the gingivitis bacteria that is way down deep..yea, thats it , its called deep cleaning,,but if you are a smoker etc etc..it doesn't last very long and the bacteria comes back..So ..you have to floss because the damage from tiny scraps trapped between the teeth is done within a hour or two ,I think. There is no escape from your teeth unless you get rid of them...which will happen anyway if you don't take care of them.

oh...i have troubles remembering to log off web sites I visit.

Savor Dam wrote:Oh, that a self-review for this outfit was so simple as a list of accomplishments. Nope. On top of that, I need to rank my strengths and weaknesses against various technical measures and our "Leadership Principles."

Somehow, I don't think "A weakness is a strength misapplied and a strength is a weakness that has found its proper application" is going to cut it...

Oh yeah, we have some of that, too. The firm shelled out for this "Service Excellence" training package a few years ago, so now our self-eval includes a question on how we've practiced Service Excellence over the course of the year. I just look at my list of projects/stuff and slot things into the boxes where they look more or less appropriate.

One of my co-workers gets really mad every year about the whole self-eval thing. When I tell her about the stuff I put down on mine, she says, "But that's part of your job!" I keep trying to tell her that she needs to blow her own horn to Secretarial, regardless of whether she feels like the "extra" stuff she does is part of her job. This last time, she said, our manager told her that she wished my co-worker would share more of her wisdom (I think that was the phrasing). Co-Worker asked me what I thought that meant, and I told her she should start volunteering for committees and stuff.

I dont have my g2 yet. I'm kinda messed up with the whole driving thing at the moment.

Julie does a lot of the detail work in our relationship...

aliantha wrote: friends (I'm sorry to say...) -- I'd much rather send an e-mail.

Thank you for saying that. Me, too. :/

Sorting and filing papers is my bugaboo. I have a perpetual pile of "papers to figure out where they go". At least I've learned to keep it all in one pile. Located just by the dustbin.

Also, (cringe) non-fiction reading. Now, some of the best books I've ever read are nonfic, but I just get bored with a lot of them, as good as they are for me. I read numerous fiction in a year but do well to plow through 2 or 3 nonfiction.

Opening letters - especially from my family. [by the way - we are talking a sinking gut wrenching [not exactly, but close to] fear here. Why?]

{and the common 'dealing with a small matter phone call' fear; did some today that I've been putting of for days. wtf?}

Oh dear... I am sorry about the "opening letters" part...
I'm awful about responding, but I always want to find out what the letter or e-mail says.

peter wrote:did some today that I've been putting of for days.

But you DID do them! That's really really a good thing, right?


When it's me, I can think, "they are done and off the 'mental queue' of things to be guilty about / to try to avoid thinking about!"
(okay, that's the kind of list I would store in my mind. hopefully most people aren't quite as organized in their evasion as I am. sigh!)

The converse of this Linna, is the brief buzz you get when you actually do one of these things. For a while I coast on the good feeling of "well that went well didn't it." before the rest of the things I'm avoiding thinking about demand to be thought about once again.

Oh man I hear that.

--A