ThreeKids
04-30-2013, 07:30 AM
But it controls me anyway.
Every day of my life, that dishwasher must run at least once or my main missions in life get bottle-necked. No one eats if there aren't clean dishes. I can't cook if there are dishes everywhere. Other priorities pale in comparison to serving food so I can't justify giving them attention until that's conquered.
And then I'll throw in even more stipulations, like planning to take a shower AFTER I get a load started. That can jam up my day even worse, because then I can't go anywhere because I haven't had a shower.
But the mind-numbing boredom of the endless cycle of dishes makes it the most tempting procrastination.
I have tricks and rules to keep my brain alive enough to do it.
--If there are clean dishes in the dishwasher and the microwave is running, I can do nothing else but unload them. One minute spurts seems about the right pace to do something that boring.
--I get to tell people to stop asking me for stuff while I'm loading the dishwasher because it's not worth washing my hands and getting side-tracked just so someone can have a glass of milk now.
--I assure myself I'm only going to address one rack at a time so it'll seem like a smaller tortuously boring task and I'll be more likely to make it all the way into the kitchen.
--I pay attention to how little time it actually takes to unload and load a dishwasher. I need to use an actual timer, but the job really can be done in less than fifteen minutes and can be broken down as needed. Knowing just how close I am to the end of that task helps.
But then, the load finishes and I have to start over and. it. never. ends. (that assurance I was close to the end was false)
Doing dishes rusts my brain.
Any other tricks to force my brain to work for twenty minutes a day? Every day. In perpetuity.
Every day of my life, that dishwasher must run at least once or my main missions in life get bottle-necked. No one eats if there aren't clean dishes. I can't cook if there are dishes everywhere. Other priorities pale in comparison to serving food so I can't justify giving them attention until that's conquered.
And then I'll throw in even more stipulations, like planning to take a shower AFTER I get a load started. That can jam up my day even worse, because then I can't go anywhere because I haven't had a shower.
But the mind-numbing boredom of the endless cycle of dishes makes it the most tempting procrastination.
I have tricks and rules to keep my brain alive enough to do it.
--If there are clean dishes in the dishwasher and the microwave is running, I can do nothing else but unload them. One minute spurts seems about the right pace to do something that boring.
--I get to tell people to stop asking me for stuff while I'm loading the dishwasher because it's not worth washing my hands and getting side-tracked just so someone can have a glass of milk now.
--I assure myself I'm only going to address one rack at a time so it'll seem like a smaller tortuously boring task and I'll be more likely to make it all the way into the kitchen.
--I pay attention to how little time it actually takes to unload and load a dishwasher. I need to use an actual timer, but the job really can be done in less than fifteen minutes and can be broken down as needed. Knowing just how close I am to the end of that task helps.
But then, the load finishes and I have to start over and. it. never. ends. (that assurance I was close to the end was false)
Doing dishes rusts my brain.
Any other tricks to force my brain to work for twenty minutes a day? Every day. In perpetuity.