Doing the Noodgies

My Daily Task List has its share of items that repeat, even some that reflect Semi-Annual projects.  There is always an excuse to put certain things off, that evil of procrastination.  I'm not lazy, nor are most people who keep deferring what they ought to be doing.  Sometimes these postponed activities really are less important than the ones actively pursued.  Often they have no deadline beyond what is self-imposed.  Invariably there is no immediate adverse consequence to neglecting them. And sometimes they are ignored for the right reason, as in not really part of essential personal objectives.  Whatever the reason, legit, psychological, laziness, these tasks never really exit the Daily Task List, which functions in the manner of a Roach Motel, checking in but never checking out.  They are often noodgie things, stuff that will bring satisfaction, sometimes even important, but often tedious to do.  And sometimes there is a fear, mostly legit, of what will be disclosed once pursued.

Because of this, I designated today to tackle those repetitive items on my Daily Task List that have long overstayed their welcome.

As usual, I created this day's list from my weekly objectives, which are the action elements of my Semi-Annual personal goals.  I then circled in red, the items which had been neglected too long.

1. Read a news article clipped from the paper but not read for weeks since its publication.
2. Submit an op-ed I had written a few weeks ago which depended on my understanding that article.
3. A Committee that I recently joined asked me to do something.
4. I've not opened the Recreation Case that I created months ago. It's a canvas attaché where I keep art and drawing supplies mostly.
5. Spend an evening with my wife.
6. Track down my aging step-mother, my father's widow, who had some phone number changes.
7. Speak to my attorney on a lingering matter.
8. Outline the novel that will make me famous, or maybe the subject should be its non-fiction theme.
9. Start writing a paragraph or two to confirm I am serious about authoring an 80K word work.
10. Decide what car repairs should be done soon and which can wait.
11. Get my snowblower functional before the next coating, on a day unseasonably warm but damp.

Each item on my list for weeks, some longer.  Each repetitively pre-empted by something else for the right reason, or my psyche imposing avoidance for the wrong reason.

So how'd I do?

Read the article.  Even tried to nominate the article for a local reporting Pulitzer.  Deadline for nomination tonight.  I did not know how to use the form and really didn't want to pay the $75 submission form, so I wrote to the newspaper's editor and asked him to consider dealing with the Pulitzer possibility.

Deferred submitting op-ed to next week, to see if the editor-in-chief responds to me first.

Probably better to do the committee work when I go on site in two weeks.

Drew a pear with my drawing pencil.

Wife time after supper

Stepmother tomorrow.  Found the most recent phone numbers.

Spoke to attorney for 20 minutes.  He reassured my worst fears.

Started the novel outline but spent less time on it than allotted by my timer.

So not a bad effort considering these are the things I have avoided the most.  And I still had some time for reading the things I read each day, posting on restricted social media, reconnecting with a friend or two, taking care of a bank errand, slicing the cantaloupe I bought yesterday, doing the scheduled treadmill and stretch, going out for coffee, reviewing some commentaries on the upcoming Torah portion. 

Write when my outline is further along.

Chose the repairs.  Schedule them tomorrow

Too damp for snowblower repair, which needs to take place outside.

There will always be projects that for the right or wrong reasons, I just don't care to do.  But I did a lot of them by assigning a day, and even designated times within the day to set aside the more attractive efforts to place some of the others as rediscovered.  There is something very gratifying to do some of these things, even when their appearance on successive Daily Task Lists drags indefinitely.  And the stuff that I usually gravitate to, those Semi-Annual initiatives, did not get seriously neglected from a one day diverted effort.