Avoidance Clutter: What is your task of doom when it comes to procrastinating?

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Avoidance Clutter: What is your task of doom when it comes to procrastinating?

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Started 1 year ago by trillie
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trillie
Member

This topic just came up in the What is your area of doom when it comes to uncluttering? thread: Avoidance clutter. Things to do that you have been putting off and procrastinated about for quite a while now. Tasks that have been lurking in the back of your head or to do list for some time.

Being the world class procrastinator I am, I think it's a great topic for a thread, so: What have you been avoiding? Maybe we can gather some motivation, some tips and advice for each other, make this into an accountability thread, or an anti-procrastination thread, or just simply be happy that others have skeletons in their closets, too! Or, more correctly: Non-existent skeletons ;o)

On my ghastly list:
* handing in a term paper for university (it's ridiculous. It's been 2/3 finished... since 2006)
* getting household insurance (for roughly 6 years, since I moved into this apartment)
* sorting all my important documents in a way that makes sense to someone else in case I have an accident -- they are in one place, though (forever)
* oh, and of course: doing the dishes (pretty much daily, hee hee)

What about you? *drum roll*

Posted 1 year ago #
inchbyinch
Member

Income taxes! many years worth - and the worst part is, they're for refunds! Also health benefit and prescription claims. Comes under that dreaded heading "paper clutter". It's all part of our big household reclamation though, so I expect to have them done and money in the bank someday soon.

Posted 1 year ago #
Zora
Member

Advertising for someone to rent my spare bedroom. I'm poor and need the money, but the last renter was so horrible (wouldn't put the toilet seat down, wouldn't wash his dishes, wouldn't treat my good knives with respect, harried me to reduce his rent) that I'm afraid I'll make another mistake in picking someone and end up with another wretched fuss. I tell myself I can't advertise on Craigslist until my house is presentable, and that means fixing plumbing, electricity, doing some household sewing ... Great opportunities for procrastination.

Posted 1 year ago #
bandicoot
Member

writing a will.

Posted 1 year ago #
Sky
Member

Listing my possessions and who I want to have them when I'm gone....although there aren't as many as there used to be. YEAH!! I have a will but it doesn't specify stuff.

Posted 1 year ago #
chacha1
Member

Will, living will, power of attorney, and directives. Oy.

Posted 1 year ago #
JuliaJayne
Member

Ditto on the will business.

But, to pick something that is consuming physical space, clothes. I should just take care of it now, but I hate tossing all that money.

Posted 1 year ago #
chacha1
Member

Ah, but the money is gone whether you keep the clothes or not. :-)

Posted 1 year ago #
irishbell
Member

chacha1-that's such a good way to look at it. Motivating all by itself.

Posted 1 year ago #
paperdog
Member

My procrastination waterloo is ironically supposed to be a hobby-I just cannot get my scrapbooks done. I have all the supplies (neatly organized and labeled!), all photos filed by event/year in a large lateral file cabinet, beautiful albums ready to be filled and a spare room with a workspace specifically set up for it. I don't know why it seems so overwhelming when I try to start.

Got the will, etc. done a few years ago, but maybe I need to update it and specify that a condition of inheriting my estate be for my children to finish those scrapbooks! lol

Posted 1 year ago #
bandicoot
Member

chacha1, that is such a simple powerful way of looking at it. thank you.

Posted 1 year ago #
Claycat
Member

Yeah, I need to do all the will stuff, too.

Let me tell you a will story. My sister-in-law lost her husband about 2 1/2 years ago. He died of lung cancer at 50. Several months before he died, I asked her if he had a will. She said they were going to make one. I told her to be sure and get one made, because he had been married before and had children by his other marriages. I told her that she would not inherit everything directly, because part of his share would go to his children. They kept putting it off. So, finally he died without making a will. She would like to sell the house, but she would have to have all of his kids sign off on it. One of them is nowhere to be found. He is in trouble for passing bad checks, so he will probably show up in jail one of these days. She could get the situation taken care of, but it would cost her a great deal of money, which she does not have.

Just saying, a will is really important.

I'd better get one done myself. :)

Posted 1 year ago #
djk
Member

I know in my head it is...but then I think "Oh! time to go for a walk! (or stare out the window, or pet the cat, or rush off to work, or make dinner, or doze, or do the laundry)

good reminder. really good. what a terrible situation for your SIL to be in, Claycat.

Posted 1 year ago #
trillie
Member

@chacha1, I think if we had a voting for Best Uncluttering Forum Comment, your "Ah, but the money is gone whether you keep the clothes or not. :-)" would be among the Top 3!

@JuliaJayne, what about taking your decluttered clothes to a second hand store that sells the clothes and will give you a percentage of the money? Maybe that could be a good compromise for you.

Wow, quite a few people mention the will. I think it is very understandable to procrastinate about that, after all it is not a topic we like to think about. Are you all talking about "proper" wills that you have to set up with an attesting notary? If yes, why don't you grab the procrastination bull by the horns and just make an appointment in two month's time? That would give you a while to get used to the thought, and you can't bow out of the appointment. (This is how I would trick my procrastinating inner self, I think.)

@Claycat, I hope the situation for your sister-in-law will be resolved soon. 2.5 years of this is probably very taxing :o/

Edit: For the record, I decluttered and organized my important documents folder yesterday and I found stuff I didn't think I had. Ugh! Paper clutter sucks. I swear it reproduces when I don't look. And NOW I'm going to start working on that dreaded term paper. *grabbing my term paper bull by the horns*

Posted 1 year ago #
Claycat
Member

@djk It is terrible for her. I did warn her, but I've been warning her about continuing to smoke, too. Her husband killed himself with cigarettes. Her mother has lung cancer, too, but she quit smoking years ago. Hers could even be non-smoker's lung cancer. However, my SIL has it in the family, so she knows it will probably get her. I just hope her kids don't start. :(

@trillie Thanks! I hope she gets resolution soon! Good luck on your paper!

Posted 1 year ago #
chacha1
Member

Trillie, thanks. It's a motto of sorts ... I struggled to get over the "but I paid good money for that" sunk-cost fallacy way of thinking.

Thanks to this forum thread, I ordered my Quicken Willmaker and "Get it Together" guidebook from Nolo this week. And I have put "do the wills" on my calendar for 4th of July weekend.

We have no real assets and no dependents (which is why *we* have procrastinated), but that doesn't mean nobody will have to clean up after us.

Posted 1 year ago #
Malcolm
Member

I'm a fearful procrastinator, especially paperwork, and like other correspondents sometimes it is paperwork which would result in my being paid money! A few years ago my wife suggested a little game: classify the paperwork which makes us money as a separate category altogether. Every Friday morning, I now have a firm appointment with myself: the Money Gathering Jobs. Amazing - no more ancient medical bills piling up when I could get an insurance refund instead; no more missed credit card payments costing extra interest or penalties; my own invoices are always sent out promptly for payment. Etc etc. Turning it into a game has worked for this particular kind of procrastination.

Posted 1 year ago #
Claycat
Member

Way to go chacha1!

Malcolm, games work for me, too. I need to figure out some games to help me with my paperwork. Fortunately, I am terrified of not getting my bills paid, so I keep up with that part. It's just all the other paperwork! Ay!

Posted 1 year ago #
trillie
Member

Yay chacha1! :oD Oh, this forum makes everyone become their superhero-self (maybe with a big U on the flowing cape for Unclutterer), I really like this accountability stuff. I'm halfway done with the rest of my term paper, too, and I'll be returning to it in a few minutes. I do hope I'll get it done today :o)

@Malcolm, I think it's mind-boggingly clever to put "money paperwork" into a different category than "other paperwork". It separates the dreaded dubious paper pile into "makes sense" and "put into archive". I'm so going to do that.

Posted 1 year ago #

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