Tag Archives: procrastination

Procrastination–

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Jack gets over the line just in time again – –

Yes – given the opportunity I’m a terrible procrastinator, or maybe I’m just lazy!

It was our cats, today, that convinced me – cold and raining outside — so instead of going out or chasing each other round the house, they curled up on the bed and went to sleep. I was seriously tempted to join them…

…but they wouldn’t have approved!

When I was still working full-time at the community college in my home-town in Scotland, I worked to a schedule and got things done with enthusiasm. Even after I retired from there I continued with contract work and hit my deadlines.

When we ran our bookstore in Big Stone Gap, I was usually on top of stuff – fixed things as needed, converted the car port into an enclosed garage and the basement into our living space, complete with two rooms and a toilet.

Maybe it’s just something to do with aging and finding many physical things harder to do. On the other hand, it might be that I’ve learned that I’m not very good at some things: I hate anything to do with plumbing or electrical work!

Now that we’ve moved from a 1903 house to one that was built in 1890 but with many additions and modifications over the intervening years and a much larger backyard, I’m presented with many more reasons to avoid things that wait to be done.

Or maybe I am just lazy – – –

Come back next Wednesday for more from Jack

Shelving What Matters Most

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Last night, with about a hundred things to do to get ready for tonight’s murder mystery in the bookstore (starts at 7, if you’re in the neighborhood) I wound up culling our online inventory.

You know the drill; it’s a form of avoidance therapy we’ve all practiced, this sudden need to do a job that’s been sitting around for weeks and has nothing to do with the urgent things before you, but just at that moment the planets align and there could be no better thing to do with one’s time than….

…reconcile the printed inventory list of 452 books with the titles on the online shelf. Mostly these books are hard to find for some reason and thus in high demand. The list being very dynamic, it’s a tussle to keep the right books on that shelf. Hard to find cuts both ways.

So I went at it. With my husband one floor below me installing a floor for our new bedroom (took him only eight hours; we’re very proud!) and foster kittens sullying the mystery room with every passing moment, despite baking and cleaning and last minute “how did this get there” tidying to be done, I grasped the list of titles firmly and spent 2 glorious hours playing a game of solitaire with books.

Is the book on the shelf? Fine, mark it off the paper list. Is the book on the list but not the shelf? Search the bookstore section it should be in. Is the book AWOL? Make another list. After all, tomorrow is another day.

When it was over, the bookstore was in chaos. Piles of mis-categorized books on the table. Gaping holes in the online shelf where books were falling over, falling off. Dust from ancient tomes everywhere.

Most satisfying. I cleaned up the debris, then made a half-hearted start at my “to do” list for the murder. As it turned out, things weren’t nearly so awful as I’d supposed. Pick up a dog toy here, straighten a shelf there: twenty minutes, and the place looked good. Screw the baking; we’ll serve ice cream sundaes.

Work expands to fill the time allotted it. If I’d given it two hours, I’d have found two hours’ worth of tidying. But you know, the time spent among the books, happily alphabetizing and culling and imposing a sweet sense of order on a random corner of the universe – well, sometimes it just does a body good to putter. Let the mad world whirl by; the books and I had a grand evening.