On taking procrastination to a whole new level

The yard this year will be (is) a monstrous undertaking.  Along with the usual cleanup after winter, there are the branches and brush left over from the five trees that fell last fall, a hole in the driveway where I pulled the stumps out. Most of the good wood that came from those trees still needs to be split and a lot of it is so green it seems better to let it age and dry a little before tackling it. And then there's the garden to get ready. Today I learned that's going to be a while; about four or five inches down, the ground is still frozen, hard as a rock. So, patience. I did get a bunch of pots and flats filled with soil ready for the seeds I bought the other day. And, of course, the car is dirty, the house needs a cleaning, there are dirty dishes in the sink, laundry is piling up, visqueen to take off the windows and screens to put back, and there's always this book that keeps agitating from way deep in my mind; it goes on and on.

So, with all those chores ahead, the task seems insurmountable. I learned years ago that when you  (damn, just got my first mosquito bite) have a huge project ahead, it's best to break it into manageable sections. Tackle one task at a time and the project doesn't seem so insurmountable and you can go from smaller task to smaller task rather than think constantly of the intimidating big picture.

But with so many smaller tasks, each one fairly big in itself, procrastination has become a way of life. Without thinking, I have taken it to, as people seem to say way too often, a whole 'nother level which in the long run has turned out to be self defeating.

There are the usual excuses, bad weather, don't have the right tools, have to keep track of Facebook,  Walter needs a walk. I have to write this blog post. Just getting in the Jeep with Walter puts things off for a while. For example, in putting the winter machines away, I didn't have enough fuel to fill the tanks completely. That in itself was an excuse to quit for the day.  Then, while I was raking out the garden yesterday, I all of a sudden absolutely had to have that fuel. So off we went to town to fill gasoline cans. It strikes me I could be putting seeds in those pots and flats filled with soil rather than watching a basketball game and writing this blog post, too.

That has been happening more and more. While I am doing one job, it crosses my mind that to do the next one I am going to need some equipment, tool, fuel, whatever comes to mind.  So, rather than finish the chore I'm involved with, I take advantage of the new needs and head to town. Then there are the days when instead of finishing one chore, I start another one, the upshot of which is day ends with two tasks adding to the guilt of procrastinating.

It has gotten so bad that I made a special trip one day to buy a small sledge hammer and a wedge to assist with splitting those big sections of birch at the cabin when I go back. That won't happen until at least mid June, but I have the tools now. I am waiting for a royalty check that could come any time from now until the end of the year. I drove to town three days in a row last week looking for it before I decided that was pretty stupid.

The upshot of this is each time I do something like that, I add to the tasks I am procrastinating about. Now in addition to raking the garden, I am putting off planting seeds in the pots and flats I filled. Technically I am putting off the wood work at the cabin, along with all the splitting that needs to be done here. And, in putting that off, I am also putting off getting that last tree that hung up in another tree and needs to be pulled down somehow. I have already obtained rope and a heavy come-along for that, both of which are by the door mocking me every time I go out.

In other words, in procrastinating doing one job by going and buying something I need for the next job, I end up with two jobs to procrastinate about. But that multiplies. Looking around the house and yard I can see several new things I've bought for specific jobs all of which I am not doing.  That's the next level. In procrastinating about one job I am adding onto the list of things to procrastinate about.  That new tool sits there reminding me of the task I just added to the list. Meanwhile all those other jobs await completion. As I see it, it is never going to end. 

Tomorrow I have to continue with the raking and brush and maybe some wood splitting. But, then, I need a two-inch ball for the four-wheeler hitch in order to connect the new trailer I bought on another one of those procrastinating trips so I can take Walter to the East Pole in the summer. Which of those tasks will get done?

Talk about your never ending-story.