Stay-at-Home Dad Survival Guide Tip Next: Do the Little Things
Tip Next: Do the Little Things
Thursday, 11 December 2008 16:29
In the kitchen, move dirty dishes to the sink. Wash them.
Around the house, pick up dirty clothes and stray toys.
If it takes less than 30 seconds and it's an improvement, do it.
Otherwise, you end up with a big mess in the kitchen and a bigger mess around the house, which all appear to be long, daunting tasks. You'll put off a long daunting task. Procrastinating this way will bum you out.
(If this were a joke it wouldn't be funny; however, it really happened to me while I was a student at UC Berkeley. I'm a champion procrastinator. I'd say I turned in 5% of my assignments on time. This led to fabulous fibs: my girlfriend in New York had cervical cancer, I needed emergency dental work to remove my impacted left third mandibular molar [be specific; when lying, it's the details that sell the story {and props help}], I once had a friend call [after last call], pretend to be me in a late-night panic attack and get me an extension on turning in the first draft of my history thesis. In short, if I could do anything later I would. It was after this last incident that my thesis adviser suggested I attend a workshop being offered on how to avoid procrastinating. The punchline: I waited too long to sign up, the class was full, and I could not attend the workshop).
Do the little things all the time.
When you're a SAHD you have to fight for your time.
The quick takeaway: Get a job, become immensely rich and hire a maid. Or make the best of your time by taking care of the little things whenever possible.