Herself had many mundane things to do yesterday - clean the house, do the shopping, exercise, take care of the laundry, cook dinner, and so on and so forth. Not a monumental list, but a long enough list of not-terribly-enjoyable tasks that it was difficult to find the motivation to begin.
She started by avoiding exercising. Instead of using the elliptical trainer, she cleaned the house. She mopped the floors to avoid cleaning the bathrooms. Then she cleaned the bathrooms to avoid vacuuming. Then she vacuumed to avoid folding the laundry. Then she folded and put away the laundry to avoid exercising.
Once the house was clean and the laundry handled, she avoided leaving the house to go shopping by exercising. Then she avoided leaving the house further by emptying the dishwasher and putting in more laundry. Alas, there were more avoidance techniques, and so she went shopping.
When she got home from shopping, she avoided cooking that night's dinner by putting away the groceries and placing new toilet brushes (thank you, shopping) in each of the bathrooms. Then she avoided chopping up the chicken for that night's dinner by putting together the beef stew for tomorrow's dinner. Then she avoided making the cookies by chopping up the chicken and putting together the lemon rice to go with it for that night's dinner. Then she put in the stew and baked cookies to avoid rummaging in the closet of miscellaneous gift toys and gift books for a gift for the child of Beloved Husband's friend, who would be stopping by momentarily. And finally, she rummaged in the closet and -- miracle of miracles -- found just the right gift.
After a brief but enjoyable visit with Husband's friend, Herself avoided sending e-mails by paying the bills. Then she sent some of the e-mails. And she avoided the rest of the tasks by making herself a To Do list for tomorrow.
At that point, it had turned out to be a productive day. The house was clean, the laundry was done, dinner for that day and for the next had been prepared, the bills were paid, and most of the things were done. And so she avoided doing the rest of the things by going to bed.
What can we accomplish by avoiding things today?
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