As much as I like to make things, there have been some things that I’ve been putting off doing recently. Although I’ve been getting everything done that’s needed for work, I’ve been putting off what feel like more non-essential things, even though these are often the tasks that are important to building a more resilient and sustainable life. By and large these are relatively small things, but I put them off all the same. I think I often convince myself that whatever I want to do will take a long time or be otherwise inconvenient, and so I let things sit.
In most cases, however, this is far from the truth. To combat my procrastination I’ve been trying to do things that I would normally put off just as a matter of routine. This means they get done quickly – usually the same day, if not as soon as I think of them – and often I find they don’t take anywhere near as long as I think they will. In turn, this makes it more likely that I’ll keep up with the things that I want to or need to do. It’s been a bit surprising to me how easy it is to fit in these smaller tasks.
This past week, I changed a flat tire on my bicycle, made sauerkraut, started ginger beer and sourdough starters, soaked beans for sprouting, and put together a sugar scrub and face masque for my sensitive and currently very unhappy skin. The thing that took the longest was easily the sauerkraut, but even with the chopping and pounding down it took only around a half hour, perhaps a bit more with cleanup (cabbage everywhere). Everything else took well under 15 minutes.
My recent schedule hasn’t left much time for anything other than work, but as things slow down and settle in a bit, it’s good to know that I can fit in some of the activities that I’ve been holding off on. It’s important to me to know that I’m being at least a bit productive in ways that don’t involve work, and it’s felt really, really good to be able to accomplish some of these tasks in the free time that I have.
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