Battling complacency

JayMcB

JayMcB

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Wondering what techniques you use to deal with complacency. I find that life has been intruding. I had a run of 4 in a row of 70-hour weeks and after a recent day off, did a spot check and found I had gotten lazy with things like rotating food, fuel stocks, etc.

Once the 'look what I bought this month' wears off, you're left with the logistics.

I had taught my kids 'stack from the back' on food, but it wasn't followed through on, and now I have about 300 cans of expired food.

I have about 50 gallons of 'expired' gas that I will be rolling 5 gallons a tank into for the rest of the summer.

Flat tires on a quad. Another one won't start.

I have a bike i bought still unassembled, sitting in a box. Tools to put it together in NH, bike in MA.

I have a stack of window sashes to make a new cold frame/greenhouse....still in a pile

Ran myself out of chlorine shocking the crap out of the pool.

Missed the pruning time this spring for the apple tress, so the yield will probably suck

garden got planted late.

no range time. [hmmm]

How do you press your reset button and get re-engaged?
 
Cheap illegal immigrant labor is sorely lacking in New Hamsphire.

Down in Texas, I could drive the pickup truck over to Home Depot, find a choice of workers who would have that cold frame up by mid-afternoon (as long as I didn't ask to see a work visa and paid in cash)
 
Tell your employer you're only working 40 hours until further notice.
I've gotten to the point of disregarding the "guilt trip" for not doing the time so I can focus on the important things in my own life.
 
Kevin_NH said:
Cheap illegal immigrant labor is sorely lacking in New Hamsphire.

Down in Texas, I could drive the pickup truck over to Home Depot, find a choice of workers who would have that cold frame up by mid-afternoon (as long as I didn't ask to see a work visa and paid in cash)
Click to expand...

We got plenty in Framingham, get some and keep 'em.
 
saltydude said:
Tell your employer you're only working 40 hours until further notice.
I've gotten to the point of disregarding the "guilt trip" for not doing the time so I can focus on the important things in my own life.
Click to expand...
Alot of us cant work just 40hrs a week. I find the older i get the farther behind i get on things. Just dont have the energy anymore.
 
jct61765 said:
Alot of us cant work just 40hrs a week. I find the older i get the farther behind i get on things. Just dont have the energy anymore.
Click to expand...

Believe me brother. I understand completely. I work crazy hours from time to time but about a year ago I had to consider my sanity as well. Between working 70 hours and getting burned out on an accumulative basis almost anyone would struggle with the ever encroaching challenges and responsibilities life presents.
 
In.
Subscribed.
I've taken maybe 2 days off since 2014, otherwise working days/nights/weekends. 70-80 hours /week. Total slacker, kids gobbled up the can food, got into the bottled water, LP tanks are empty, under 10K rounds of small arms ammo. If the apocalypse happens tomorrow all I'd have to show for it is my bills are up to date, and we'd be dead.
[banghead]
 
JayMcB said:
Wondering what techniques you use to deal with complacency. I find that life has been intruding. I had a run of 4 in a row of 70-hour weeks and after a recent day off, did a spot check and found I had gotten lazy with things like rotating food, fuel stocks, etc.

Once the 'look what I bought this month' wears off, you're left with the logistics.

I had taught my kids 'stack from the back' on food, but it wasn't followed through on, and now I have about 300 cans of expired food.

I have about 50 gallons of 'expired' gas that I will be rolling 5 gallons a tank into for the rest of the summer.

Flat tires on a quad. Another one won't start.

I have a bike i bought still unassembled, sitting in a box. Tools to put it together in NH, bike in MA.

I have a stack of window sashes to make a new cold frame/greenhouse....still in a pile

Ran myself out of chlorine shocking the crap out of the pool.

Missed the pruning time this spring for the apple tress, so the yield will probably suck

garden got planted late.

no range time. [hmmm]

How do you press your reset button and get re-engaged?
Click to expand...

Dude, that's quite a list. If it gets so big you get overwhelmed, the fire goes out and its easier to say **** it. Pick one at a time, focus on it, finish it, move on.
 
I've let sooooooo much go lately due to working. It seems all I do. I go home, eat, sit, sleep, work repeat. Weekends come and all I want to do is sleep and go out to dinner. Have to force myself to do things. Even fun things (forcing myself to go to IDPAs even).

I need to get my head back in the game! So sub'd
 
First, get off the internet.

Keyboards are not going to help you!

[laugh]

Break it down into chunks. How old are the kids? Are they old enough to be useful? If yes, make out a "Job Ticket" for each item that they can competently do. Give them a reward for getting it done.

Just a few thoughts from someone that gets buried under crap, too.

Oh, come on out to the Club this Thursday, and bust some clays. Bring the kids.

[wink]

Gotta start somewhere!
 
MisterHappy said:
First, get off the internet.

Keyboards are not going to help you!

[laugh]

Break it down into chunks. How old are the kids? Are they old enough to be useful? If yes, make out a "Job Ticket" for each item that they can competently do. Give them a reward for getting it done.

Just a few thoughts from someone that gets buried under crap, too.

Oh, come on out to the Club this Thursday, and bust some clays. Bring the kids.

[wink]

Gotta start somewhere!
Click to expand...

Invite much appreciated. After an 8 hour day today, a 4 hour round trip to sit in a Historic Commission so we can put up a new fence. Now I need to finish the server builds for the data migration that is supposed to start in about 8 hours....in Boston. [angry]

And one kid is at my mother's powerwashing her deck, and the other is at a FVCKING horse show.

The keyboard commando time is usually between compiling or waiting for something else......
 
JayMcB said:
I had taught my kids 'stack from the back' on food, but it wasn't followed through on, and now I have about 300 cans of expired food.
Click to expand...

Just because the can says so, doesn't mean it is so.

Depending on what is in the cans, the manufacturer's "suggested" expiration date might just be BS.

Check out this thread.
 
I'm so in the same place, I used to clean my guns within a day or two back from the range now it's weeks and I don't enjoy iy it like I used to. I am in a funk and don't want to use the solution most of my friends use, antidepressants. I'll let you know if I figure it out until then subscribed.

By the way I feel like shit Everytime I get home and see my fish tank which is severely neglected, thank god I have old ass hearty fish. None under 7 yrs and one is almost 18.
 
If hourly, you just made 8 weeks pay in 4 weeks. Sound bite your "need to do's". I used to work 55 hours a week with a 200 mile round trip commute. This went on for years. I didn't get much done but did retire at 62. Now, I'm too fat, lazy and stupid to catch up. Oh well. Now I'm too fat, lazy and stupid to GAF.
 
GPP said:
Dude, that's quite a list. If it gets so big you get overwhelmed, the fire goes out and its easier to say **** it. Pick one at a time, focus on it, finish it, move on.
Click to expand...

I agree, but prioritize the list using 3 criteria: Vital (life sustaining), Important, and Necessary. I use A, B, and C to designate them on the list (A=vital, etc.). Focus on the "A" items first.

If you follow the priorities on the list, the least important things will never get done and the most vital things will. [wink]
 
How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time. Pick one thing and focus on it. Maybe choose driving to NH and getting those Tool, bring the kids, have family time and get something on the list done or halfway done.
 
I find it helps if I use a decent app for keeping track of my to-do lists, so I can mark them by priority, sort them, etc. I currently use Evernote for this; it isn't perfect as a to-do list but it'll do. Of course, now I have a to-do list with dozens upon dozens of not done items in it!

Also, sometimes you just gotta drop something from your life. I keep seeing nice used boats for sale as I'm driving around, at prices I could afford without it being any big deal financially. But... I know it is a huge time sink if I got one... so I keep telling myself NO I will not get a boat. I can't afford the time commitment. I don't care how pretty it is. I already have an inflatable... that can get me around the local ponds.

That said, I still can't say I'm good at it. I got the garden in 2 weeks later than I had hoped (which seemed to have made the carrots and parsnips not want to grow at all, for whatever reason... not sure what went wrong there). And, it's now too late to plant those apple trees I was hoping to buy. (The main issue with them was that I was like "Oh crap, those things look big... I don't really wanna lift those trees in and out of the truck, then have to start digging big holes.")
 
A couple of small things which work for me (and may not work for anyone else)

- Write it down. If I have just a mental to-do list, things tend to not get done. For whatever reason, if I actually create a list, not only am I more motivated to get started, once I get something accomplished Im more likely to want to keep the ball rolling and cross off that next item on the list.

- Pick something. Anything. If you have an over-whelming amount of stuff to do, just pick one thing and do it. Doesnt have to be the most pressing thing, just do something. It will be one less thing on the list and it tends to lead to more getting done (with me at least)

Also, the internet is a HUGE time sink for me. I tend to complain about lack of time, but if I limit internet use, I have plenty of time to get things done
 
chris_1001 said:
I've let sooooooo much go lately due to working. It seems all I do. I go home, eat, sit, sleep, work repeat. Weekends come and all I want to do is sleep and go out to dinner. Have to force myself to do things. Even fun things (forcing myself to go to IDPAs even).

I need to get my head back in the game! So sub'd
Click to expand...

Same here, to the T.

OP: Work is your enemy. I'm also out of the house for 11.5 hours a day, by the time I'm home - I just wanna do exactly nothing. At least my online stuff is always up to snuff - I work in front of a computer so bills are always paid, bank/CC account monitored, etc. But, as for the "real world", I suck, and I'm always behind.

Independence day weekend, I took an extra day off, and all four days worked on stacking my firewood. In the evening I went fishing, and that made it feel at least like some vacation time, come Sunday evening, needles to say, I did not feel like I rested.

There's really no winning here, a living wage has to be made and preps gotta be taken care of, I thought about million ways to cut corners - nope, it's tough shit and that's what it is, gotta be able to handle both, nothing good is easy - that's the way I look at it.



20150705_192603.jpg

20150705_192639.jpg
 
JayMcB said:
Wondering what techniques you use to deal with complacency. I find that life has been intruding. I had a run of 4 in a row of 70-hour weeks and after a recent day off, did a spot check and found I had gotten lazy with things like rotating food, fuel stocks, etc.

Once the 'look what I bought this month' wears off, you're left with the logistics.

I had taught my kids 'stack from the back' on food, but it wasn't followed through on, and now I have about 300 cans of expired food.

I have about 50 gallons of 'expired' gas that I will be rolling 5 gallons a tank into for the rest of the summer.

Flat tires on a quad. Another one won't start.

I have a bike i bought still unassembled, sitting in a box. Tools to put it together in NH, bike in MA.

I have a stack of window sashes to make a new cold frame/greenhouse....still in a pile

Ran myself out of chlorine shocking the crap out of the pool.

Missed the pruning time this spring for the apple tress, so the yield will probably suck

garden got planted late.

no range time. [hmmm]

How do you press your reset button and get re-engaged?
Click to expand...

Well got a few things ticked off the list. got 25 gallons burned and rotated. Got some .22 @Cabela's. (next to BJ's where I bought the gas).

Made a self-promise that I would work for 15 minutes a day in the pantry. Just 15. It's coming under control. Unfortunately, a lot of dog and chicken food came out of it. Working on an inventory

Tire hole is fixed. The other quad is on the trailer to get dropped tomorrow.

Pool is blue. Pool Shock is your friend.

Miraclegrowed the crap out of the garden. Basil is going to seed already.

The whole work/life balance thing was completely outta control. Even incremental progress is progress.

My suggestion: Make a pact with yourself for an easily reachable goal. 15 minutes. 15 minutes a day makes a difference.

And don't sit down and put on the PC/TV before you give your 15 minutes.

Now I need to clean all of the rifles, shotguns and pistols. 15 minutes a day isn't going to cover that.
 

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