Discovery Dip
Showing up for chores I don’t like
A big thank you to all my new subscribers! I really appreciate you spending time with me, the island I live on, and this funny series of choices and dilemmas that make up our lives.
Speaking for myself, I need a little lightness right now. Some zip, some sparkle. You may be amused to see the technique I’ve been coaxing myself to use to get unwanted chores done.
Filing? I detest it with a passion. It goes down to the bottom of the heap. Or, wait, for me the lowest of the low is social media for book marketing. I’d rather make a nice curry or go work in the garden. Ha, I know, I could empty one side of my rolling composter, a black mass of stinky kitchen waste, always a crowd-pleaser that involves me throwing my jacket and pants into the washing machine afterward. My gardening gloves are so gross I have to swish off the gunk in a bucket outside. Or wait, I have overdue library books!
The truth of the matter is, day after day, I can keep myself busy just fine without going near my most anxiety-provoking items. An updated website? Great idea. Let me get right on that. Someday.
“Someday is not a day of the week.” Janet Dailey
I could moan all I wanted about living in a rural area where there is more work to be done than in a city, for example cleaning up fir branches after every storm. Though Pender Island is a wonderful place to live, for me there’s a pause factor of, wait, two people in this house used to share what needed to be done. All true. But the other person in my life has gone on to what Albus Dumbledore called, “the next great adventure,” meaning my spouse was no longer available to be scheduled. I’m sure what he’s doing is more fun. However.
I thought of the phrase “job jar.” It sounded a)1950s and b) unpleasantly like work. I needed a Tom Sawyer twist to make things palatable. Remember where he convinces his friends to do the work he’s supposed to in painting a fence?
Except the only person I’m tricking is myself.
Okay, for Monday through Saturday, I wrote myself four chores, one per scrap of paper, something like “Pay bills.” Each of these four bits of paper went facedown into their own nice new ziplock bag. The bags went into a white wicker basket that I relieved of onion storage detail and cleaned. Somehow the basket made the system look official and, dare I say, pretty. Sundays I got off
The deal was, I could put my hand into, say, Monday’s bag, pull out a piece of paper, and if I didn’t like what was written on it, I could try again. As long as I did all four bits of work by the end of the day, it didn’t matter what order I did them in. I’d call it a Discovery Dip—that sounds fun, doesn’t it? And, just to make the deal even sweeter, I could set the timer on my phone for 20 minutes so I could stop even if I hadn’t finished. There, that wasn’t too difficult, was it?
The goofy thing is the Discovery Dip system more or less works! It overcame the gorilla glue of my inertia. Sure there are hiccups, especially when I have to go off-island for a couple of days. To my astonishment, by doing a bit regularly, I’m getting caught up in my filing, both electronic and paper. I can tell you right now that feels very sparkly.
As the work I wrote down for myself differs on days of the week, and each piece of paper is facedown, I never remember what I might be pulling out. Hey, I might get lucky and draw, “Write Jorrie 3!” (The third in the series of magic Young Adult novels I’m having fun with.) I deliberately mixed in a few treats like the writing I want to do anyway. “Read favourite Substack” is another reward item. Having these sweeteners helps. And my own ridiculousness in having to resort to this system makes me laugh.
THE CARROT
“Sometimes the bravest and most important thing you can do is just show up.” Brené Brown
THE STICK
“Only put off until tomorrow what you are willing to die having left undone.” Pablo Picasso
What are you procrastinating about? Come on, share. I always enjoying hearing from readers!
This made me chuckle! It was especially timely since most of today's to do list consisted of things that weren't very sparkly!
I love a good Discovery Dip ✌🏻