Hated Tasks

Confession time: I hate to fold laundry. I find it insufferably boring, and I would rather scrub a bathroom, wash all the dishes by hand, weed a flower bed in August, and/or sort through a three-foot mound of paperwork with a client than get the towels and sheets in order.

It has nothing to do with my talent for folding. I’m a pretty darned good folder. I can fit more things into a suitcase with creative and careful folding than most people get into three. It has nothing to do with how I grew up (military dad and homemaker mom = very organized household). I have no trauma associated with folding laundry, and I have no issues with actually running everything through the washer and dryer (I tend to do a lot of air drying). I have plenty of space to fold, and my clothing storage is more than adequate.  I simply hate doing it.

I think we all have a hated task (or five) - some of my clients hate washing dishes, opening mail, paying bills (no big mystery on that one), dusting, or cleaning windows. A recent survey indicated the top 20 most hated household chores in America* - number one was scrubbing a toilet (something from which I get a strange satisfaction), and number twenty was emptying the dishwasher. My hated task didn’t even make the list, so I guess I’m somewhat alone in my ambivalence. [Side note: I was intrigued to read that most homes have three “junk” drawers - y’all give me a call, because I'm all about organizing those junk drawers. :-)]

The problem is, at some point the rubber is going to hit the road, and the hated task will get entirely out of hand. When my kids were really small (and before I was an organizer striving to walk my talk), we had a daybed in our bedroom that used to get totally swamped with the clean clothes. The rest of the house could be spotless and in order, but that daybed carried the dirty secret.

I think one reason I got frustrated with the task back then is the whole orphaned sock thing. It used to drive me crazy to not find a match. I even bought these cute little “sock sacks” for everyone to use so I wouldn’t have to search and search to put two together. That idea never caught on, and I know I wasted a heck of a lot of time rummaging for matching socks for a 6-year-old girl and 3-year-old boy (my husband, blessedly, handles his own socks). Two things helped ease the situation:

1. I quit worrying about matching their socks (they didn’t care - go figure); and
2. As soon as they were old enough I taught them how to do their own laundry.

Thereafter, everyone in the family was responsible for their own clothing, and I would handle things like dishtowels and placemats and other linens. Simplification, delegation, and letting go of perfection can be incredibly freeing.

But I also have to be an adult, right? I still have my own clothes to get put away, and I do hate wasting time. So what helps me to get through the dreaded chore now? My secret weapon is to pair the hated task with something that’s somewhat of a guilty pleasure...and I adore a good podcast. When staring down a pile of jeans, t-shirts and yes, socks, I plug into an absorbing episode of Hidden Brain or Brothers Mysterium or Revisionist History, and I’m good to go. By pairing my hated task with something I really enjoy, I manage to pretty much forget what I’m doing (and it never even takes up the length of an episode - so I get to chill when I’m done, stare at the empty space where the laundry used to be,  and finish it).

Pairing hated tasks with fun things works mostly if the job in question is pretty repetitive or mundane. I probably wouldn’t try to listen to a podcast while pulling together tax documents for the accountant (but I probably WOULD tell myself I could listen to one as soon as I got it all done.). You can also gamify a tedious task by doing things like seeing how quickly you can get something completed (like opening and sorting the mail), and then seeing if you can beat your time the next day. As you might imagine, there are even apps you can use - Todoist gives you Karma points and ways to visually track task lists over time, and Habitica is a complete gamification program for every to-do item you could dream up (complete with a social network for support).

What’s your hated task, and what helps you to get through it?

p.s. Also, what’s your favorite podcast?? I need something new to try... 

Dude is way too chipper.

*"America's Most Hated Chores Revealed" - http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-5688843/Americas-20-disliked-household-chores.html