Latest / Uncluttered and Unfiltered: The Podcast For Women Over 50 / PROCRASTINATION: LISTEN TO THIS EPISODE TODAY! (DON'T PUT IT OFF!)

Transcript

PROCRASTINATION: LISTEN TO THIS EPISODE TODAY! (DON'T PUT IT OFF!) · Uncluttered and Unfiltered: The Podcast For Women Over 50

• 1:03
  Welcome to Uncluttered and Unfiltered, the podcast urging
• 1:07
  you to let it go and don't look back.
• 1:10
  We've nationally acclaimed professional organizer Christine
• 1:13
  Stone and self-proclaimed Hot Damn Mess radio and TV
• 1:17
  personality Eden Kendall. Welcome to Uncluttered and
• 1:21
  Unfiltered. It's the podcast for women over
• 1:23
  50. But you know what?
• 1:24
  I don't know if I feel like it. Can't we do this podcast later?
• 1:28
  Don't procrastinate. There you go.
• 1:30
  That's the subject we're going to talk about right now.
• 1:32
  Procrastination. Procrastination about everything
• 1:37
  in life. Sometimes it has to do with
• 1:39
  being organized. Sometimes it has to do with just
• 1:42
  the everyday tasks at hand. Before we get into our subject,
• 1:45
  I do want to tell you a story about someone who procrastinated
• 1:48
  doing something, and thank goodness their wife nagged them
• 1:51
  until they did it. And I'm talking about my husband
• 1:55
  finally, and I have his blessing to tell this story after me
• 1:59
  nagging him for eight straight years.
• 2:03
  Had a physical and a colonoscopy finally and when he was
• 2:07
  recovering from the anesthesia at the clinic for the
• 2:11
  colonoscopy, one after another, the different nurses and
• 2:15
  practitioners and even the doctor came in and said, is this
• 2:18
  the woman that told you you needed to get this done?
• 2:21
  You should thank her. They had a polyp that was 5
• 2:24
  centimeters. They said it was most definitely
• 2:28
  the kind that could become aggressive later.
• 2:31
  Caught it in time, knock wood. Everything was sent off for
• 2:34
  pathology. No problems to speak of but 3 or
• 2:39
  4 polyps, one being 5 centimeters.
• 2:42
  So I texted the whole family in a group chat and said I'm kind
• 2:45
  of a hero. Yes, you are.
• 2:47
  I mean, the, the, the reason I'm sharing this is ladies, if
• 2:51
  you're finding yourself having to nag a man in your life,
• 2:55
  continue to do it. Don't let them dissuade you.
• 2:58
  Don't let them say because a colonoscopy and if you don't
• 3:02
  know it's preventative. It's not just a test to see if
• 3:05
  you're already sick. It's a way to keep you from
• 3:08
  getting yes prostate, not prostate.
• 3:11
  Colon cancer. Colon cancer, yeah, And
• 3:13
  colorectal cancer. I mean, you've got to catch
• 3:15
  these polyps. Yep.
• 3:17
  Well, colon cancer runs in my family, so I'm I'm a very big
• 3:22
  proponent of getting your colonoscopy.
• 3:24
  And you should have your first one by the time you're 50, yes.
• 3:27
  And then they'll tell you when you have to come back for, for
• 3:30
  him, they said in one year we'll see you next year.
• 3:33
  For me, they said 10 years. I was clean as a whistle, knock
• 3:36
  wood. But I don't I, I don't take that
• 3:39
  for granted. I'll be.
• 3:39
  Back. No, that's great though.
• 3:41
  Yeah. Everybody please get your
• 3:43
  colonoscopy. I look at it now as a cleanse.
• 3:47
  Yeah, we've talked about. This.
• 3:48
  When you're older, it's just like a cleanse.
• 3:50
  You kind of feel really good. You feel empty and light and
• 3:54
  then you get that nice nap. That.
• 3:56
  Yeah, it's fantastic. It's the best.
• 3:58
  Yes. And you get the, you know, day.
• 4:01
  Get off with blessing from your job.
• 4:02
  And everybody. Caters to you and you.
• 4:05
  And you get the propofol, which is the best sleep you'll ever
• 4:08
  have in your entire life. Exactly.
• 4:12
  So there's that. That's one thing I wanted to
• 4:14
  discuss. What?
• 4:15
  Else to do Well, I want to discuss that you're on the cover
• 4:17
  of senior Living magazine I. May just tell you what what that
• 4:23
  was like. I'm reading my emails.
• 4:26
  Thank you. I'm reading my emails and I see
• 4:30
  hi Eden, we would love to put you on the cover and I'm saying
• 4:32
  magazine and cover and I'm like, Oh my gosh, this is cool.
• 4:36
  And then I see senior living and I my I choked on my coffee.
• 4:40
  My husband and I started howling.
• 4:41
  We were laughing so hard. It's first Co senior living
• 4:45
  local to our. Our I can't wait.
• 4:46
  To see it well, but The thing is, if they say the magazine is
• 4:50
  caters to people 55 and up, but to me, I thought, I mean, should
• 4:54
  I say no? Like what kind of message is
• 4:56
  that sending if I say no? Because then it looks like I'm
• 5:00
  embarrassed of my age. But should I be promoting my
• 5:02
  age? I don't know.
• 5:03
  Promote your age. I can't wait to see it and read.
• 5:07
  Is there a full article? Yeah.
• 5:09
  I can't wait, I'm so excited. I will share the.
• 5:11
  Link with everyone. I mean, it's virtual and it's a
• 5:13
  physical magazine. I'm still going to send it to my
• 5:15
  mommy. But what will that feel like as
• 5:17
  a mom to receive a magazine with your daughter on the cover and
• 5:21
  it's a senior magazine and it's your offspring on there.
• 5:26
  Like how old does that make a? Person that makes the mom feel
• 5:29
  really old. I know.
• 5:31
  And my daughter, even when I told her she's like, and you
• 5:33
  said yes, I said yes, I said yes, why not?
• 5:37
  Why not? I think it's an honor in my
• 5:40
  opinion, but that's because I'm over 50 too, so I'm.
• 5:43
  Very flattered. I'm very flattered.
• 5:45
  I mean, I, I did, it did cross my mind.
• 5:48
  Like should I, should I find out if it's OK for me to do this?
• 5:51
  You know, would my employer be OK with it?
• 5:53
  But then I thought, you know what?
• 5:54
  Who's going to tell me though on that, you know?
• 5:56
  Right. I'm not kidding anybody.
• 5:58
  I don't think anybody out there watching doesn't know.
• 6:01
  Right. So.
• 6:02
  Embrace it. Embrace your age.
• 6:04
  You have to. You have to.
• 6:05
  It's not like they're beating down my door to put me on the
• 6:07
  cover of magazines and I got to promote the podcast.
• 6:09
  So there you. Go.
• 6:10
  I love it. There it is.
• 6:13
  So let's talk about procrastination, because I would
• 6:15
  think that that is at the heart of so many people's lives that
• 6:21
  you deal with as a professional organizer.
• 6:24
  Well, I'm going to read the definition because this couldn't
• 6:27
  be more spot on. Procrastination is the act of
• 6:30
  delaying or putting off tasks, often due to feelings of feeling
• 6:35
  overwhelmed, fear of failure, or the lack of motivation.
• 6:39
  Bingo, bingo. I think that that says exactly
• 6:44
  what I deal with when I have clients.
• 6:47
  It's either they're scared to do anything because it not look
• 6:51
  good or be what it should be or use the products they should
• 6:55
  use, or they're just so tired and they're not motivated.
• 6:58
  It's like I just, I'm exhausted or I don't have the energy for
• 7:03
  this. So I think it's in every part of
• 7:06
  everybody's lives at some point, whether it's your job, even in
• 7:11
  your relationships, you know, I think it affects even
• 7:15
  friendships like, you know. I haven't seen her in a month.
• 7:20
  I really need to call her and set up a time.
• 7:23
  But right. Such a busy time right now and
• 7:26
  everything is easier to put off. So right.
• 7:28
  I mean, I think we all know the the, the dark part of that where
• 7:32
  you really do need to make a point to see people you love
• 7:35
  because you just don't. Know right, that's so true you.
• 7:38
  Never want to kick yourself later, but even on the the
• 7:40
  lighter side of things, there's just such a such a propensity
• 7:44
  for me. Like this is something that I
• 7:46
  suffer with all the time to just say, especially when it comes to
• 7:49
  organization, you know, I'll finish later.
• 7:51
  That's one of the reasons you always tell people to start with
• 7:54
  small areas when it comes to organizing.
• 7:56
  Because should you get started and then try to procrastinate,
• 7:59
  you don't have your entire house turned inside out.
• 8:01
  Exactly. And I see a lot of that where
• 8:05
  people have the best intentions and then, you know, they just
• 8:11
  don't have the energy. They're, they're good for two
• 8:13
  hours maybe and then that's it and they are done.
• 8:18
  So you don't want to start and pull everything out of every
• 8:21
  room. You want to start.
• 8:23
  You want to start small, so. Through the years you've given
• 8:26
  some tips on avoiding procrastination, one of my
• 8:28
  favorite all time anti procrastination tips.
• 8:31
  And again, we're talking now about decluttering, but this
• 8:34
  could apply to so many things is when you said schedule, pickup
• 8:38
  schedule like the charities that do pickups to come to your house
• 8:42
  on like this Saturday or next Saturday.
• 8:44
  So you have no choice. Someone is showing up to come
• 8:47
  and get your thing. So you have to purge.
• 8:49
  You have no choice in the matter.
• 8:50
  Right. I, I really, really am a big
• 8:54
  proponent of have if you can, if it's in your area, having a
• 8:58
  donation pickup because number one, you're not picking through
• 9:02
  the stuff #2 it's out of your house.
• 9:05
  You don't have to walk around it or shove it in another closet or
• 9:10
  a room. So part of procrastination is
• 9:13
  I'll shove it in the other room and get to it later.
• 9:15
  And that's kind of defeating the purpose.
• 9:17
  And I like how you schedule even organization on your phone or on
• 9:23
  your calendar. I do.
• 9:24
  So I think that's a good thing. If you're a procrastinator,
• 9:28
  scheduling things on your calendar makes you feel like you
• 9:33
  have to accomplish them. Right.
• 9:35
  And so there are things that I procrastinate even in my
• 9:38
  notebook. I will take an event and I will
• 9:41
  move it. I'll have written it three
• 9:43
  different times. And the third time I go to move
• 9:45
  it, that's I'm like, Nope, right, Nope.
• 9:48
  And I'll give you an example of that getting an oil change.
• 9:51
  I might put oil change on my calendar for Wednesday.
• 9:54
  Well, I might erase that and move it to a week later by the
• 9:57
  third time I have. I mean, that sounds like a
• 10:00
  really weak way to approach your procrastination.
• 10:03
  I should just say, Nope, I'm not allowed to move it.
• 10:05
  But I know me well enough to know that if I've moved it a few
• 10:07
  times, I've got to decide that I'm not allowed to do any of the
• 10:10
  other things on my To Do List until I get that done.
• 10:14
  And that's a, you know, procrastination when it's
• 10:17
  something that's not fun to do is really the problem.
• 10:20
  Nobody ever procrastinates when it's something fun.
• 10:23
  Let's go shopping. No, let's do that next.
• 10:25
  Week, right, right. Well, another thing I think that
• 10:28
  happens is distractions. So when you're doing any task,
• 10:34
  minimizing distractions because when I'm organizing and we're
• 10:40
  setting a schedule and they're like, well, my husband will be
• 10:43
  home or my kids are off school that day, I automatically say,
• 10:47
  why don't we schedule another day?
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  Because if you have kids coming in and outgoing mom, mom or
• 10:53
  grandkids, or you have things going on around you, I'm telling
• 10:57
  you, it's distracting and nothing gets done.
• 11:00
  So minimizing the distractions so then you won't procrastinate.
• 11:05
  Like, oh, I can't finish this because such and such, I have to
• 11:09
  pick the kids up at school. I've got to do this.
• 11:11
  I've got a dental appointment, a hair appointment.
• 11:15
  Don't plan to do anything if you have distractions coming, you
• 11:19
  know what I mean? Among her things that she says
• 13:20
  the let them book was a big book for her, but another big book
• 13:23
  for her was her 5 second rule book.
• 13:25
  And her 5 second rule book was about you have something you
• 13:29
  want to do and you give yourself 5 seconds and you say I'm going
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  to get up out of this bed in 54321 and you've got to do it.
• 13:38
  And for procrastinators, that's a tough thing because I am very
• 13:42
  likely to just say 54, 5 right back to four.
• 13:46
  I don't know if that so much would work for me, but I like
• 13:53
  the concept. I just don't know if people can
• 13:56
  get up and go and 54321 you know, but I I do think most of
• 14:03
  procrastination is like you said, it's you're doing
• 14:06
  something that you're not like, although I take that back.
• 14:10
  There are concerts, events, and I'm still like, oh, maybe it'll
• 14:14
  rain or, you know, like I still. I'm sorry that event got
• 14:20
  cancelled, right? Oh darn.
• 14:22
  Right, exactly like that's me. That's terrible.
• 14:26
  Right. Oh gosh, I'm so sorry to hear
• 14:28
  that. But you know, so I think even no
• 14:32
  matter what it is, you can procrastinate like you need to
• 14:36
  get dressed for this event. I've got, I've got to start now,
• 14:39
  I've got to start getting ready now.
• 14:41
  And the older you get I feel like you have to start getting
• 14:44
  ready like 2 hours before an event.
• 14:46
  But you see, I am not physically, mentally, brain wise
• 14:51
  able to do that. I have.
• 14:52
  It has to be a hurry. I really.
• 14:54
  Have to write the essay the night before.
• 14:56
  I just that's. My, that's how I live that we
• 15:00
  know this, right? So.
• 15:02
  You ever heard of? The eat the frog method, No.
• 15:05
  OK, there's a, it's an old school kind of a business to do
• 15:09
  manual type theory called eat the frog.
• 15:12
  And the theory is if you eat a frog first thing in the morning,
• 15:15
  everything else you do the whole day will be better than that.
• 15:18
  So the idea is pick out which thing on your To Do List is the
• 15:22
  frog. Get it done first because the
• 15:25
  rest of the day everything seems easy after that.
• 15:29
  That's see, that's interesting Knock.
• 15:31
  Out the crappiest part of your. Day first, right, get it done.
• 15:35
  I and also I'm a list maker as we all have talked about and I
• 15:39
  think having a list and you can put in order like fun things or
• 15:47
  tolerable things to not so tolerable, but as long as you
• 15:51
  get them checked off at some point even in that week, I just
• 15:56
  don't let it go past that one week.
• 15:58
  So that's a great example of where Eat the Frog comes in.
• 16:02
  So you have this list in front of you and a couple of those
• 16:05
  things, you know you're going to have no problem getting them
• 16:07
  done because you know, one of them is maybe shop for a shop
• 16:11
  for a brand new outfit for an event on Amazon or wherever.
• 16:15
  And you know that's enjoyable. You know you're going to do
• 16:17
  that, right? Maybe when you're scrolling
• 16:19
  later on. So that's on your list, but you
• 16:21
  don't have to worry about that. You're going to do it.
• 16:23
  But the one that's like, you know, schedule and oil change,
• 16:25
  just get that done first. That's the frog method.
• 16:28
  Right, I agree. I think getting and also what I
• 16:32
  do is I'll take like 15 minutes if I have a long list and just
• 16:36
  sit down and just do what's like if it's if, if it's scheduling a
• 16:41
  dentist appointment, a doctor's appointment, or scheduling your
• 16:46
  air filter change for your house or whatever.
• 16:48
  It is. The AC doing those things all at
• 16:52
  one time, like just knocking them out and getting them done
• 16:55
  and then moving on to other things the next day that aren't,
• 17:00
  you know, but scheduling things. Just sit down and you have to do
• 17:03
  it for 5 minutes and just schedule what you need.
• 17:06
  A doctor's appointment, dentist appoint, whatever it is.
• 17:09
  The end of the day is a great time to really look at your next
• 17:14
  day's list as well. So yeah, starting out your day,
• 17:17
  you want to look at that list. But it's also for me anyway, I
• 17:20
  can say that it's really helpful for me before I finish work for
• 17:24
  the day, for example. But we're talking about lists
• 17:27
  for home life, everything. But before I finish the day to
• 17:29
  look, get the next day's list and really kind of clean it up,
• 17:32
  sometimes I'll get a fresh piece of paper and rewrite it because
• 17:35
  I might have crossed some things right or moved.
• 17:37
  Them. I do that all the time too.
• 17:38
  Writing and rewriting. I mean, not everyone is a list
• 17:41
  person, but for me I've discovered I have to be now.
• 17:44
  Yeah. Another thing I tell clients is
• 17:47
  I see people beating themselves up a lot when they don't tackle,
• 17:53
  when they're procrastinating. I'm not a big beat yourself up
• 17:57
  kind of person. I mean, if it doesn't get
• 18:00
  accomplished today, there's always tomorrow.
• 18:03
  I've told my kids that about so many things in life.
• 18:06
  If something doesn't happen today, it can always happen
• 18:09
  tomorrow. So don't beat yourself up over
• 18:12
  it. Just keep that list going and
• 18:14
  make it a point to at least cross off two things off that
• 18:18
  list a day and don't beat yourself up over it because that
• 18:22
  just brings negative energy throughout the whole day.
• 18:26
  Like if you're saying those words like God, you're such a
• 18:29
  loser. I should have gotten that done
• 18:30
  by now. It's just not it.
• 18:32
  It doesn't get anything done any faster.
• 18:35
  To me, the the the thing I progress and I would love
• 18:38
  everyone to think about this too.
• 18:39
  What is the one thing that you procrastinate about the most?
• 18:43
  For me, and I think I've even mentioned this a few times, I
• 18:45
  keep saying scheduling this or scheduling that.
• 18:48
  It's making appointments specifically when I have to pick
• 18:50
  up a phone and call someone like for a doctor's appointment.
• 18:53
  It's funny how you hate the portal and I I mean.
• 18:57
  Hate the portal I'm learning to. Love the portal.
• 19:00
  She loves the portal. I hate the portal.
• 19:02
  So we're talking about whenever you have a doctor that you visit
• 19:05
  now, they don't want you to call them.
• 19:06
  They want you to go through the portal.
• 19:08
  I I can't stand having to pick up the phone and make an
• 19:11
  appointment because then I've got to get my calendar out and
• 19:13
  then they're suggesting a day and I'm looking at the day and I
• 19:16
  can't make that day. And that's.
• 19:17
  So that's the thing that I'm constantly procrastinating.
• 19:20
  I'm moving it forward, OK, I have to make a hair appointment.
• 19:22
  I have to make a nail appointment.
• 19:24
  These kind of things like so how do you?
• 19:25
  Make a hair appointment. There's no portals.
• 19:27
  Well, there's no portal for that.
• 19:28
  Fortunately my my stylist is also very close friends.
• 19:31
  So you text her. But I don't even, you know, even
• 19:34
  that's kind of a pain because she comes back with three days
• 19:36
  and I come back with a day. It's just it looks like hi high,
• 19:40
  high stakes negotiating. And I think a lot of, I'm just
• 19:43
  saying, I think a lot of procrastination came once
• 19:47
  texting came. Yeah.
• 19:49
  Because to me, it is easier to pick up a phone and talk to a
• 19:53
  real human being and just get it done, then texting back and
• 19:58
  forth. No, I can't do that date.
• 20:00
  Well, what about this date? No, can't do that date either.
• 20:03
  What about it? It's just too much.
• 20:06
  I just feel like maybe I just don't like to type that much.
• 20:09
  Or I. It's easier to, yeah.
• 20:13
  I feel like that's been a major problem is texting because text
• 20:18
  to me and you and I have talked about this, they're also
• 20:22
  misconstrued. I had a huge, huge back and
• 20:25
  forth text chain going yesterday and today.
• 20:28
  And then she finally pick up, picked up the phone and called
• 20:31
  me because she was like, I don't even know what we're talking
• 20:33
  about anymore. And I said, can I admit I don't
• 20:35
  either? Yes, I, I mean, we're talking
• 20:37
  about two different events right back and forth that it was just
• 20:40
  very, very confusing. So.
• 20:42
  Well, I'm hoping that one day it goes back to the phone, but I'm
• 20:45
  not. I'm not, I'm not.
• 20:48
  I feel like it won't, but I'm hoping that I.
• 20:52
  Don't know, things aren't really making a turn back.
• 20:55
  I mean, there are a lot of things where I hope so, because
• 20:58
  I am not a texter and I am not a portal gal at all.
• 21:03
  A portal gal. I'm not a portal gal.
• 21:06
  Well, nobody's trying to turn you into a portal, gal.
• 21:09
  Although I got to say, I'm loving the portal for my my my
• 21:12
  doctor. She is so reachable.
• 21:15
  Really. Yeah, I guess that's the
• 21:17
  difference. They give me the portal and you
• 21:20
  can't get in touch with anybody and it's just so frustrating
• 21:24
  because then you're like, OK, who am I talking to?
• 21:27
  It's never like your actual doctor.
• 21:30
  And I just think again, it's it's messaging back and forth.
• 21:35
  It just, it's so time consuming. But anyway, enough for my, you
• 21:39
  know. We could, do, you know, for
• 21:40
  every little gripe we have, we could do entire episodes.
• 21:43
  On a. Specific gripe we exactly, but
• 21:46
  that's you know what? That's the privilege of age and
• 21:48
  wisdom, I say. I agree.
• 21:51
  So because young people love the portal.
• 21:53
  They love the portal they love. The Portal Young people love the
• 21:57
  portal. So what else do we want to cover
• 22:01
  for procrastination? I mean, I do want to ask
• 22:05
  everybody to let us know what it is they procrastinate about the
• 22:08
  most. I'll put something up in our on
• 22:09
  our Facebook group, which is don't procrastinate on this.
• 22:12
  It's called uncluttered and Unfiltered Ladies only, and you
• 22:15
  can join us in that group. That's where people will post
• 22:18
  things. Sometimes someone will have a
• 22:19
  funny meme, sometimes it's just a question about among the
• 22:22
  ladies. And it's a place where you can
• 22:24
  feel like it's a safe space. We have all the other social
• 22:27
  media as well, and we always invite you to share us with just
• 22:30
  one friend, a woman over 50 that you know that might enjoy taking
• 22:34
  us along with her for a walk or the drive to work.
• 22:37
  Yeah. And also, if you do finish your
• 22:41
  procrastination list, reward yourself, because I think that's
• 22:45
  so important to have rewards once you complete something,
• 22:49
  whether it's cleaning out your closet, buy one item of clothing
• 22:54
  that you've been dying to buy or a pair of shoes.
• 22:56
  Once you get rid of 10 pairs or five pairs, you know rewarding
• 23:01
  yourself when you finish a long list or a task in your home.
• 23:06
  That's a great idea. That's a fantastic.
• 23:09
  Because it'll motivate you. Yeah, You know what I might do?
• 23:10
  I might go through my little to do book and pull out everything.
• 23:14
  I know that I've been moving around and just say that if I
• 23:16
  can get all of these right, I'm going to get myself one of those
• 23:19
  red light masks. See.
• 23:21
  Because I've been wanting one of those and I just.
• 23:23
  Think I highly recommend them, I know you do.
• 23:26
  I think that I've been procrastinating getting one.
• 23:28
  All right, everybody. So let's just say it like this.
• 23:31
  If there's something on your To Do List and you've been
• 23:33
  procrastinating, you can do it tomorrow, but don't completely
• 23:38
  let it go. But for today, you can let it
• 23:42
  go. And don't look back.