Procrastination

Install an Air Conditioner in Just 3 Months!

Posted on by Julie Pearson

Winter White

With the first day of fall just barely behind us, it’s time to ahead to crisp mornings, crunchy leaves, and enough pumpkin spice to melt your teeth away. AND, it’s the perfect time to finish all those lingering summer projects, like installing an air conditioner!

After a week in June where it got so hot that our wifi router stopped working, I caved and bought a small window AC unit on Amazon. I’d never had an air conditioner before, but with a second floor bedroom, it seemed like a good investment.

I received the air conditioner on July 1. It wasn’t hot then, and using it felt like a waste of electricity. So it sat in the box for a few weeks until my roommates offered to help enough times that I caved and opened the box.

So by August 1, I had learned that a small bracket under the air conditioner didn’t fit in my windowsill, and I needed to buy a new bracket. I kept “go to hardware store” on my mental to-do list for 3 weeks, until finally caving and ordering brackets on Amazon. Then, I don’t know how to use power tools, so I had to wait for the power-tool-having roommate to be in town and not working, and I had to be in town and not working, and all of a sudden, it was the first day of fall.

But as you can see, it’s possible to install an air conditioner in as little as 3 months, if you’re very diligent and easily consumed by the magnitude of small tasks. And that’s what I call a productivity success 🙂

4 Things I Love

Posted on by Julie Pearson

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I am not having a productive week, but I am having a good time with it. There’s what you should care about with me this week!

  1. Spring Break. My bus route to work goes by three high schools, which means the person to skateboard ratio on the bus is usually 1:1. Last week, though, there were no skateboards and thus no people. It’s refreshing to be surrounded by youth and potential every day, but it’s way more refreshing to sit anywhere I want on the bus. My sweatshirt got a seat, my purse got a seat, even my podcast got a seat. Now I’m back to sharing a seat with the manspreaders of tomorrow, but I LOVED it while it lasted.
  2. Library Books. I love the library! A few months ago, I checked out an enormous short story collection on a whim. I read approx. 5 pages out of 2000, and then renewed it several times to avoid returning it. It was due a week ago. I carried the enormous brick of a book all the way to work, but the book drop at the downtown library was locked. Locked! I have no choice but to keep this book. I often miss the days when art was more tangible, so it’s refreshing to be weighed down with this physical reminder of all the fines I’m racking up.
  3. Procrastinating. In college, I never started paper more than twelve hours before it was due. Now that I’m out of school, sometimes I miss it – the feeling of dread and wasted hours sitting in the bottom of my stomach, the heightening panic as a deadline approaches. Yesterday, I had a lot of free time and a long to do list, so I indulged. Without realizing it, I spent over an hour watching clips of Jimmy Kimmel man-on-the-street bits (why?) instead of starting my laundry. I found myself feeling deeply and inexplicably sad later – is time-wasting not the rush it once was? – but on the whole, it was a lovable throwback to a simpler time.
  4. StumbleUpon. This deserves a whole separate category, even though it technically falls under #3. I just remembered about StumbleUpon from college – it’s a website randomizer that helps you find novel ways to waste time. And it existed before clickbait was even invented. As I was getting really nostalgic for my college study habits, I went see if my old friend still existed. IT DOES! Hours were wasted! I read about Syria, read a quote about intimacy, and looked at these fun cardboard dioramas. I’m not sure how old I am anymore, and my laundry isn’t put away, but I’m loving it.