Jane Witherspoon is a Canadian expat, adventurous spirit, and dedicated yoga instructor who now calls Dénia, Spain, home. A passionate Rambler at heart, she embraces the richness of life in her new Mediterranean lifestyle.
I am a lifelong procrastinator, a quality I’m not especially proud of and one I’m always telling myself I’m going to change. Of course, there’s a certain irony in being a procrastinator who keeps putting off doing something about her procrastination.
It also drives my husband crazy because he is the complete opposite. He’s very much a “see it, do it, get it done” kind of person, while I’m more likely to think, I’ll take care of that later.
Over the years, I’ve become very good at justifying it. I tell myself I work better under pressure, that I need a deadline to really get motivated, or that there’s no reason something needs to be done today when there’s always tomorrow. And to be fair, give me a deadline and I can accomplish an astonishing amount in a very short period of time.
But lately I’ve been thinking about the other side of procrastination. Not so much the big things I eventually get done because I have to, but all those little things that don’t come with a deadline.
Those are the things I’m particularly good at putting off because there’s always another day to do them. They’re rarely urgent, and there’s usually no real consequence if I leave them for another week—or another month. So they quietly get pushed further and further down the list.
The appointment I’ve been meaning to make. The pants that need hemming. The photo I want to print and frame. The cupboard that needs sorting. The email I should send. The little repair that would probably take no time at all to arrange. None of these things is particularly difficult, and most of them probably wouldn’t take very long to actually do.
But every time I see one of them, there’s that little thought in the back of my mind:
“I really need to do that…”
I think that’s the sneaky part of these little unfinished tasks. Even though we’re not actually doing them, we keep thinking about doing them. They stay somewhere in the background, taking up a tiny bit of mental space every time we notice or remember them.
We recently moved out of the apartment we had lived in for five years, and moving has a wonderful way of forcing you to confront absolutely everything you’ve been putting off.
As I packed, sorted, cleaned and prepared to leave, I kept coming across things that made me think, Oh yes. I was going to do something about that.
There was nothing particularly significant about any one of them. They were simply all those little “I really need to do that” things. After five years, apparently I had quite a collection.
One of my most ridiculous examples of is a pair of pants I absolutely love. I bought them 20 years ago and have worn them exactly twice—with really high heels, which I am definitely beyond now.
I’m only 5'2", so pants being too long is a lifelong problem. I joke that I can wear capri pants as regular pants—and it’s really not much of an exaggeration. I finally stopped buying pants that needed altering because I knew I’d never actually get around to doing it.
But these pants have survived. They’ve moved with me to two different countries, and every time I unpack them I think, I really need to get them hemmed.
They’re now hanging in my new closet…again.
And that really sums up the problem with these little jobs. There’s rarely any urgency attached to them. Nobody is waiting for us to get them done. There’s no deadline on the calendar. Nothing terrible is going to happen if we don’t do them today.
So we think, I’ll do that later.
Then we see it again and think, Oh yes, I really need to do that.
And somehow later becomes next week, next month, and sometimes even longer—while that little task continues to sit quietly on the list.
Moving changed all of that because suddenly I had a deadline. I couldn’t leave everything for some wonderfully organized future version of myself to deal with. We were moving, and one day had officially arrived. So I dealt with things. I made decisions, made calls, threw things away, gave things away, repaired things, cleaned things and finally took care of jobs I had successfully managed to ignore for a very long time.
It was exhausting. We spent two weeks constantly on the go, and by the end of it I was completely worn out, but mixed in with all that exhaustion was a feeling I hadn’t really expected: relief. Every time I took care of one of those lingering little jobs, I felt a little lighter.
It made me realize that unfinished things have a weight to them. Not a huge weight. I certainly wasn’t lying awake at night worrying about a pair of pants I hadn’t taken to be hemmed. But somewhere in the back of my mind was this ongoing collection of tiny reminders.
Need to do that. Must remember that. I really should get around to that.
One little thing doesn’t take up much mental space. But when you collect enough of them, they start to create a surprising amount of clutter in your head.
And it isn’t only chores.
There are the appointments we need to book, the subscriptions we meant to cancel, the photos we wanted to print and the friend we’ve been meaning to call. But there are also the lovely things we postpone. The restaurant we keep saying we want to try. The beautiful candle we’re saving. The dress we love but never wear. The class we’ve thought about taking. The little day trip we keep talking about doing.
Not everything on our “I keep meaning to…” list is something we have to do.
Some of it is actually life we keep meaning to live.
Now we’re on the other side of the move and slowly settling into our new home. The boxes are disappearing, things are finding their places and it’s beginning to feel like ours.
And I’m trying very hard not to immediately start another five-year collection of things I’ll get around to one day.
When I see something that needs doing, I’m trying to take care of it instead of automatically thinking, I’ll get to that later. If something needs a home, find it a home. If something needs hanging, hang it. If I need to make the appointment, make it. If something needs fixing, arrange it. If I don’t want or need something, make the decision rather than putting it somewhere “for now.”
And perhaps that is my current life lesson—we’re never too old to change some of our habits, take a little more responsibility for the things we keep putting off, and finally start getting those little things done.
Will I suddenly become a “see it, do it, get it done” person like my husband?
Probably not.
I know myself far too well to announce that I’m suddenly cured of procrastination. I’m sure there will still be plenty of things I decide can wait until tomorrow. And possibly the tomorrow after that.
There is an incredible amount of satisfaction in simply finishing something that has been quietly hanging over you. Sometimes the anticipation of doing a job is far worse than actually doing it. Something can sit on my mental list for months, and when I finally tackle it, it takes fifteen minutes.
Fifteen minutes!
All that time thinking about it, remembering it, putting it off and mildly annoying myself every time I notice it—and then suddenly it’s done.
This experience was really what got me thinking about creating a Life Admin Challenge. I didn’t want it to be about productivity or simply finding ways to get more done. Women certainly don’t need another list telling us all the things we should be doing.
Instead, I wanted to focus on those little things already sitting quietly in the back of our minds—the practical things we’ve been putting off, the annoying things we keep avoiding, and all those small jobs we know we need to tackle. But just as importantly, I wanted to include the fun things, the meaningful things and the things we genuinely want to make time for but somehow keep putting off until another day.
Many of the daily Life Admin tasks are things this move forced me to finally do, along with so many of those little tasks I had put off. As I’ve been working on the Challenge, I’ve had quite a few moments of thinking, Well, I can definitely tick that one off now!
Once we’re completely settled, I want to keep the momentum going and tackle some of them. Not because I want a perfectly organized life or an empty to-do list, but because I now understand how good it feels to have fewer things quietly asking for my attention.
We don’t always need a huge life overhaul.
Sometimes we just need to make the appointment. Send the email. Fix the thing. Call the friend. Wear the dress. Light the candle. Go to the café.
And apparently, get the pants hemmed.
Do the little thing we’ve been telling ourselves we’ll get around to one day.
Because as I discovered over these past few weeks, there’s something wonderfully satisfying about replacing “I really need to do that…” with three very simple words:
“I did it.” ❤️
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