That's an interesting observation: yes, I do get stuff done, in the end. But the path to it is usually long, torturous and leads along many places that weren't the destination along the way and plenty of that could be avoided. And quite a few of my achievements are probably the result of procrastinating on something else!
I wonder how the real achievers (Fabrice Bellard?) deal with these sort of things.
And also: what I need to do makes all the difference. Work on my bike: Present! Work on the company VAT reporting? Oh, I think I need to go play some piano. Hm, interesting bug in pianojacq, I should fix that. Hm, even more interesting, this allows me to refactor that bit. Then, on the 29th of the month I will work on the VAT filing.
I can relate to this a lot. The one silver lining of the shameful, interminable hell that is procrastination is the random skills that come out of it.
I was so dysfunctional at my last job during covid-induced WFH I found time to completely redo my backyard, which included tasks like "research sod options, schedule a delivery, learn how to install it and lay it before it dies" which if someone officially assigned me to do I never would have been able to get myself to complete.
This feels very relatable to me. Looking back, I'm pretty sure a few large projects spawned out of procrastinating on some other project I was supposed to be doing.
One was installing a tile floor in the kitchen, including lots of research, sistering joists, ripping up the old floor, etc etc. And replacing the kitchen range, which required a range hood, which required some cabinet mods. Lots of interesting new DIY skills learned in that project.
And then last year, building a video editor, instead of recording some videos for a course.
Pay someone to do the VAT filing for you. There are people that actually likes to play with that stuff so why don't you do the things you enjoy doing? Ok, I have no idea how much work the VAT stuff is, I'm not from US. But in general, remove the unneeded stress from life and enjoy it instead. Don't try to be a success, it's OK to just get along with life and family. Live on one salary if you can, split the time 50/50 between the two of you and just live cheap instead. Spend the extra time together with family doing things you enjoy.
I do. But even that requires me to hunt up all the receipts, send in all invoices received and all invoices sent. So there is always at least half a days' worth of work in there.
I wonder how the real achievers (Fabrice Bellard?) deal with these sort of things.
And also: what I need to do makes all the difference. Work on my bike: Present! Work on the company VAT reporting? Oh, I think I need to go play some piano. Hm, interesting bug in pianojacq, I should fix that. Hm, even more interesting, this allows me to refactor that bit. Then, on the 29th of the month I will work on the VAT filing.