Don't Want To Do It Days
An NYC procastinator's productivity concept
There comes a time in every woman’s life where she has to wade through a vast sea of admin—bills, tasks, to-dos, checklists, errands, calls, emails, you get it—and it seems so much easier to simply not do any of it. That’s my usual strategy. It doesn’t work out.
It’s all too much when the house needs to be cleaned, a bill from your doctor—an URGENT THIRD NOTICE no less, is due IMMEDIATELY UPON RECEIPT (Mr. Doctor, please…)—a birthday card needs to be mailed, you were tricked yet again by Kim Kardashian and need to go through the humiliating process of a Skims return (fool me twice Kim!!!!!), a flight to a friend’s wedding needs to be booked, and God forbid you need to print something. Take that, all of that, multiply it by five, and put it off for a couple weeks. Awful situation to be in. Very relatable. I will keep you in my thoughts.
Well, I have discovered a solution that you will probably dislike.
I call it “Don’t Want To Do It Days.” This is exactly what it sounds like.
You create a list of all the bureaucratic, annoying stuff you’ve been avoiding in your life and you do it all in a single day. You spend the entire day doing things you don’t want to do. If that sounds like it’s going to uh, suck, you’re right, it will. You might even have to dedicate a precious Saturday to the cause. And on that note, I want to make clear distinction here between this concept and Errand Saturday. “Errand Saturday” is a 5k walk. “Errand Saturday” is something a child could do. This is a marathon. This is an Ironman. This is running suicides at soccer practice after eating Chipotle. This will not be fun.
But it will only be miserable for the first two hours. After the first two hours, a shift happens, and you start to kind of get high on the fact that you’re being so productive, tackling so many banal parts of human existence. You may even find more stuff you need to do, and you will tear through it all like a rabid animal. You will get a handle on your life. You will win. Also, once you start, it’s easy to romanticize doing errands in New York City. With a coffee in hand, in this town, anything is possible. Half of any show about living in New York is about trying to pick up dry cleaning.
With that said, allow me to offer a few tips.
Don’t Want To Do It Days are about building momentum, and nothing will bring you to a halt like failing at your first task. It will break your spirit. I do not recommend going to the bank when it’s closed and pushing on the doors and whining like “wait noooooooo :( ”
For a successful Don’t Want To Do It Day (hereafter DWTDID)—this is how I would break it down:
The night before
Get good sleep, and maybe paint your nails and/or get a manicure. Why? Obviously, accomplishing tasks hits different with nice nails. This is a little treat, a deal with yourself, that if you do your nails today, tomorrow is the DWTDID.
7:00 am (or, ideally, even earlier)
The first thing you’re going to do on your DWTDID is get up early. You cannot start this process at 11 am. And after you get up early, you’re going to go to the gym, or go for a long walk. There’s something about exercise first thing in the morning, with the early birds, that will have you feeling productive and on top of it already. (You’re also kind of tricking yourself, because most of the time we don’t want to go to the gym first thing in the morning, and now you have, which means you’ve already done something you don’t want to do.)
8:30 am
Buy yourself a little treat (***DO NOT SKIP***). An overpriced matcha latte will do nicely, accompanied by a fresh croissant or a lemon curd babka from Librae. Shower and get ready like you would on a normal day. Put your phone on DND.
