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how come when you do one thing you end up doing more?

(20 Posts)
labazs Mon 07-Sept-26 14:55:32

i was pretty tired yesterday so thought i would just pop some washing on, then empty dishwasher to put on a new load.
well first off i took the cutlery out, opening the cutlery drawer it looked less than pristine so all that came out. took tray out wiped out drawer then tray, sorted all cutlery. some was washed pre dishwasher days so put that aside to wash too.
then after putting them away I needed to wipe the tops down, suddenly thought i had no overnight oats in the fridge, i usually make three or four to keep me going a few days. anyway then i thought better top up my home made yoghurt so made two more containers of that. yes fridge needed a wipe then the floor, emptied the kitchen bin, then hoovered the carpet. Honestly so much for a quiet afternoon

Squiffy Mon 07-Sept-26 15:14:25

Welcome to my world! 😆 I often also find that the thing I originally set out to do is the one thing that doesn’t get done! 🤦‍♀️

Aveline Mon 07-Sept-26 15:30:02

Gosh. I just don't start doing anything in case it leads to that sort of thing.

keepcalmandcavachon Mon 07-Sept-26 16:00:09

Aveline

Gosh. I just don't start doing anything in case it leads to that sort of thing.

gringringrin

Whingey Mon 07-Sept-26 16:07:23

Aveline.A lady after my own ❤️!

crazyH Mon 07-Sept-26 16:07:24

Avekine - me too 🤣🤣🤣

JamesandJon33 Mon 07-Sept-26 16:12:39

Oh yes. One wobbly paving stone on the front steps needed to be reset, says DH. We are on the sixth of seventh now. Paths next I expect…

labazs Mon 07-Sept-26 18:04:43

Glad its not just me i just get off on a side track but least it all gets done somehow!

Janlara Tue 08-Sept-26 14:18:28

Well, you must have felt very good after getting all those jobs out of the way 😊💐

polnan Tue 08-Sept-26 14:51:24

me too Aveline!

AuntieE Tue 08-Sept-26 15:11:19

I am a fully paid up member of this trade union too!

Noticed last week that the under-sink cupboard was a DISGRACE.

Two days later, all nine under the counter cupboards, plus the nest of four drawers had been emptied, washed and the clean contents replaced. Two tall cupboards, plus top of same, da capo al fine!

That was enough, n'est pas?

Wrong: washing and ironing done, plus sorted summer clothes and put the clean ones away for the winter, as it is autumn here now, rest went into the next load of washing, shopping accomplished, and on the only dry day of the week, garden bench wrapped up in reinforced plastic sheeting for the winter, and commenced the autumn culling of the shrubbery.

Deudits Tue 08-Sept-26 15:47:51

labazs, the cutlery drawer is how it always starts, and Squiffy has put her finger on the real problem: it's not the extra jobs, it's that the one you came in for is the one that vanishes. What has worked for people who lose whole afternoons this way is not to fight the wandering, it's to say the first job out loud before touching anything: 'washing on, then feet up'. A scrap of paper on the worktop does it, the notes on the phone do it, an app such as XNeuronal keeps the line you said and reads it back when you ask what you were supposed to be doing, which is usually about the time the yoghurt starts. Everything the drawer suggests on the way (oats, fridge, bin, carpet) goes on the same scrap for another day, so nothing is lost and nothing has to be done now. The kitchen still gets its going-over eventually. But the washing goes on first, and the quiet afternoon has a fighting chance.

SueDonim Tue 08-Sept-26 15:58:22

Ha, the cascade of chores! I went to make myself a coffee earlier. Instead, I used the kettle of hot water to clean out the cats’ litter tray then sorted the washing out as well. The former led to assigning the recycling to the appropriate wheelie bins, the latter to moving a broken laundry basket to the garage to take to the dump alongside various other items. I also retrieved a parcel from a garden box whether the delivery driver put it.

While in the garage I decided to reinstall the child car seats into my car ready for a trip tomorrow. It’s very windy today so it seemed a good moment to remove the garden parasol to the garage for winter and to make sure the garden furniture was covered properly. While outside, I planted some winter pansies into a tub and shifted some other plant pots around. That led me to putting some herbs from the kitchen into the garden, but first I picked all the mint leaves, chopped them up and put them in the freezer. I watered the newly planted pansies and then cleaned the sink area where the herbs had been.

Finally, I reboiled the kettle and had that coffee, along with a KitKat!

SueDonim Tue 08-Sept-26 16:00:04

Oh, I left out sweeping the kitchen floor, too! grin

Estrellita Tue 08-Sept-26 17:42:13

Gosh!

labazs Tue 08-Sept-26 20:11:17

Sue you more than deserved that Kitkat hope it was a large one

Cabbie21 Tue 08-Sept-26 21:36:12

Having completed two long- postponed tasks today I ate one slice of pear cake - and one thing led to another so I had a second slice.

notgran Wed 09-Sept-26 07:10:15

I am exactly like this. When I worked it was called multi-tasking and encouraged. Now though generally it is seen as a bad thing and I have even seen suggestions it's an indicator of ADHD!

Nannan2 Wed 09-Sept-26 11:06:45

Yes this is what happens to me regularly...😁😆

Boadicea Wed 09-Sept-26 12:00:53

I really intended to tackle the ironing pile yesterday morning ... but we needed to go unexpectedly to our storage unit to check some stock, ("first thing" OH said - but we didn't leave till 10.30!) then he was hungry and as he knew he would have to work late thought it was better to have a Morrisons All Day Breakfast on the way home...and to do our shopping, so we didn't get back till nearly 4.
He set to work (computer graphics) and I went to make him a coffee... but the cats needed feeding and their bowls washing so I did the rest of the washing up too...then hung up the laundry that I took out of the machine just before we'd left, remembered that I needed to shut the front room window but as I had the ladder up to do that I carried on stripping wallpaper until I remembered that I still hadn't made the coffee!
Now it was time to eat again ... and of course clean the kitchen, feed the cats again ... remembered the ironing, went upstairs to do that and realised I hadn't made the bed, so did that, then vacuumed, emptying the canister I realised we needed another bin bag...went downstairs for that and ended up clearing out the drawer they were in..only remembered the ironing again at bedtime!
I'm going to do it now!
(After I've made the bed, vacuumed the ** cat hair off things, moved stuff around in the bedroom so I have room for the ironing board...etc etc)