Doing The Thing
There are certain tasks that we tend to avoid because we think the time could be used in other ways. So, we put them off saying we will eventually get to them and opt to do literally anything else. But what do we actually opt into doing? Streaming a show we’ve seen a hundred times? More endless scroll? Survey data has shown that the average US adult has five hours and sixteen mins of daily screen time, just for their phones. Nearly two and a half hours of that is on social media alone. We opt out of folding laundry or putting away the dishes because we would rather spend that time doing something else, and yet we end up just wasting the time anyways. We think that we are “saving” time by not doing the task, as if time was something that can be stashed away for later. An idea I have explored before.
But how much time do we “save” by not doing those tasks?
The Task Itself
I was curious. I needed to set a baseline for the most common of tasks we all tend to avoid doing. The one we spend more time thinking about not doing, than it probably takes to complete. It is contending with the full dishwasher. On a weekly average, the dishwasher in my house needs to get unloaded every two days. So for your run of the mill seven day week, that’s three and half cycles of unloading. For arguments sake, well round up to four, like it was a particular heavy dishes week because my toddler decided to go through multiple plates of various food.
To level set? This wasn’t me rushing to unload the dishwasher trying for a “best” time. It was just going about the process at the same pace I normally would. Time started as soon as the first dish was grabbed, and ended once the last piece was tucked away neatly. Below are the times for one week’s worth of unloading the dishwasher:
Task: Dishwasher
Time 1- 3:52
Time 2- 3:58
Time 3- 4:05
Time 4- 3:48
Average- 3:55
Tasks like this, that we often spend hours (sometimes days) avoiding because we don’t want to do them, are often the smallest. We think that if we spend the time doing them, there is something more worthwhile we could be doing. We put a lot of energy into thinking about how long these tasks will take. It is just the constant nagging reminder of “I need to go do the thing”. This actually takes up mental real-estate in our brains. When we leave a task unfinished, our mind keeps an “open loop” active, generating a state of task-specific tension that remains until the task is completed. Beginning a task establishes a bit of cognitive tension around its completion. Only when the task is closed is that tension—and the mental “holding pattern” in working memory—released. As a result, incomplete tasks stay more prominently in our short‐term and working memory, effectively increasing our overall cognitive load and reducing the mental bandwidth available for other activities.
So, why care if we don’t empty the dishwasher and just spend those five minutes scrolling? What does this actually mean for us? It means until the dishwasher gets emptied or the laundry gets folded, it’ll just sit in the back of our mind taking up space. We might not be consciously thinking of it, but it will have a negative effect regardless. It hampers our critical and creative thinking. It takes us away from whatever it is we are trying to do in the moment, and effects our ability to be fully present. This increased load doesn’t just affect our memory and focus. It also fuels rumination and stress. In other words, the unresolved tasks keep replaying in our mind, tying up attentional resources and impairing both mental recovery and performance on whatever else it is we want to do. We just keep thinking “the dishwasher needs to get emptied”.
Do, or Do Not.
So what can we do to fix this? The next time we find ourselves with ten minutes or even five, we can just do the thing. Because when it comes right down to it, there really are only two options. We either choose to do the thing, and its done. Loop is closed and we can move on with other tasks. Or, we can choose to not do the thing, the loop stays open, and every time we do something else we will still have a piece of ourselves thinking about the thing. It is a choice, and one that we are responsible for making. There might be situations that arise where we don’t have the three minutes and fifty five seconds to do it though. We are running out the door, or about to jump on a call, but we realize the dishwasher needs to get emptied. It might not be as effective as closing the loop, but we need to make a commitment to ourselves to do it the next time we have those five minutes open. It is quick to dismay this idea though, thinking “I don’t have five minutes to spare”, but if that were true then why are people spending two and a half hours a day on social media?
We need to start by asking ourselves what are we going to do with the time instead? Are we going to just scroll through our phones? Browse some shopping app? Flick between news articles to be up to the minute on things wildly outside our control? Like we have already talked about, this is just a distraction. It is a pull away from reality that keeps us from getting things done. Even if we think it is a “break”, it is just another add to the cognitive load. That three minutes and fifty five second moment can be spent reducing it though. Taking care of the load in the dishwasher also takes care of the one in our head. It might not eliminate it entirely, but it lightens it. It is one less thing we will think to do when we do sit down later at night to either read or watch some TV. Instead of still feeling that nagging feeling, like there is just something we need to do, we are content. We’ve taken care of minutia. Those small ever nagging tasks that just linger in our head the longer we put it off. Taking the time to do the thing, means we spend less time thinking about doing the thing. And with it, it frees up our mental capacity for more.
Even if that more is just taking a genuine break.
