I remember the day when a beautiful young educator showed off what seemed like a ten-pound diamond as she asked classroom teachers to clean up the rodent poop in the math closet. The table of educators were exhausted that day as it was towards the end of an intense ten-week stretch of deep teaching. We were sitting around a rectangular table looking all-too weary when the educator popped in with a big smile and lots of excitement. She made the case with umph, "The math closet is full of mouse poop," she exclaimed as she held her hand out for all to see the diamond. Like any newly engaged person, she could not resist sharing her excitement or the shining diamond with us. I wondered about my less-than-enthusiastic reaction. Was I jealous of this women's privilege as I knew she came from a lot of money and the man she was marrying had a lot of money? Was I angry that she appeared to tell us what to do rather than do the work herself? Was I frustrated that she didn't appear to have a strong foundation or deep experience with regard to good teaching? Or, was I simply exhausted.
Teachers ignored her request for cleaners. They sat quietly at the table watching the clock until the useless, mandatory professional learning event was over. Eventually, she got the school custodians to go into the closet and throw out most of the supplies, and later the closet was turned into a teaching space. Yes, in many schools today, what were once small closets without ventilation are now teaching/learning spaces--it's not positive as you can imagine. Anyways, the point here is that some jobs are simply bogus, awful jobs. Cleaning up the mouse poop in a school closet is no fun for anyone--it's a disgusting job, but it's a job that has to be done.
At my home, there was as similar bogus job that had to be done in a basement closet that sits on the edge of the conservation land our home backs up to. My family has been avoiding that job, but finally, with time since I am not teaching, I am tackling all those bogus jobs I've put off for far too long. With a bit of support today, I tackled the job that actually took less than 30 minutes once I put my mind too it. Why did I wait so long to do a job that needed to be done?
We all resist the bogus jobs we have to do, but the bottom line, is that once we throw good energy and effort in that direction, those jobs are typically done without too much time or trouble.
So make time for the jobs you procrastine on, get those jobs done. You'll feel a lot better.