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I noticed this morning that it feels like errands are running my life. Some are big, some are small. Some are important (pay tax bill), some are minor (need to remember to pick up an item from store) and some are nonessential (clipping nails). Errands clogs my brain throughout the day. I expect to be busy at work but when I am not working, I am equally busy at home (physically and mentally). Fixing broken washing machine, going to someone's kid birthday party, taking car to get routine oil change, etc. Even watching Netflix has become a chore with so many choices and just taking 15 mins to browse the titles. Technology has made life easier better with online banking, DVR, etc. But it seems like there are now more expectations with life/work/relationships.
I am organized with a to-do list on my phone app. It just feels like I am always running behind but never ahead. When I get errands done on my to-do list, ten more would be added. It also made me wonder if life is complicated or do we make it so?
How does one find joy in life when they are constantly engrossed in endless errands? I don't know how to break this cycle.
Please see my post number 8 in the other thread "Life wears me out!"
It's all about what you choose to do. Do you choose to run all these errands or let some wait?
Maybe you're just in a busy stretch of life right now, with a lot going on that will die down in a few weeks.
I don't think this is anything new. Perhaps the types of errands/tasks we must perform have changed, but I think life has always required lots and lots of daily tasks.
Pre-history to-do list:
Build the fire, feed the fire, bank the fire
Gather firewood
Gather edible plants, cut up edible plants, dry or prepare edible plants
Set traps, check traps, get the half dead bird out of the one trap and finish it off, re-set traps, build more traps.
Pluck and clean that bird you trapped. Spit it and put it over the fire. Shoot, need more wood on the fire.
Hunt, sharpen your hunting implements, prepare for the hunt
Dig refuse pit, throw stuff in refuse pit, cover refuse pit
Make and mend clothing
Make and mend tools
Mend everything else
Feed the fire again, bank the fire again
Keep an eye out for dangerous predators and scavengers in between each of the above
Middle Ages to-do list:
Build the fire, feed the fire, bank the fire
Clean the hearth
Gather kindling, chop firewood, stack firewood
Fetch water, a little later, go fetch more water
Sharpen and mend your tools
Gather vegetables from the garden, chop up, add them to the pottage you keep over the fire
Dig the privy, cover the privy, use the privy, cover the privy again
Mend clothing
Mend shoes. Mend more clothes
Feed the livestock, kill a chicken if it's a special occasion, pluck the chicken, gut the chicken, do whatever else you need to do to the chicken to make it edible
Clean the pens and stables
Repair the wheel on your broken down cart.
Walk to the village for supplies; it's only 2 miles.
Work in the fields, (sometimes work your own fields if you get a chance)
Patch holes in your house. Patch holes in your roof.
Sew or spin as long as you have light.
Make some smelly lamps out of smoky animal fat for a little more light
Today's to do list:
Pay the gas bill online
Pay the electric bill online
Pay the water bill. Crap, have to write a check because they don't have online payments. Oh no, out of stamps.
Take the clothes to the dry cleaner, pick up the clothes from the dry cleaner.
Get home and realize you forgot to get stamps.
Put in your online order for pet supplies.
Go to the grocery store, compare prices online for several items and decide to get some at another store.
Get gas for the car
Get air in your tires
Get stamps at the post office for that stupid water bill, but imagine having to instead fetch murky water from a stream and lug it back home.
Take your old clothing to the donation place
Buy more clothes because that Old Navy coupon expires today. What pressure!
Look up "privy" on Wikipedia because you saw it in a post somewhere
Look up 170 recipes for chicken for that special dinner you want to make on Saturday.
Get ticked off because you have to replace that long-lasting light bulb that just blew out.
Same amount of stuff. Just different stuff. Maybe more mentally draining than physically draining.
I never do any errands. None whatsoever. zero. I do all 'errands' on my computer on the internet.
Everything can be done from my home. The vast majority of your errands are probably not necessary.
What??? Can the internet water my plants? Harvest my vegetables? Do my nails? Chlorinate my pool? Feed my dogs? Change the oil in my car? Get exercise? Power-wash my awning? etc.
The day the internet makes us so lazy that we can not even do these simple tasks is the day I want to start living off the grid!!
I never do any errands. None whatsoever. zero. I do all 'errands' on my computer on the internet.
Everything can be done from my home. The vast majority of your errands are probably not necessary.
I agree with bluemonday. Most of my errands can't be done online. What do you do about the things he/she mentions and these things below? Do you live with your parents or someone who does these things for you????
Sure I can pay most bills online, and do a lot of shopping online. But buying milk, produce, fresh meat: have to go to the store. I'm sure there's a way of ordering such things online, but if they get delivered and sit on my front step in the extreme heat for hours before I get home, they would not be very good.
Getting gas in my car: I wish I would just have an app for that, but alas, it requires actually going to the gas station. How do you do that online?
Getting the car washed: whether I do it myself in my driveway or go to a place to have it washed, it's still and errand I can't seem to complete online.
Putting air in my tires. Again, I have to do that myself. I can't find a website that does that for me.
Dry cleaning: even if I pay online, I still have to take it there and pick it up.
Yard work: yes I pay a guy to mow the lawn, but I still have to go out and trim bushes, pick up sticks, pick up dog poop, sweep the deck, shovel the driveway in the winter. I haven't been able to figure out how to do that online...
Taking out the trash & recycling to the curb. Taking the cans back to the back yard after trash day: please, oh please tell me where the website or app is that can do those things!
Scooping litter boxes: Nope, no app for that. No website that takes care of it. I'm doing that nearly every day.
If all of these things are unnecessary, I'd hate to see what happens if I stop doing them!
Chores such as yard work and anything done around the house or apt, housework, watering plants, harvesting vegetables, putting trash at the curb are NOT ERRANDS!!
You are completely mixing up household chores with ERRANDS.
Why would you think household chores done in the home and housework are errands?!
Doing errands around town has nothing to do with laziness - it does have to do with inefficiency, making many unnecessary trips, using a car, wasting gasoline, trying to fill up your life & time by making unnecessary trips all over town under the ruse or guise of errands.
This discussion is a bit absurd, if people do not know the difference between household chores in the home and ERRANDS.
I was referring to ERRANDS, not housework and household chores in a dwelling.
P.S. to the OP, stamps can very easily & efficiently be purchased online at USPS.com - no need to go to the post office.
And no, I do not pay anyone to do errands (nor household chores i.e. housework) for me - I have used grocery delivery services for over 10 years, which is very common in medium size & the larger cities or metro areas, & the grocery delivery services charge a small fee.
TracySam, grocery delivery services deliver only at a time of your choice and specification when you'll be home including at night; you choose the time & it can be 8pm or 9pm at night if you choose. They do NOT deliver at any random times not of your choice & never leave groceries on your doorstep or door in the heat.
Last edited by matisse12; 07-08-2016 at 05:03 PM..
Of course most of know that "errands" are things you have to go and do outside of your home, while chores are typically things you have to do at home. But the OP, in the first post, made it pretty clear he/she was talking not just about errands but chores too. Once you post your original post, you can edit it, but you can't edit the title, so I put more stock in the post content than in the title.
I hate going to stores of all types, and if I could get fresh food delivered to my house, by all means I'd do it. But I freak out if milk is out of the fridge more than 10 minutes. I'd gag and have to throw it out. Even if I could, as you say, find a service to deliver my milk to my doorstep, how do I know how long it's been in that truck? Same with raw meat and poultry. Non-perishable stuff, I'm totally with you. But I've even ordered very nice expensive food from services that just left it on my doorstep, and even with dry ice, it was "questionable" but the time I opened it. You actually trust how they handled your perishable foods? What is the temperature of that truck? And you trust them to pick out your fruits and vegetables for you? don't you get a lot of dented or funky fruits or vegetables that you never would have chosen in the store? Some things just can't be delegated to other people, not in my book. I have to pick out each and every tomato, every apple, every peach. Half the ones I see are bruised or over-ripe.
Sooo, how do you get gas in your car? An oil change? Car inspection?
Do you have your dry cleaning delivered and picked up?
Don't you ever order a pizza, and decide to pick it up instead of delivery, because if you pick it up yourself it'll still be piping hot when you get home? Or do you just settle for lukewarm pizza?
You never have to go to a doctor appointment? The dentist? The eye doctor?
I guess you have no pets, because they have to go to the vet, go for walks, etc. Those are out of the house so they are errands.
I don't have kids, and I'm certain you don't, because everyone I know with offspring has to drive all over the place every day to for stuff their kids do.
You never upgraded or replaced your cable TV/internet equipment, and never had to drop off the old stuff at the cable company?
You never, ever have to go to an actual store for anything, ever?
Did you ever actually order light bulbs online to be delivered? I've tried. How many were actually functional when they got to your doorstep? Do the postal workers I your area actually care about packages labeled "fragile"? Because they sure don't wherever I've lived. At least twice a month I have to go out and deliver mail to people whose mail got delivered to me by mistake because the postal workers didn't read the envelopes.
You never sold anything online and had to go meet the buyer in a safely lit public parking lot to make the exchange?
You never bought something on ebay, and expected it on your doorstep, but the idiot seller decided to make signature required on delivery, so you never had to go to the post office to pick it up?
Believe me, I only WISH that what you claim is true. I'd prefer to not have to leave my own property except to go to work. It's gotten a lot better with doing things online, but not everything can be done remotely.
You can probably set up autopay for regularly occurring payments.
Stamps - buy a lot of Forever stamps. They are good no matter how often the price of postage goes up.
Clothes to dry cleaner - don't buy clothes that must be dry cleaned. Yes, it means washing clothes yourself, but you can fold clothes while watching tv, etc so it isn't so bad.
Finally - are you part of a two income household? If so, have you thought about having only one of you work? Or maybe one of you could reduce your work hours. You'd save on car costs, work wardrobe, you wouldn't have to hire someone to take care of the yard, and you wouldn't be as stressed by trying to get so much done.
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