I have to be honest: I haven't SHEDed anything since last year.  Got rid of a bunch of papers (a true 80% SHED) in the summer and fall, purged a bunch of craft supplies (including the pencil sharpener!) in November or so, and donated 100-ish books to the library in December.

On the one hand, I can't complain.  On the other...  I still have my hardware area and my photos and my office supplies and computer files to go through.  But then again...  I've been doing things.  Things that make me wonder if I'm actually starting to slide into the Embrace Your Identity stage.

Except...  I still have some bad habits to conquer, darnit!

So here I sit on a lovely Sunday afternoon.  I have time to get something done, I'm sure, but I'm not sure what.  Should I work on my photos?  Should I put them back on the shelf and work on an excel spreadsheet that I want to set up to make next year's taxes easier?  Or I could make a patchwork wall hanging.  I've had the fabric for it for several years.  It would be good to get that done.

I took a nap this afternoon.  I was tired, I needed it.  But now I'm in that groggy half-awake state.  Another nap won't help, coffee won't help.  DOING something will help, but I'm not sure where to start. 

So, any ideas?

I SO relate to everything you just described! 

I've been told it comes from having so many talents, skills and interests.  :):)

Yeah......but my wheels are still spinning, right? 

It depends on what time of day this happens.....If I get completely stuck, paralyzed, and the day still has enough hours/daylight/whatever to salvage, I call somebody, or talk to my husband, then make whatever lousy decision to ACT that I'm capable of.......even just rearranging the dirty dishes "as though" I'm going to wash them can sometimes unlock the static-pose.  If it's late in the day when this occurs, I often follow up the "groggy" state with a quiet activity like reading...to try to transition to a more motivated state.  Then give myself permission to not be a whirling-dervish of efficiency and accomplishments.

I know that's not much help........Just know you're not alone. :):)  I enjoyed hearing myself described in someone else's experience.  C.

catherine, the problem that I have with reading as a quiet activity is that it verges on being a mindless escape.  Which means...  It's better than sitting and moping, and it's better than weeping into my root beer, but it's not really a get-moving activity.

On the other hand, there are definitely days when I've done all that I'm going to do, even if it's not all that I'd like to have done, and I really need to time to rest and recharge.

When is a mindless escape a timewaster?  And when is it a rest-and-recharge activity?

Hope, I may give the impression of being further along than I really am.  Or, who knows...  I may be further along than I realize.  One thing I know, though, is that being generally "whatever" doesn't mean that one is always "whatever". 

I used to live with piles of stuff all around.  It was suffocating.  Guess what?  I look around, and I still see piles.  The difference is, it's an accumulation of days and weeks, rather than months and years.  AND I don't generally feel paralyzed when I look at it.   

I can't even recall what I did after posting that message last week.  I know I set up the spreadsheet I mentioned, and I may have given myself a break after that.

I'm taking this week off work, but I'll be helping Mama Hedgehog wash walls and paint shelves and oil tables and put bindings on patchwork, and fun stuff like that.  So I won't be getting any SHEDing done.  And yet, I'll be doing worthwhile things.

And that may (eventually) contribute to the feeling of spinning my wheels.  If I'm busy and productive, but not in the area where I feel I should be working, it'll feel a bit as if I'm working inefficiently.  Wasting my time.

And yet...  Am I?  Am I really?

Helping someone else is not wheel spinning or time wasting unless they are just using me. 

If someone is working alongside me (provided they are able-bodied) and I know they will continue the work when I'm gone, it's a great thing that energizes and empowers both of us, and can actually be fun.  However, if they are in a victim mode or just going through the motions as a tactic to manipulate me into doing their work, that's a waste of time, mine AND theirs. 

I speak from experience.  My mom often bemoaned her lack of a high school education.  As a kid I tried to involve her in my studies, thinking she could learn as I did.  She pretended to go along with it, but after a few years I realized that she was not  interested in learning, was more interested in gaining pity by telling her story of having to work in the fields as a child and not getting to finish school.  I love my mom, but she should have been honest with me from the get-go instead of wasting my time and energy.  She couldn't, though, because at that point in time she was leading an unexamined life and didn't understand herself.  I'm happy to report that in later years she became more insightful about her motives and what she really wanted.

Angelina, having piles of stuff from days and weeks, rather than months and years, is definitely progress.  And overcoming the paralysis - that's my goal.   I felt stuck for decades, not just regarding my stuff, but in other areas of my life, as well.  I once filled an entire yellow legal pad with a list of "stuck" points in my life.  I think it's changing, I'm changing, but I want to change faster.  I want more.  I want it all.  I want health, prosperity, a beautiful and orderly home, creative self expression, spiritual peace, and plenty of people to love who love me back.   Too much? Hopeless?  In the past I thought so, but I'm beginning to believe it's possible.   I'm beginning to believe in the possibility of my dreams becoming reality, and to believe that I deserve to have all the good I desire.  I hold this vision for all of us.

Angelina,  I don't think helping your mom is wasting time....unless you feel resentful about it.   It could even get you motivated to work on your own projects.

Hope,  you're not the only one who is stuck.  And you can have all those things you want.  By recognizing what you do want and where you're stuck, you're already making progress.

Well, I guess we're back to the early time-outs!  Memo to self: ctrl-a and ctrl-c are your friends.

It was a productive week with my mother.  We got a lot done, and I have no regrets. 

It helps that as I look around, my apartment is pretty tidy and the bills are paid.  Still have to cook and wash clothes, but that can get done tomorrow.

And yet, there's still more to do.  Some SHED-related things, some housekeeping/financial things, some artsy-craftsy things. 

And I sit here, wondering what to do next.  Should I scan my receipts (they're on that silly thermal paper, and some of them will be useful for figuring out sales and use tax next year), or should I wind that skein of red yarn into a ball?  Should I bring my grocery boxes down to recycling?  Should I file the stuff that's on top of my filing cabinet?

Yes.  Yes to all of these, and more.  But...  None of these are urgent.  Am I so used to responding to urgencies that I have lost the ability to prioritize non-urgent wants and needs?

Isn't it easy to slip into that crisis management mode and let our plans go out the window?.  That's one of the main ways these postings help me - they remind me of my goal of an orderly home, something which for years has been neglected while I responded to the urgent needs of others or the urgency of working extra to cope with rising bills.  It's so difficult to maintain boundaries and preserve "me" time.  Today may be a good shed day for me, though, as it's raining out and the weekly bookkeeping (balance checkbook, paying bills) is already done. 

Brousten, so sorry I told you I would be there for you and now the groups and inboxes are gone.  We can try to start our own thread here, I suppose, or maybe there's some way I could send you my email through the online coordinator. 

It is, Hope.  However, there's an amusing followup to that last post.  Immediately after I posted, I glared at the boxes and brought them down to the recycling area.  And when I got back to my apartment, a friend called.  We tend to have looooooooong chats, and since we both have headset phones, we multitask shamelessly.  So I did the scanning and the filing while on the phone with her.

That worked well, but...  What about next time, where I have things to do, but they aren't urgent, and I don't have the tethered-to-one-area aspect of having to stay near the phone base? 

Still have to work on this, apparently.