HOME EC/SHOP: Considering Vacuuming your Apartment an Accomplishment is Worse than Puberty

When you're young, instant gratification isn't an impossibility; things are fairly well regulated, and simply doing what you're told (go to school, study, do this extracurricular) will get you what you want (an extra dessert, extended curfew, the freedom of college).

Grown-ups aren't under any such silly misconceptions. You work hardest at the office? Promotion's still going to Steve - his dad hooked the boss up with a BMW for thousands less than retail. You've written a few novels? Doesn't mean they're going to get published, or read, even by the friend who asked you if s/he could be a reader. Think that you've finally figured out the system and just decided to suck it up and sleep with your boss to get ahead? Try using that argument with the review board when you're still stuck as a low-level assistant to a low-level assistant manager years later.

And so you learn to appreciate what some people call "small victories" and other people call "justification." Yeah, you didn't accomplish everything you wanted to this morning, but you did make it to the grocery store. Sure, the spreadsheet you were supposed to be working on is still untouched, but your toilet is gleaming, just sparkling. Alright, so you got another rejection letter in the mail, and it's still only of the "form" variety, but look at how much laundry you accomplished! And hey - you've taken a step up from the tacit rejection of just never hearing back from anyone, right?

My "small victory" of the day? Vacuuming. Which sounds almost like, though I may not have directed my effort towards more fruitful channels like actually working, or at least working out, I at least managed to get something necessary done, using my time, if not optimally, at least well.

Except I own a roomba.

So that means that my accomplishment was achieved while sitting on the couch, looking up Colbert clips on hulu.

One might argue that setting higher goals for one's self with a section of the day, refusing to place undue importance on menial tasks like house-cleaning, instead setting your sights higher, maybe on writing an essay, or a resume, or a blog post, even (well I did manage that, yes?) would mean that you'd necessarily achieve more. You might not always reach the desired goal itself, of course, but at least you wouldn't be settling into your fluffy warm sense of accomplishment so early on that you guarantee you'll achieve nothing noteworthy, at all.

But you know, I'm having a really hard time hearing that argument; the roomba's sort of loud, and I had to turn up the TV to be able to hear it over the noise...gosh these floors look great! Way to go, Jilly!

-Posted by Jilly