First Things: Task Initiation in the Wild Mundane
I struggle with task initiation.
I first put these words on my challenges a couple of years ago when I first encountered the “eat the frog” tactic for task initiation. I was already familiar with the concept, but I got a kick out of the name. Not enough for it to become a consistently helpful tactic, but anything that makes me giggle is worth something.
I’ll explore what does help me start tasks in some other post. Right now, though, my mind is on firsts.
I just moved into a new apartment, and firsts abound. First shower in the new place. First walk around the neighborhood as a resident. First fiddle lesson in the new space. First time in ten years I’ve let the cats sleep in the same room I do (except for that one absolutely restless motel night when we moved from Wisconsin to Virginia).
My past week has been positively resplendent with firsts, even though I have lost count of how many times I’ve moved and how many different addresses I’ve had. That sounds way sketchier than it actually is, but such is the life of a musician/academic ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
In the past, I’ve mostly completed these parades of firsts without too much thought. After all, what’s so special about using yet another standard-issue electric oven for the first time?
But this time I’ve marked a lot of firsts. It’s not that they are noteworthy on their own or that I’m feeling preemptively nostalgic or anything like that. It’s that even the simple ones that require internal motivation have required enough extra effort that I’ve noticed.
I could now talk about anxiety and its effect on executive functioning, and yes—the last few weeks have certainly been stressful, because when is moving house not stressful? But talking about schlepping my stuff across town would be boring.
What I’ve been thinking about instead is just how amazing it is when we do First Things—and how we often act as though these actions are no big deal if they aren’t the kinds of things whose “first-ness” society recognizes.
First Things like putting the first few words on paper. First Things like sending a query email to an editor at a press, or submitting an abstract to a new conference, or enrolling in a new course. First Things like emailing or DM-ing someone whose work we admire. Even First Things like trying a new restaurant (or a new dish at an old favorite restaurant) are worth celebrating for the effort they sometimes require.
So: let’s all celebrate our First Things—whatever they are!
And maybe tomorrow I’ll use the oven for the first time.
