People Share The Best Examples Of 'It Can't Be That Easy' But It Really Was
That pile of laundry has been sitting there, waiting to be folded and put away.
Those emails are waiting to be answered.
A form is waiting to be filled out.
We've all done the thing where we dread and put off something, only to discover later that completing it wasn't that big of a deal.
Redditor UnoAboveAll asked:
"What was your 'it can’t be that easy / it was that easy' moment in your life?"
Auditions
"I Lived in Jersey and a friend invited me to a commercial audition at an NYC bar. I went because of the bar."
"I auditioned after two beers and left thinking it was a waste of time."
"A month later, I get a call that they want to use me for the commercial. The director was the guy who directed the original 'Space Jam.'"
"I got lines and ended up in two of their commercials and got a 40k payday where I thought someone made a clerical error. Started my acting career and am now a writer/director/flight attendant."
- ZDrev10
Home Repairs
"Fixing clogged drains."
"Started out because my sink drain plug wouldn't stay up. Poked around under the sink and found the pop-up rod had rusted completely through and broken. Cost me $5 for a new one at the plumbing supply store next to where I worked at the time. Took five minutes to figure out how to swap, and now I know how sink and shower drains come apart, which makes unclogging them simple."
"Maybe it's just me, but in my brain, it seemed like that was something I'd have to call a plumber to come to unclog, but it's all remarkably simple."
- figmaxwell
Small Claims Court
"Suing someone in Small Claims. It was surprisingly easy because my case was rock solid and I had a professionally printed document of evidence, witness statements, and precise records sent over to the court while the Defendant did literally nothing but send unlabeled loose printouts of my Facebook page as her so-called evidence."
"It was a very quick judgment for the plaintiff!"
- Kelosaurus_Rex
Salary Request
"Got a salary request when applying for a job, accidentally wrote double what I meant to write since the number keys were right next to each other. They accepted anyway."
- ahjteam
Light and Sound
"Worked on an almost five-million dollar lighting rig for a concert as a junior guy on the job. We get it all plugged in and patched but none of it would turn on. All the guys were freaking out trying to figure out why. The team collectively had about 150 years of experience."
"No one checked to see if the generators were turned on."
"I was like no way this is why but I'll just go check if the generators are good. Flipped stuff on and voila."
- Firerobe
Dumpster Diving
"Found a 60” tv by the dumpster. Plugged it in, didn’t turn on. Looked up common problems with the model number, bought a part on eBay for $20, replaced the part, and had a huge TV."
- ThinkIGotHacked
You Can't Win If You Don't Apply
"In college, the professor advertised an internship and wrote the info on the board."
"Out of a class of 150 students, I was the only one to apply and I fulfilled my internship requirement for graduation."
- pendeltonskyforce
Test Retakes
"All the students pretty much bombed a networking final. The teacher said we could retake it but we would be alone (no group). Which worked out perfectly for me; they wouldn't get in my way and I wouldn't have to coordinate them."
"I was also the only person who showed up to retake and brought my final grade up to a 90."
- maiden_burma
Shoelaces
"Tying shoe laces."
"When I was a kid, no one ever managed to teach me how to tie my shoes. I remember never being able to get that last step that ties it all together and in general, I suck with knots. I would have been garbage in the boy scouts. I got into my early 20's relying mostly on velcro shoes."
"But one day, I sat down with a pair of new shoes, determined to figure it out. I put one on and tied it correctly on the first try. I just sat there dumbfounded for a few minutes, wondering how it had been that easy all along."
- IIIMjolNirIII
Renting
"I was recently looking for an apartment and rent in my city, like most cities currently, is outrageous."
"So after three days of looking, I found this two-bedroom apartment with a price that normally would get you a roach-infested one-bedroom or studio s**thole in a bad part of town."
"But these apartments look nice, they're in a good part of town, the reviews online are all positive, I can't figure out the catch."
"Then I see there is a year-long wait list for this place, but I decided to go to the leasing office and after talking to the property manager, I get bumped to the top of the list for an apartment that becomes available next month."
"I keep waiting for the bottom to drop out. Most people spend months looking for places in my city and they'd be paying a third more than I'm paying at a minimum for a similar place. I looked for three days and found this place but I think I just got lucky and it was just that easy."
- C0nqueredW0rm
House Chores
"Actually doing the chore you put off for a few days."
- thebigjuicyman25
Sleeping
"I never slept well, ever."
"There’s an over-the-counter magnesium supplement called 'Calm.' I drink a cup every night and sleep like a hibernating bear."
"It was that easy."
- DomingoLee
Squeaky Doors
"I had a loose hinge on my door. It kind of drove me crazy for three years, but I had no idea how to fix the wood that had been stripped."
"Then I found a product on Amazon for $10 where you shove on a sleeve, break it off and then screw in the new screws. Bought two new hinges that don’t squeak."
"Took about 10 minutes and cost $20 and it’s no longer a problem!"
- captain-flak
Finding the Perfect Job
"I've hated every job I've ever had. At 18 I joined the military for six years... that sucked the whole time, then went into customer service at Walmart, and they were a bunch of a**holes to everyone. Tried security and they were just degrading."
"Job after job doing what I thought was the right thing. I decided to apply for a local HVAC company just working call center, nothing big, I think there's a total of nine of us on phones. Honestly, it's the best job I've ever had, we all get along, spend hours a day on our group chat sharing memes, and our management has one on one meetings every two weeks with the goal of 'this meeting is not work-related but we want to know just how you're doing, how life's treating you, what do you need?'"
"There's constant communication about expectations and how we can better meet them and how they can help us perform better. The majority of the company's profits are used to better employee lives (I get monthly commission and residuals, and $30 a month healthcare with BCBS) along with monthly potlucks, paid lunches, and competitive pay starting at $17 an hour."
"I haven't seen any turnover... literally none, my position was only hiring because too many people got promoted."
- zombiem00se
Self-Improvement
"Self-improvement and reflection. Stopped looking at outside factors in my life and started looking at what I could control. Weight, time, who I spent time with, etc. I didn't need to change my whole life in one day. I needed to make small progress."
"Spending one day less a week on gaming and one day a week on improving myself is better than not improving at all. Allowing myself to fail *with intent* to improve is so much easier now that I don't spend time with negative people who demand perfection."
- livinglitch
This particular group of Redditors proved that not only is it possible to get ahead and to accomplish something, but it can be fairly easy to do so.
People Confess Which Life Decisions Always Seem To Backfire
We all know that some choices will probably end in regret, but many of us keep making them anyway. Whether it's "Oh, I'll just make coffee in the morning," instead of setting up the coffee maker the night before, or "I'll definitely get to that tomorrow," some choices are almost guaranteed to backfire.
Redditor alaraja asked the folks on AskReddit:
"What decision always backfires?"
No, You Won't
"I'll just get up early and do it"
That one has a famous child decision, the "I'll just get gas in the morning, on my way to work tomorrow."
There are many other subcategories, but that's probably the biggest one.
Enough Chances
Giving abusive people a second/tenth chance.
I came here to say this, specifically cheating spouses.
It's Going To Be Awkward, At Least
Going through someones phone. You will ALWAYS find something you dont want to see.
My ex, when we were dating, went through my phone while I was in the bathroom.
He was so angry that I was going to the movies with a guy named Devon
Devon was a girl. I am a girl. We are both straight. We are both friends.
Pretty sure to this day, he thinks I’m still lying about it and “cheated” on him
You Should Sleep
Staying up late instead of going to bed when you feel tired.
The older I get the truer this is. Can't stay up past 11 or else I'm extremely tired in the morning getting ready for work
Why Test?
"Testing" your SO, or any other playing of games in a relationship.
This is the one . It’s a lose-lose scenario that we create
Just Stay Where You Are
Switching over to the ‘Shorter’ queue.
And it's analogue, changing to the faster moving lane in the traffic jam. Once you change lanes, the lane you just left will start moving much faster than your new lane. It is a tale as old as time. A fundamental law of physics.
It's Never 5 Minutes
closing your eyes for "5 more minutes"
an hour and a half later, "oh sh*t, I'm late!"
Just Stay Out Of It
Getting involved in other people's relationships. Let them work it out
Yeah, and don't ever get in the middle of a fight god forbid.
Give It Time
Any decision made when you're feeling overwhelmed. Feeling angry? Step back, simmer down first before you act. Feeling sad or bitter? Sleep on it, watch a comfort movie, get your mood back up before you do something.
Once you're back on the level, you'll often find that email you typed, or that argument you'd have had, or that phone call you were going to make was affected by how you were feeling and would've been an overreaction, and the whole situation wasn't as bad as you thought.
I have BPD. I've had to learn and practice exactly what you said, in order to control my behaviour. the whole "do not react to how an event makes you feel, stop, consider if my reaction fits the magnitude of the event. If it doesn't, do nothing at all." has been central to my recovery.
This goes double for when you are suffering big grief. Don’t make any big decisions for 6 months.
That’s partly what made me think of this. I lost someone recently and had to go through their things. A whole lifetime, tossed into a skip, so many things. I got home, looked around my home and all I could see suddenly was things I didn’t need. Almost tossed half my home away before I called a friend who talked me out of it. She was right. I’d have regretted it. Marie Kondo yes, grief no.
Later Isn't Better
Procrastinating
I'm sure I'll stop doing that eventually
Procrastination usually seems to be a bad idea, so maybe don't decide to do the thing in the morning. The you of tomorrow will thank the you of today.
Most people LOVE to procrastinate. To the point that they will take on tasks they've been procrastinating in order to procrastinate something else.
Putting off tasks is an American pastime. But some people really do not fall victim to procrastination at all--those superheroes are here to share their secrets.
u/LucasSkudy asked:
People who don't procrastinate, what's the secret?
Here were some of those answers.
Such Method, So Strategy
I attack my duties in a strategic way.
Every monday morning, I make a list of "Weekly Tasks". From that list I then cull "Monday and Tuesday Tasks" and put the rest of the list away.
I then concentrate only on the "Monday and Tuesday Tasks".
On Wednesday morning, I pull out the "Weekly Tasks" list and now make a new short list "Wednesday and Thursday" tasks etc.
A big reason for procrastination is that we get overwhelmed with all the tasks that have to be done so we go on survival mode and just don't do anything. This is a well known psychological phenomena that is not abnormal or uncommon.
The key then to overcome this I think, is to break things down and attack them slowly. Rather than 435 tasks that have to be done in a month...you break them down into 88 tasks that need to be done this week. You then further break it down into 14 tasks that need to be done today.
You then put the other lists aside and just go down the list and accomplish your 14 tasks today.
Home-Body
I assume you procrastinate at home. Dress as if you were going out. Your brain will feel as if you aren't at home and feel more productive.
Things By Priority
Passion/drive it is easier to get things done if you like or enjoy the task. Not everyone can 'do what you love' but maybe you can take on more of the job duties you enjoy. If this isn't possible now, how can you get there 1, 2 or 5 years from now.
Backwards planning helps. Start with what the finished project and deadline is, and then work backwards setting benchmarks that you want to reach. It gives you obtainable goals, and provides a sense of completion.
Planning- create daily/weekly/monthly list, this is just dependent on your work. You can use paper or online apps (ToDoist or Asana). Then reorder them by urgency and importance, prioritization is key. It is easy to get stuck doing a low-importance non-urgent task, to put off others. Not everything urgent is important and not all important tasks are urgent.
Know your peak time. I crush all my biggest projects first thing in the morning, luckily I was able to shift my schedule to start earlier to coincide with my internal schedule. But by 3 I am useless and no brain power is left in the tank.
Avoid time sucks. I do a quick email scan in the morning, and if nothing big happened overnight, I leave everything to be done later. Otherwise, I get stuck answering emails, and it is noon before I know it. I'm still doing something, so I feel like I'm working but what I'm really doing is procrastinating.
In the end it all comes down to motivation and habits. There are plenty of books out there, The Power of Habit and Atomic Habits, that speak on how creating habits is more important than goal setting. Motivation, well that is harder to nail down. If you aren't motivated by what you do, then do some internal digging to see why you are doing it. If you can't find any reason to be motivated, then maybe explore some of the things that do motivate you and see if you can make changes to get there. Build your talent stack.
Robotic Methods
Make lists or use a calendar. Write things like "From 1pm to 2pm I'm going to work on my resume".
When it's right in front of you like that, it's like a doctors appointment. You just do it because it's scheduled.
Break Steps Down More
"If you're having trouble getting started, the first step is too big."
Things seem hard to start because you don't actually know what physical, visible action is necessary to move them forward. Think about what that is and do it - even if it's just opening the word document you're trying to make progress on and reviewing it.
Look up 'Getting Things Done', the whole system changed my life.
Anxious Games
It helped me stop procrastinating as much when I stopped thinking it was just a part of my personality and instead started recognizing it as an unhealthy coping mechanism that I had learned throughout my childhood to deal with anxiety. Now when I want to procrastinate I try to figure out what about the task is making me anxious, and remind myself that I feel ten times more anxious when I have a task looming over my head.
Discomfort As A Method Of Growth
Everything I've learned so far:
- None of this is a secret. Growth comes from discomfort. Muscle growth comes from tearing muscles. Weight loss comes from burning energy stores. Knowledge comes from challenging our existing understand of the world. Likewise, productivity comes from doing what we don't want now for the sake of what we do want in the long run. Until you accept that there isn't an easy way, that you need to get uncomfortable, you will never truly grow in anything.
- Adopt a better mindset. Identify as a productive person and fail rather than as a procrastinator that's meeting expectations. Our minds have a way of wanting to meet expectations, for better and for worse. Identity is more important than we realize.
- Become more emotionally intelligent and self-aware. Often procrastination isn't a problem with distraction or lack of will power, but rather the inability to cope with other matters in life. It's like figuring out why you're having a reoccurring nightmare.
- Study up on habits. They're rather simple really, but it's key that you understand exactly how we're basically the result of our neural programming; we don't make as many "free" decisions as we think on a given basis. Again, it ties back to our identity. We're simple creatures that like to follow predictable routines, so it's essential that you break up and restructure your routines.
- When in doubt, start with one of the three keystone habits of better health: sleep, fitness, food. Any one of the three will generally help with the other two, which will then snowball into many other good habits during your life. Essentially with better health and more energy comes a better mood, more productivity, and more trust in the idea that initial discomfort leads to more lifelong satisfaction.
- Another key trick, whenever you think of something that ought to be done, unless you truly have something more important happening right now, just tell yourself "do it now". In the middle of an episode of something and remember the laundry needs doing? No, don't wait until after the episode, do it now. Need something from the grocery store for something you're planning to make in a few days? No, it can't wait, do it now. This ties in with 4. You're rewiring your brain to associate the acknowledgement of a todo item with simply getting it done ASAP as opposed to believing it can be addressed later. So once something big important does come along, you just get it over with out of a habit rather than as a deliberate effort on your part.
Bite-Size Tasks
Do the things that need to be done first. What do I need to do that cannot wait. What am I worried about? Then if it's big and I wonder where do I start - I try to to see what little things can I do, and what do I need to do to be able to tackle the big things. What can I treat myself to as a reward for getting this done? Although that line of thinking can be dangerous as not every deed warrants or rewards a treat. I write down a list of things and tick off what I can. Sometimes - nothing goes your way and I try to relax and give myself a break knowing that tomorrow is a new day.
I am an over thinker though who worries a lot and I think that in reality it's that that motivates me because I worry what people think and usually get things done so it's one less thing hanging over my head when I try to sleep at night.
For Positive Reinforcement
I love being praised.
If the trash gets taken out, dishes are done, etc. my GF will always notice and let me know it's appreciated!
The same reason I started practicing guitar and going back to the gym. She's far more musically inclined than me; which makes it so incredibly rewarding when she tells me I'm doing great. Or let me know my clothes are getting loose.
I know it's probably pretty shallow, but it's getting my lazy butt up.
Methodical Thought Experiments
Procrastination (at least for me), is usually about avoidance - an anxiety about doing a poor job, and getting judged for that. So, it becomes about a job "not yet done" is better than "a job done poorly, inviting shame/criticism/rejection."
Unfortunately, it's almost always the case that waiting til the last minute produces a worse result than simply starting early, and the chances of actually receiving criticism on the work done is almost always overblown in my mind.
Thus, it took a while, but retraining my thinking into the following helped:
- I'm procrastinating because I fear rejection/criticism.
- My fear of the criticism is likely overstated.
- Any attempt is better than no attempt.
- Starting early produces a better result, reducing the chance of criticism.
- It is in my best interest to get the things that produce this anxiety done as swiftly as possible, so that I can stop worrying.