This is a subject I can address with genuine expertise.  Or at least, with considerable experience.  Indeed, my skills in this department are legendary.  If you saw the previous post about the List of the Lists I Need to Make, then you will have some idea of the number of Jobs to Do that await my attention.  From the pedestrian (piles of laundry) to the paralysing (packing); from the simply tedious (filing) to the seriously taxing (taxes!), I have an endless variety of options.  Yet here I sit, in my bathrobe, surrounded by all of those Jobs to Do, laptop on lap.

Some of you will have noted my recent flurry of blog-writing and perhaps wondered at the reason for it. Had I been tied up and chained to a computer desk? I hear you ask.  No, dear friends, what you are witnessing is Advanced Avoidance Behavior in action.  I’m sure you’ve all participated at some level, though you may not have recognized it at the time.  Let me review a few common examples:

Have you ever

• needed to mow the lawn, but decided it would be a good time to look at the toaster to see why it isn’t popping all the way up
• had a report to write, but thought the junk drawer in the kitchen really needed a good clean out
• had to phone your mother-in-law to explain why you wouldn’t be going there for Christmas, but thought it might be a good time to clean out the fridge
• needed to explain to your spouse about the rakish angle of the rear bumper on your car, but told him about the new superstore going in where his favorite hardware store is
• had seventeen emails to answer, but took a nap instead
• had a million pressing jobs to do before going away, so wrote a blog entry.

Some of us just have a natural talent for Avoidance Behavior.         MM