Comments on: On errand paralysis

By: Shannon

Shannon — Tue, 14 Apr 2020 12:19:34 +0000

It’s so cute when people speaking from a (supposed) place of privilege offer advice akin to “change your stinkin thinkin.” Yes, I should just tell a different story about my abuse to get over it and learn to adult. (And you are a saint for dealing with that hemming issue.). It’s people with your attitude who put us in the position where we blame any structural or extant problem on the individual’s inability to optimize.

By: Martin

Martin — Thu, 14 Mar 2019 13:18:05 +0000

In reply to Daniela Loose. I'm 61, and realised 6 years ago that I was burnt out so I gave up work, hoping that I had enough to get me through to my various small pensions, and enough books and records to listen to. It just worries me that these are the good old days of our children, and they are going to get used to things the way they are.

By: Ellie

Ellie — Thu, 24 Jan 2019 07:38:57 +0000

So glad you reacted to that one… « The idea that all of life will be perfectly
optimized is just ridiculous » You nailed it in that sentence. Yes, there is the social pressure of the “Instagram” life making you feel that you should spending every minute of your time productively (and deciding what being productive actually is). But I also believes this is an educational issue. As the author rightly says, “they have been told that if they just worked hard and made right decisions, life would go swimmingly”. That’s just a lie. Many parents are obliterating the realities of life to their children, not involving them in chores or explaining why you need to do certain things like taking your car to the garage or getting the septic tank emptied. They pretend life is all fun to “protect” kids. But this is not preparing them for adulthood. I am not saying that you should bother your 3 year-old kid with the details of filing your tax declaration but they should at least know that those things are part of adult life. And yes, planned appropriately, it is not such a big deal. There is a great interview by a guy called Simon Sinek on Millenials in the workplace which explores this issue: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=hER0Qp6QJNU

By: A Millenial and a GenXer Discuss Burnout | Too Many Fish to Fry

A Millenial and a GenXer Discuss Burnout | Too Many Fish to Fry — Wed, 23 Jan 2019 19:52:00 +0000

[…] Laura Vanderkam: On errand paralysis […]

By: liz

liz — Wed, 23 Jan 2019 17:26:43 +0000

I’m thankful that you spared me reading the original– I was offline at a family camp this weekend and seem to have missed it, but if it showed up in my “pocket” feed, I would surely succumb to the click bait. I suppose it’s not fair of me to comment without reading the original, but my take is that don’t people just put too much emphasis on things being a product of their generation?? I’m a Gen X-er (50th coming up!) with a 9 year old and a good, flexible job and I’ve always had errand paralysis. I generally chalk it up to laziness, fatigue at navigating a too-big-for-me city, and probably some mild, undiagnosed ADD. It’s never occurred to me to think of it as something that could be generational. That said, commenter Stacy above, made a really interesting point about how it might be harder for a younger generation to do the out-of-home errands because they’ve grown up doing things online. I hadn’t thought of that.

By: Alison

Alison — Tue, 22 Jan 2019 23:15:10 +0000

The BuzzFeed article is pretty ridiculous, but your post is condescending enough to put me back on the author’s side. You say that it’s not helpful to argue about whose life is harder, but bookmark it with snarky asides about how hard the author’s life *isn’t*. You could have made all the same points in a respectful, charitable manner. As it is, this post could have been titled “Here’s why I’m better than you.”

By: Griffin

Griffin — Tue, 22 Jan 2019 19:39:54 +0000

https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2019/01/marie-kondo-fyre-fraud-and-tvs-millennial-burnout/580753/. An interesting extension of the conversation you began with this post.

By: Cb

Cb — Mon, 21 Jan 2019 20:53:28 +0000

Gently, I think you might be reading it as an upholder, someone with a lot of control over their own schedule, a car, and the capacity to delegate certain activities. My main takeaway of the author’s piece was validation that errands are a pain to run in an urban area. It was an angsty piece but straw and camel and all that. I too have dull knives because I haven’t figured out how to get my giant chef’s knife to the sharpening place on the bus.

There were a few bits that made me roll my eyes but then I remembered the fact that my driver’s license application got cancelled because I haven’t had a chance to have photos taken (no convenient location to my office, need to collect £6 in coins for photo machine, can’t do it with a toddler in tow) and the fact that my life improved markedly when my husband got a job that has a post office in the building so he does my online shopping returns and mails cards to my relatives overseas.

By: Marie

Marie — Mon, 21 Jan 2019 14:11:25 +0000

I’m 100% in agreement with you.

By: SB

SB — Sun, 20 Jan 2019 17:05:08 +0000

*Shrugs*

People like to complain, even you.

I can’t imagine even contemplating sharpening my knives — really? People do this? — but also I’ve learned to immediately remove silly tasks like this from my to do list because they never will happen. Burnout to me comes from pushing as hard as I can at work, and feeling like I’m still barely able to stay afloat. Much of the time, I am barely able to take care of simple tasks such as buying groceries and cleaning my clothes because I spend so much time at my job. I am required to constantly plan for my professional future, but rarely have the headspace to do so. The only solution is to care less and be confident that things really will work out in the long run. Many people do not even have that luxury. I wonder if this is the feeling that the author is referring to.