Get the pebble out of your shoe

Commit to solving a few small problems

Little annoyances are, by definition little. They don’t seem like that big of a deal in the grand scheme of things. Think things like a tiny pebble in your shoe. It isn’t going to keep you from walking if you need to.

We all have metaphorical pebbles in our lives. Maybe it’s junk on the floor of your car. Or a box of donations that have been sitting in your trunk for weeks. The clock that has been blinking since the last power outage. The small insurance claim that needs to be resubmitted and so you’ve been leaving the form on your desk since it arrived a month ago. I am sure you can list a host of your own annoyances.

None of these things are exactly crises. We can live with them. The problem is that when you keep seeing them, over and over, the realization that the pebbles are still there can sap energy, and generally make you annoyed with life. Who wants to live with that long term?

Instead, here’s an idea: set a goal of having no lingering pebbles in your shoe by a few weeks into the new year. You will decide, at some point in the next few weeks, to deal with your currently outstanding little issues and dispatch them from your mental universe.

Take an inventory

The process is simple enough. These are all little things, right? So make a list of the pebbles. Go through your house, your car, your calendar, your computer set up, your phone, whatever you deal with frequently. Note anything that needs to be fixed.

You can separate the list into items that can be dealt with immediately, and those that might need an additional step or two. You can drive the box of donations to the center right now. You might need to order new lightbulbs, though, and wait a few days for delivery. So choose at least two windows for batching all these tasks. Maybe the first is a Saturday afternoon when everybody else is out of the house. The second is a mostly free evening a week later.

Of course, some of the pebbles might be lingering as pebbles because you don’t know how to deal with them. If that’s the case, set aside 10 minutes of your first window for researching the question. In 10 minutes you can probably figure out if it’s simple and all you’ll need to do is watch a YouTube tutorial, or if the problem is more complicated. If it is more complicated, then calling the plumber or handyman or tech guru in your life can go on the list.

Create a sense of urgency

Another possibility is that the pebble is so annoying that you just keep putting it off. If that’s the case, one idea is to ask for the pebble to be dealt with as a gift. I once asked my husband to put air in my car tires as a present to me. He drove my car over to the gas station and dealt with it. I know of a person who got frames for a stack of photos as a present for his partner. Very romantic if you think about it. Seriously. I’m not kidding. If there’s a friend or family member who you know will not find the task nearly as annoying as you will, this late holiday gift request could be a reasonable option.

In any case, if you are strategic, you can probably knock almost all these pebbles off the list in the next few weeks. Sometimes life delivers obvious deadlines for these things. Maybe you’re moving in the next few months and you need to deal with that chip in the shower soap holder.

But if you’re not moving, you need to make your own deadline. So how about a few weeks into the new year? You can truly start fresh, and enjoy at least a little respite until new pebbles appear. But when they do, you’ll know there’s a method for dealing with them. And so eventually you will — so you can devote your energy to more important things.