"Ugh" swapping
Try This One Quick Trick To Solve All Your Executive Functioning Needs
Most of the items on my to do list are what I would classify as “ugh” items: I’ve procrastinated on them to the point where a deep, all-consuming shame fills me every time I’m reminded of their existence. Looking at them causes me visceral distress. These are typically insurmountable and intellectually strenuous tasks, like “click four buttons on a form to get reimbursed $1500 in travel costs,” or “respond to an email from your Bubbie with two sentences acknowledging the article link she sent.”
My girlfriend and I have a workaround for this, which we call “ugh swapping.” I hand her my computer, and she emails my Bubbie. She hands me her computer, and I copy and paste a few bullet points from her resume to her LinkedIn profile. The gains from trade are enormous.
This works best when the tasks are simple, easy to communicate, and strictly better to do sub-optimally than to delay by an additional five to infinity minutes. But it can also help when the task is complicated or high context, because starting to provide the context to your ugh-swapping-buddy often unblocks you.
A better solution to the problem of “ugh tasks” would be therapy, medication, and incremental lifestyle changes sustained over time. But to get started on those, I’d have to email back the therapist I ghosted. For that, I’m glad I have ugh swapping.