Forget the gym: grass cutting is cheaper and doesn't require lycra

Following on from my recent post about irritations, one of mine has been the state of the nature strip* at chez O.

It is the only grass on our property. As we used to live in an apartment, so we don't have a lawnmower. We've dithered about whether (or not) to buy one. It seemed extravagant to buy a lawnmower to mow a strip of ground 3ft x 30ft. Local lawnmowing services have a minimum call-out fee of $25, even more extravagant. During the drought all nature strips looked parched and bare. But with the lavish amounts of both sunshine and rain in Melbourne recently, the 'grass' is about 4ft tall. Not so much a lawn as a hodge-podge of broad leaf weeds, a number of grass types that are considered weeds in Victoria, and a lot of kikuyu, which I don't like. The state of indecision has been even more irritating than the issue of our socially undesirable jungle. Besides, it was becoming difficult to put the rubbish bins out.

I've - jokingly - threatened to attack it with kitchen scissors. Not being quite that irritated, I instead bought some pruning shears with a nice easy action and set to work. An hour's work got about half the 35ft strip down to under 10cms in height. I suspect I might be a bit mad (I prefer 'eccentric').

As I huffed and puffed, and clipped and raked, I got a similar sense of virtue that I get when I do a gym workout. With a bonus of aesthetic horticultural accomplishment. Contemplating the weeds beats contemplating lycra. Sure, clipping grass isn't exactly fun, but then the gym isn't either. I've saved money on the lawnmower, I've saved money on the gardener (who didn't want to do it anyway), I've saved money on a gym membership without sacrificing my health, and I've done something about my irritation. See, it was a rational decision.

*If you are not Australian: this is a strip of grass (and often weeds) punctuated by occasional trees, which separates the footpath (or sidewalk) from the road.

Irritation, learned helplessness and '3 shoulds'

A few years ago I read about keeping an Irritations List as a productivity tool. (I think it was Michael Gerber's E-Myth, but it might also have been Stephen Covey's 7 Habits... both are good sources of ideas.)

An irritation is something less than an actual problem... it's not that big a deal... like using the stub of a broken pencil to take phone messages, or having to hold your front door key a certain way to open the lock. Irritations can also be procedural: any step which makes you wonder why do I have to go through this step or this hassle? qualifies.

The two hallmarks of irritations are
1) it almost feels petty to be irritated by it, so it tends to fall out of your head when it isn't actually in progress
2) when it is solved - sometimes by accident - we think, "wow, what a huge relief, I wish I'd done that earlier."

We spend a lot of time accentuating the positive, but we often have a 'learned helplessness' attitude when it comes to eliminate the negative. We put up with stuff because that's just the way it is, or we are annoyed but not enough to be motivated to do something about it. Yet irritations, especially when they gang up on us, can bring down our productivity and our mood, making even simple things feel hard.

The '3 shoulds' are a useful way to bring your attention to irritations. The third time you think, "there should be a better way to..." or "I really should fix this..." or "I should get a new..." that's when you act. Even if you don't wholly resolve the irritation, a bit of research will increase your understanding and your sense of agency.

What prompted this post was a faint, intermittent funky smell which has been maddeningly elusive for the past few days. I feared we might have a leak after the recent torrential rain, but it was just my front-loading washing machine needing a bit of extra TLC.  Possibly I have been closing the door too frequently, so I don't bark my shins as I go past it...which could be another irritation, now I come to think of it.

It was surprisingly easy to solve once I worked out the smell was emanating from my washing machine: empty the filter unit, wipe around the seals and the drum of the washing machine with a rag moistened with tea tree oil (to kill any mold and remove soap scum) and then run the machine on a short hot cycle after putting bleach into the drum. Hey presto: clean and sweet smelling. Not only have I vanquished this particular irritation, but I have an increased 'sense of agency' about dealing with any others that crop up.