I Spent 45 Minutes Making the Perfect Cleaning Playlist

The House Was Still Waiting To Get Cleaned

The other day, I decided to put on some music to clean the house.

Forty-five minutes later, I had created the perfect playlist.

The house remained uncleaned.

But the vibes for future cleaning were impeccable.

That's procrastination in its purest form: doing something that feels useful but isn't the thing you actually need to do.

Productive Procrastination Problem

My playlist had a bit of everything.

Some upbeat for motivation, because I knew I would need that, slower tracks for the detailed work, even a few lots of my old time favourites, Pink Floyd (post Syd Barrett.

It was basically the Apple Music equivalent of a doctoral thesis.

The only problem?

My bedroom floor was still covered in last week's laundry and my kitchen counter looked like a pasta sauce explosion.

I had spent nearly an hour being incredibly productive at not doing what I set out to do.

Turns out I'm really good at missing the point.

This is what makes procrastination so sneaky.

It doesn't always look like scrolling through social media or binge-watching Netflix.

Sometimes it looks like being really, really busy with almost the right thing.

Preparation Perfectionism Trap

We love to tell ourselves we're just getting ourselves in the mood for the real work.

We must have the perfect environment, the right tools, the ideal conditions.

I know people who spend more time organizing their workout playlist than actually working out.

I’m one of them!

They research productivity apps longer than they spend being productive. Who plan their morning routine so much they run out of morning.

The prep work becomes the whole project instead of just the setup.

My cleaning playlist was supposed to be a quick thing.

Put on some music, grab the vacuum, get started.

Instead, it became this whole creative project with themes and careful tempo consideration.

To be honest my background music sounded like the soundtrack to my life story.

Almost Right Thing Syndrome

Smarter people than me will tell you productive procrastination seems reasonable.

Of course you need good music to clean effectively.

Everyone knows the right soundtrack makes boring tasks more bearable.

I wasn't being lazy, I was being smart.

Except being smart without actually doing anything is just overthinking with better excuses.

This shows up everywhere.

Reorganizing your desk instead of doing the work that sits on it. Researching the perfect diet instead of eating the vegetables already in your fridge.

Reading about productivity instead of just picking one thing and getting on with it.

The almost-right-thing feels so much easier than the actual-right-thing because it gives you the satisfaction of progress without the discomfort of real effort.

Permission Problem

Somewhere deep down, I of course, knew what was going on.

But creating the playlist gave me permission to delay the actual cleaning while still feeling like I was moving toward my goal.

It's like doing warm-up stretches for forty minutes before a ten-minute run.

Technically, you're preparing for exercise, but you're also avoiding the part where your heart rate goes up and you remember why you don't exercise more often.

The preparation phase feels safer than the doing phase because you can't fail at something you haven't actually started yet.

Start Somewhere Solution

Here's what my playlist procrastination adventure reminded me of: sometimes good enough is better than perfect, especially when perfect means never starting.

The next time I needed to clean, I put on the first song that came up on shuffle and started picking up laundry.

No curation, no theme, no careful consideration of which track would best accompany toilet scrubbing.

The house got clean in about the same time it had taken me to create the perfect playlist.

The music wasn't my ideal, in the right order, but the dishes got done.

What This Means for You

Pay attention to when you're doing the almost-right-thing instead of the actual-right-thing.

Ask yourself: is this preparation actually necessary, or am I just avoiding the uncomfortable part of getting started?

Set a preparation time limit. Give yourself five minutes to get ready, then start regardless of whether conditions are ideal.

Remember that done with imperfect conditions beats not done with perfect preparation.

Your cleaning playlist can be amazing, but it can't clean your house for you.

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The most productive thing you can do is stop trying to be productive. Just be effective.

My house is clean now, and I still have that amazing playlist for next time.

Perfect playlists are brilliant. Clean houses are better.