Alright, let’s talk about this phrase rattling around in my head: ‘first off first off first off the watch’. Sounds a bit odd, I know. It wasn’t some grand plan or anything. It was just… life happening, I guess.
So, picture this: I was completely buried. Work was demanding crazy hours, things at home needed attention, you know the drill. Felt like I was juggling way too many balls, and honestly, dropping most of them.
The Watch Situation
Amidst all this chaos, there was this watch sitting on my nightstand. It wasn’t fancy, just an old thing my grandpa used to wear. Simple, tough, like him. But it had stopped working months ago. Just sat there.
Every single morning, I’d see it. And the thought process started. It became this weird little ritual in my head.
My Daily ‘First Offs’
- First off, gotta check those urgent emails that came in overnight. Can’t ignore those.
- First off, need to figure out what’s for dinner before the grocery store gets crazy.
- First off, better deal with that weird noise the car started making.
And the watch? Yeah, the watch could wait. ‘I’ll get to the watch later,’ I kept telling myself. ‘Need to handle the important stuff first.’ This happened day after day. The ‘first offs’ piled up, always pushing the watch further down the list.
Breaking the Loop
It went on like this for maybe two weeks. Same routine. See the watch, list the ‘first offs’, promise to deal with the watch ‘soon’. It was becoming a bit ridiculous. Just this small task, getting a simple watch fixed, felt monumental because everything else seemed more urgent.
Then one Saturday morning, I woke up, saw the watch, and the usual ‘first off’ mental list started firing up. But something just… snapped. I was tired. Tired of the list, tired of the excuses, tired of seeing that watch just sitting there, useless.
So, you know what I did? I skipped the mental list. Didn’t check emails. Didn’t think about groceries. I just picked up the watch. Found the little box it came in. Put it inside.
I walked out, got in the car, and drove straight to that little jewelry repair place downtown that I’d been meaning to visit for six months. Handed it over. The guy said it’d be ready in a week.
And that was it. Felt strange, almost anticlimactic. But walking out of that shop, I felt… lighter. Like I’d finally cleared one thing off a list that only existed in my head.
It wasn’t really about the watch in the end. It was about breaking that cycle of ‘first off this, first off that’. Sometimes you just gotta grab one thing, no matter how small, and just do it. Stop the prioritizing for a second and just act. It kinda reset things for me, made me look at all the other stuff I was putting off too.
