Selective procrastination. Any solution?

[Greg]

I've a strange trait that has either got worse over the years or more noticeable or perhaps both.

I have a list of jobs to tackle, generally repair jobs around the house or filling tax returns or some other task and I will selectively delay some and move others up the queue.  I don't necessarily reject or tackle or put off jobs based on unpleasantness either.  Seems kind of random to me like whim or some strange mood that drives me.

For example.  6 weeks ago our 5 year old washing machine started tripping the power.  I took it apart bypassed the fuse board and wired it straight to the main fuse.  Motor had shorted so I ordered another on ebay and replaced it.  Whole thing took about 6 hours or effort.  It worked for a few days but then started tripping the fuse again, so I ran an extention lead to the main circuit breaker box instead of powering it from the smaller box in the garden annex.  And that worked.  So I told my wife to carry on using it like that, since it was now working.  There are plenty of sockets in the house and all she needed to do was run a cable through the bathroom door or window when she wanted to use it.  The washing machine was now washing clothes.  Major problem fixed.

Being a woman, it soon bugged her that she had an "ugly" wire powering the washing machine which had to go via the window or open door when she wanted to do a washload (she does about 10 washloads per week) and she started to nag me over the next 4 weeks to get the socket in the bathroom working again.  I couldn't call an electrician, firstly because I am too alpha to even contemplate that, secondly because I kinda sorta knew it was something to do with the wiring under the raised decking, since I'd tested all other points of failure.  That was the only thing remaining.

It's kind of damp and spider's webby under the decking, (not that I really mind, just painting a picture here) the washing machine was functioning albeit in a less than athestically pleasing way to my wife (I would use it like that until Doomsday if single) and I had some sort of mental block against finishing the job.  Meanwhile I mowed and reseed the lawn, fixed and cleaned the gutters, climbed on the roof and cleaned both skylights and even washed down my white plastic guttering and soffit boards, installed a new shower bar, but the wiring fault kept slipping back.  I even bought another washing machine for $8 and fixed it one sunny afternoon just for the heck of it.  I'm going to give it away to my brother to keep as a spare.  In short I did a whole bunch of other jobs and left this one alone.

Finally, this morning after 4 weeks of "reminders" I got my screwdrivers out went down the wire and digging around in a junction box found a loose neutral wire at the back.  Screwed it down and the washing machine now powers from the wall socket in the same room without tripping anything.  Was not a particularly difficult job, didn't take long, was not unpleasant.

Anyone have similar experience of selectively procrastinating on certain jobs and not even understanding why that particular task was delayed?

[drummerboy]

I think every guy has this lol!  Except for me the problem is I have so little free time between school and work that when I do have free time there's so many things I'd like to do I kind of have a brain freeze because I can't decide what I want to do, so yeah, I procrastinate, and usually take a nap.

[The Curt Jester]

I think you already found the solution:  your wife.   Think about it.  Had you not had one, the job never would have been done.

[Ancilla Domini]

In the case of the wiring it sounds like you put it off because you didn't believe it really needed to be done. I call that prioritizing, not procrastination. 

[Armor of Light]

I can only encourage you to do a proper job when tackling machine repair.
The engineer in me bristles when reading of your gerry-rigging! Proper job=happy wife.

[Greg]

I can only encourage you to do a proper job when tackling machine repair.
The engineer in me bristles when reading of your gerry-rigging! Proper job=happy wife.

It worked, that is a proper job.  Apart from by passing the domestic RCD and relying on the main switch to show me which part of the machine was using too much power or a leaking to earth, I am not sure why you consider my method 'gerry-rigging'.  The circuit breaker was tripping out before the current arced across the electric motor.  There were no visible faults with the motor and the carbon brushes were fine.  There was some sort of short to earth in the armature stack so I figured, blow up or destroy the faulty part or at least identify it by letting it draw enough power to short circuit turn down the light and look for the spark.  Even if the body of the machine was earthing, which it wasn't electricity at 250V cannot jump through 18 inches of air and kill me.

I could go and buy $250 of test equipment of course.  I could have also bought a new washing machine.

There's nothing wrong with running a 2kw machine from an extension cord suitable for the purpose.  And the components on the machine cannot draw so much power that the local transformer is going to blow up since I have a 30amp circuit breaker.

This stuff   http://www.groschopp.com/how-to-check-a-motor-armature/  takes ages.  Why not simply destroy the faulty part, identify it and replace it?  It's faster and cheaper.  Quick diagnosis is 80% of the problem.  Once you know what is wrong fixing it is easy.

The motor on ebay cost me $25 including delivery.  It retails for $280.  Yep, Bosch.  Crazy.  A whole new washing machine is only $800.

You should never go on a banger rally.  I've seen bodges in Russia and Turkmenistan that would make your hair stand on end.  But everyone so far has made it to Ulanbaator.

[paul14]

I am in the process of replacing the carbon brushes on my washing machine motor and out of curiosity decided to see if there was any mention of it here.  They cost £5 on ebay and the process of how to do it is trivially easy to find on youtube (see below).

I though Greg's name would come up but I am a bit disappointed there are not other threads of a similar vein. Do men no longer fix things?

The thread is six years old!

[yt]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LqEhqqpzbus&t=1s[/yt]

[Daniel]

Being a woman, it soon bugged her that she had an "ugly" wire powering the washing machine which had to go via the window or open door when she wanted to do a washload (she does about 10 washloads per week) and she started to nag me over the next 4 weeks to get the socket in the bathroom working again.

I'd be bothered by that too, and I'm a man. Partly because of the ugliness, but also because I don't know enough about electric and would always be a little nervous that this sort of "repair job" is perhaps a safety hazard...

[Greg]

I am in the process of replacing the carbon brushes on my washing machine motor and out of curiosity decided to see if there was any mention of it here.  They cost £5 on ebay and the process of how to do it is trivially easy to find on youtube (see below).

I though Greg's name would come up but I am a bit disappointed there are not other threads of a similar vein. Do men no longer fix things?

The thread is six years old!

[yt]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LqEhqqpzbus&t=1s[/yt]

The problem I have found with those brushes is that if the commutator is not true or has carbon stuck in it, they get eaten away faster.  Clean the commutator as best you can with ear buds and WD40

[Greg]

Being a woman, it soon bugged her that she had an "ugly" wire powering the washing machine which had to go via the window or open door when she wanted to do a washload (she does about 10 washloads per week) and she started to nag me over the next 4 weeks to get the socket in the bathroom working again.

I'd be bothered by that too, and I'm a man. Partly because of the ugliness, but also because I don't know enough about electric and would always be a little nervous that this sort of "repair job" is perhaps a safety hazard...

3/5th of the world has shitty electric wiring.  It does not catch fire every 5 minutes.

[paul14]

I am in the process of replacing the carbon brushes on my washing machine motor and out of curiosity decided to see if there was any mention of it here.  They cost £5 on ebay and the process of how to do it is trivially easy to find on youtube (see below).

I though Greg's name would come up but I am a bit disappointed there are not other threads of a similar vein. Do men no longer fix things?

The thread is six years old!

[yt]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LqEhqqpzbus&t=1s[/yt]

The problem I have found with those brushes is that if the commutator is not true or has carbon stuck in it, they get eaten away faster.  Clean the commutator as best you can with ear buds and WD40

Thanks, that is a useful tip. I'll do that.  I have the motor out now; waiting for the parts to arrive on Saturday; so I'll clean it tomorrow.

[Greg]

Compressed air is good too.  If you don't have a compressor take it to a petrol station and use the inflate from flat option.  Or kwik fit and ask them.

[diaduit]

I've a strange trait that has either got worse over the years or more noticeable or perhaps both.

I have a list of jobs to tackle, generally repair jobs around the house or filling tax returns or some other task and I will selectively delay some and move others up the queue.  I don't necessarily reject or tackle or put off jobs based on unpleasantness either.  Seems kind of random to me like whim or some strange mood that drives me.

For example.  6 weeks ago our 5 year old washing machine started tripping the power.  I took it apart bypassed the fuse board and wired it straight to the main fuse.  Motor had shorted so I ordered another on ebay and replaced it.  Whole thing took about 6 hours or effort.  It worked for a few days but then started tripping the fuse again, so I ran an extention lead to the main circuit breaker box instead of powering it from the smaller box in the garden annex.  And that worked.  So I told my wife to carry on using it like that, since it was now working.  There are plenty of sockets in the house and all she needed to do was run a cable through the bathroom door or window when she wanted to use it.  The washing machine was now washing clothes.  Major problem fixed.

Being a woman, it soon bugged her that she had an "ugly" wire powering the washing machine which had to go via the window or open door when she wanted to do a washload (she does about 10 washloads per week) and she started to nag me over the next 4 weeks to get the socket in the bathroom working again.  I couldn't call an electrician, firstly because I am too alpha to even contemplate that, secondly because I kinda sorta knew it was something to do with the wiring under the raised decking, since I'd tested all other points of failure.  That was the only thing remaining.

It's kind of damp and spider's webby under the decking, (not that I really mind, just painting a picture here) the washing machine was functioning albeit in a less than athestically pleasing way to my wife (I would use it like that until Doomsday if single) and I had some sort of mental block against finishing the job.  Meanwhile I mowed and reseed the lawn, fixed and cleaned the gutters, climbed on the roof and cleaned both skylights and even washed down my white plastic guttering and soffit boards, installed a new shower bar, but the wiring fault kept slipping back.  I even bought another washing machine for $8 and fixed it one sunny afternoon just for the heck of it.  I'm going to give it away to my brother to keep as a spare.  In short I did a whole bunch of other jobs and left this one alone.

Finally, this morning after 4 weeks of "reminders" I got my screwdrivers out went down the wire and digging around in a junction box found a loose neutral wire at the back.  Screwed it down and the washing machine now powers from the wall socket in the same room without tripping anything.  Was not a particularly difficult job, didn't take long, was not unpleasant.

Anyone have similar experience of selectively procrastinating on certain jobs and not even understanding why that particular task was delayed?

Oh please, procrastination is NOT why you posted this 

[Greg]

It is.

I have a very strange trait where I will do things I want to do that save me 20 quid, rather than something else in the SAME AMOUNT OF TIME, that would earn me 200 quid.

[The Curt Jester]

I think a lot of people do what was described.  For instance, my kitchen sink is rigged to use the sprayer as the faucet because the faucet itself leaks through the handle when turned on. Because the sprayer works just fine and because there are so many other projects going on, I've left it that way.  It's probably an easy fix, but I don't have a desire to work on it when something which is more broken (or is time-sensitive) needs to get done.  Meanwhile I've been stripping paint off wood trim, stripping varnish off old wood floors, sanding, refinishing, etc, which has occupied many days.  The sink would probably take 30 minutes.