Hierarchy of Avoidance

I started the Friday Faves so I could share posts from other blogs that I enjoyed (and it helped to justify my blog surfing habits, because how could I feel guilty when I was SHARING with everyone?) There have been a couple of times when I've highlighted things that were about, well, ME, rather than other blog posts, but I felt they conformed to the spirit of "the rules" since I did link to other blogs.

Today I am bending the rules in another fashion, and there's a surreal aspect to it. I am highlighting a blog post that *I* wrote. Yes, it was bound to happen, so all of you who are clutching their throats and gasping for air, or who spewed their beverage onto the computer screen—once you catch your breath and wipe the monitor clean, you'll admit it isn't that big of a surprise.

I just hope I don't end up plagiarizing myself. Talk about awkward. You can just imagine THAT lawsuit.

Anyway, I'm sure you have seen a few commenters here referencing the term "HOA", throwing it about with great familiarity, and quite gleefully. You've probably wondered, "Just what the heck is an HOA, and do I need one?" It's likely that you worried you were the only one who wasn't aware of what an HOA is.

So I am here to enlighten you. It is an acronym referring to the Hierarchy of Avoidance.

Okay.

So what the heck IS the Hierarchy of Avoidance?

It's my patented program for getting things done, by avoiding other things you don't want to do.

I know what you're thinking. It's some kind of sleazy procrastination method, masquerading as a productivity tool. But that's not it at all. It's ACCOMPLISHMENT, through AVOIDANCE.

How could this possibly work?

Well, here's what I originally said on the topic at Romance Writer's Revenge, and I think it bears repeating (obviously, since I'm quoting myself):

"The important thing to remember about the Hierarchy of Avoidance is this: Not All Tasks Are Created Equal.

There is always a WORSE task than the one you don’t want to do. Think of it as a Food Pyramid for To Do lists."

Let me give you an example. You need to clear those cobwebs in the corner of the living room ceiling before they celebrate their one-year anniversary. But you also should take the clothes out of the dryer while they are still your size, and the dishes sitting in the sink are looking like a science project run amok. So what do you do?

You pick the task you don't want to do. Then you pick the one that's worse than that, and then the one worse even than THAT. You are prioritizing things by their awfulness. You do the one that is LEAST yucky, avoiding the yuckier and yuckiest ones. Once the yucky one is out of the way, the yuckier one doesn't seem so bad, because it's not as awful as the yuckiest one, so you do it next.

The HOA works beautifully with writing tasks, and it's great for mixing up writing and non-writing tasks (that's how most housework gets done, actually, by avoiding writing tasks). The one thing I do not advise you do is avoid the Hierarchy of Avoidance. Because it really works.

Millions of happy avoiders can't be wrong.