the.com/avoidance
Doing anything, literally anything, except the one thing on your list.
means The act of steering clear of something unpleasant — a task, a feeling, a conversation — by occupying yourself with almost anything else.
from Traces back through Old French 'esvuider' ('to empty out') to Latin 'viduus,' meaning 'void' or 'deprived of.' The same root that gives us 'void' and 'evacuate' — so to avoid something is, at its linguistic core, to empty it out of your path, to make it as if it weren't there.
- psych term
- negative reinforcement, since dodging it feels like relief
- irony
- the dreaded task rarely shrinks, your dread does
- tell
- suddenly the dishes seem urgent and fascinating
- fix
- five minutes of starting beats hours of circling