Why Not Do It Now
In the morning, I shake the toothpaste tube. It's already empty, but I feel like if I shake it hard enough, I might get one more use out of it, so I give it a good shake. But no matter how much I squeeze, no toothpaste comes out. Deep down, I knew it was the last of it when I used it last night, but I shake it anyway, just in case.
It's not that I don't have a new one. I know there's a brand new one inside the bathroom mirror cabinet. But I still shake it. It's not about having a wonderful frugal mindset. It's just that opening a new one is a hassle. Plus, if I open a new one now, all the effort I spent desperately shaking and squeezing this one will have been for nothing. Shake, squeeze, nothing. Shake, squeeze, nothing. It's no use. I give up and grab the new one.
I try to peel the transparent packaging off the new toothpaste with my fingernails. It won't come off. If I could just make a starting hole, I should be able to rip it right off, but I fail and only manage to make a tiny hole. It won't peel. There are small scissors a few steps away, but that's a hassle, so I try to peel it with my nails. Since that's getting nowhere, I try to bite it with my incisors. Once I bite it, it gets all slimy and becomes even harder to open. This is hopeless. I give up and go get the scissors.
While brushing my teeth, I check my phone and see a notification from the Kojima Denki app about a year-end sale. There is a red '1' on the top right of the app icon. I have to open the app to make that number disappear, so even though I'm not interested, I reluctantly open the app and immediately close it. I could just turn off notifications in the settings, but I don't. In the same way, every time I get notifications from the 7-Eleven or Geo apps, I open them every single day just to clear that '1'. It is incredibly tedious.
Come to think of it, I have about 200 'Geos' points on the Geo app, but I don't even know what they are for. I don't know what I can use them for, but it's a hassle to look it up. What even is a 'Geo'? If I collect 1,000 Geos, does it become one 'Gyaos'? I guess I could trade 10,000 Gyaos for a dinosaur of my choice. Though I wouldn't know what to do with one if I got it.
I once heard that people make 35,000 decisions a day. I've forgotten where I heard that. Maybe my boss said it in a pompous way, or maybe I saw it on the internet. The number might even be slightly different. It's too much of a hassle to check the source. I feel like I often end up losing out because I keep choosing the easier option among the choices in front of me.
I should take a bath now, but instead, I rest on the sofa. I should do this work now, but I put it off. Even though I tell my kids, 'Clean up now! You can't turn on the TV until you've finished putting your toys away!', I just sit on the sofa looking at my phone instead of bringing in the laundry. I tried to make muscle training a daily habit, did it for two days, and now I've been putting off the third day for about half a year. I'm such a slob. Life really is just a series of 'I should do it now' moments.
When I think about it, Mr. Osamu Hayashi is amazing. That line of his, 'When will you do it? Now, right?', is a truly great quote. He is absolutely right. You just have to do it now. That solves everything, and the future will be bright. Mr. Hayashi is truly right. He's amazing. He really is. Ah, work starts today.