If you cannot read the balloons, this is what’s happening: the woman asks her husband to tighten a screw so she doesn’t have to use a butter knife to tighten it. His reply is: “Sure… but I’ll have to get a screwdriver, which means I’ll have to get to my workbench… which means I’ll have to log into Craigslist and sell all the junk that’s piled in front of the workbench so I can find a screwdriver to tighten the screw.” The woman scowls and replies that she will use the butter knife instead. Check out the area by the workbench, look familiar?
This is classic. I love this comic strip for two reasons. One is that we are constantly making excuses for why we can’t get this or that done. The other thing is that even though there is a screwdriver somewhere in the house, this woman improvised by using a butter knife. Why? She wanted to get the drawer handle fixed.
Most people I know– friends, neighbors, and colleagues– are pretty good at doing one-day or a few days a year of spring cleaning to find their screwdrivers, but have found it a challenge to maintain a system. I take pride in working with clients to set up a system that works for each of them, so that, a year later, when they need a screwdriver, they can find it right away to use instead of needing to pull out a butter knife.
