If you’re like me, you spend a reasonable amount of time trying to convince your husband to help you with your “projects”! In addition to the usual motivational tricks, you know, the guilt, the rewards, the eyes of a sad puppy, there are some others that I have discovered that work quite well in each season of “home improvement”:
1. When you make a request, be sure to ask very politely and use the word “fast”
For example, “Honey, can you do me a quick favor” or “Is there anything I need you to do very fast”. Now, this really works well if the work is relatively short, so if you are doing a large project, ideally, you should divide it into small tasks. You may think that if it is a small task, you don’t need the word “fast”, or that “speed” is implied, but you would be wrong, you really need to hear the word “fast” to be motivated. Try it!
2. Start a project, but don’t finish it
I think you can use this trick at most twice because they realize… and the unfinished project has to be something that you know will bother you. For example, if you are redoing your floor, remove part of the old carpet and then stop, if it’s like my husband, you will briefly complain that a project started without him. Then he will finish it himself … and without even, uh, be asked, or anything…
3. Threatening to do a task that, both you and he knows, cannot do for himself
For example, “Hey, do you think we could remodel the closet today?”, “Today? Would it be better if you did that today?” “Umm, well, I’ve been asking for the past 5 months! It doesn’t matter, I’ll do it myself!”
