- You keep large redundant amounts of all your sundries such as laundry detergent so that you never risk running out.
- You don’t just sort the money in your wallet by $1, $5, $10, or $20, but also sort the bills by wear-and-tear so that you get rid of the bills in the worst shape first.
- You look up anal-retentive to see whether it needs a hyphen.
- You don’t just keep a grocery list, you micro-optimize order of the items on the grocery list so that you only make one pass through the grocery store.
- After a power outage or when Daylight Savings Time starts or ends, you feel the need to set all your clocks to the same minute and second.
- It really irritates you when someone says a list has 5 items and you count six.
How about you? What do you do that might be a tad anal-retentive?
{ 81 comments… read them below or add one }
Let’s see…all I have is:
1. Also use the flip side of post-it notes to guarantee maximum paper usage
2. Always gas up on Thursday so I don’t have to waste my weekend time (which is usually open anyway)
* not only do you check that every item in your credit card statement has a corresponding receipt of same amount, but you also add up all the amounts to double-check the bank’s math.
Actually I set the clocks in my apartment in a cascade, each a few minutes faster than the next, so that I always have a little more time than I think in my morning routine. Not sure if that is better or worse.
7. When someone calls you anal-retentive, you tell them the preferred word is “meticulous.”
8. You have a system for loading the dishwasher and don’t allow anyone else to load it (unless you’re out of town).
By the way, #4 on your list isn’t anal-retentive … it’s smart!
9. My brother in law will only use 1 color of pegs on each of the 4 sides of the clothes line. You are definitely not allowed to mix up the colors!!
9. You double proof read even your casual emails send to friends.
)
(I hate it, but iI just can’t stop it…
You’re anal-retentive if you always think that things always belong to a specific category.
I hate text message abbreviations.
I look up anal-retentive to see the difference between calling someone anal-retentive and, you know, the other A word.
All of my locker items at work are organized alphabetically and with symmetry by height on my shelf!
-at dunkin donuts counter you order “iced-medium-2 sugars-1 cream” as opposed to “medium iced coffee, 1 cream and 2 sugars” because when the server hears medium he immediately reaches for the medium HOT cup and when he hears ICED next– it jars him for a sec as hes gotta backpeddle to put the cup back and restart. His next move is for the sugar so if you tell him cream first again it jars him. all to save saying 1 word “coffee” and maybe 2 seconds.
-you write about your silly behavior on a blog, and edit and re–edit to get it right.
You get pissed by OSS projects written by kids whose idea of documentation is a list of methods and or an trivial example showing 1+1 = 2 but totally ignoring the real world use.
And yes I am talking about Joomla here though it’s not the only culprit or even the worse.
I want proper documentation just like McCracken‘s book on FORTRAN.
CRAP!!! I guess the fact that I fold up take-out food wrappers and neatly place them in the bag and THEN neatly fold the bad before throwing it in the trash is yet another example of this “anal-retentive” behavior of which you speak. (Oh, and I’ll bet that the fact that I CAN NOT bring myself to end a sentence in a preposition would be yet ANOTHER anal-retentive trait!)
Matt – you’ve officially RUINED my day!
7. You read other people’s “Top 5 Signs You Are Anal-Retentive” lists to get good ideas about how to be more “organized”.
-c
I like your suggestion about how to sort dollar bills! I usually sorted them by denomination and serial number.
Happily, based on your list – I am oh so very NOT anal retentive.
When someone tells me they’ve sent me a mail, I’ll sit clicking send/receive until it arrives. Does this make me anal-retentive?
I do 2, 3 and 5.
Plus I organize my fast food tray into sixth divisions.
I separate burger, drink, napkins, fries, disposed packets of condiments and unspoiled condiments respectively in a zigzag format.
And no I do not apply this format to everything
Let’s face it: This list and most of our responses are a tad anal-retentive. (Really. How many people bother to capitalize the first word of a full sentence after a colon any more?)
But one of the most anal-retentive actions I’ve ever heard of is showering at night (regardless of how inactive you’ve been) because it means you’ll be clean for six or seven hours before you start getting dirty again. Added bonus: It keeps the sheets cleaner.
You intentionally lower your typing speed to avoid typos – and you actually derive certain twisted satisfaction from watching the words appearing slower than usual in MS Word.
Based on that alone, I suspect I am an anal-retentive writer (by the way, I have done the shopping list thing, I kid you not!)
I can think of some additional signs.
-you arrange your personal CD collection alphabetically
-you read while driving, so as not to miss an instant of productivity
-even post-Ring, you continue buying Connells albums (don’t want a gap in the collection)
-to be thrifty, you discover terrifying uses for excess condiments (mustard on bagels, e.g.)
- I’ve never heard of anyone arranging the bills in their wallet. Brother, you’re gonna need TWO hyphens for your anal-retentative-ed-ness.
From an engineering perspective, I believe it is more precise to refer to this modality as anal-captive.
Great post Matt!
And sigh, I’m guilty of #4 too.
Oh my gosh, I thought I was the only freak in the world who did #4!
When somebody is describing something inaccurately, with intent to hype the story further along while not necessarily being factual.
This bugs me probably more than any other anal-retentive action.
I have almost every non-spam piece of email sent to me since 1985. Some on 5 1/4″ floppy, for which I don’t even have a working drive anymore, and some on cartridge tape for which I also no longer have any working drives.
Plus most of the rest of the stuff on your list and a lot more.
10. You pretty print any code that you touch.
11. When you have one sock drawer for colored socks and one for white socks and you do not let your significant other to put your clothes away. Same for neckties….( I am guilty of the dishwasher sin)
WOW!!!
Never thought there was a word to describe these activities.
I am glad that I am not one
Worryingly, I’m worse than most of those things on the list…
1 – yes… if world war 3 begins, I think I probably have enough toilet paper to last it out (I also usually buy lots in a sale at once)
… I set everything to this. (not sure if you’ve got such a radio signal in the USA?)
2 – even more so: I try to avoid using cash at all as it’s such a hassle. I also try and get rid of low denominational coins as much as possible.
3 – I probably use more hyphens than most…
4 – even more so: food is brought directly to my door (seriously, once you’ve got kids, you just don’t want to spent 4 hours in a supermarket every weekend or two)
5 – even more so: yes I do, but I’ve also got a wall clock in my house which picks up the time from a radio signal – the source is an atomic clock so is only about 1 second out ever thousand years or so
6 – I think the best answer to this is a similar blog post by Linux Torvalds – http://torvalds-family.blogspot.com/2009/02/25-things-about-me.html
Gah, my muscle memory has typed “Linux Torvalds” rather than “Linus Torvalds”!
(and I did it again when I typed this, even though I was consciously trying not to!)
Hrm, other things I do:
)
- I have a specific way of crossing a traffic-light-controlled junction I have to walk past on my way to work – if I can, I even cross diagonally in the middle in the middle of the traffic lights changing, so I can avoid crossing the road twice (hey, Pythagoras and all that!
- Actually, I think I use Pythagoras when walking more than most…
- When I come in to work in the morning, I do things (make toast, boil kettle, turn on PC, load programs) in a certain order to minimize the amount of time I’m waiting for something.
- I might have the world’s most sorted NAS file system. Software organised by platform, type, product, and other sub-bits
- I use the back door to the office because it saves around 5 seconds on the way in.
- I hang laundry in a certain way, with the things that are wettest in the areas I know dry faster, and re-arrange things if my wife lays them out differently
- I’ve bought a big bundle of socks (well, one white set and one black set) and gotten rid of my old ones – that way, I never have to match odd socks.
- I’d say “anally-retentive” not “anal-retentive” (maybe it’s an Americanism?)
- I reply to a Matt Cutts post about signs of being anal-retentive
With regards to the others people have listed… definitely guilty of #10 (oh, so much lost time!), used to do #11 ’till I re-organised things again.
You are so annoyed at a person who always mixes “you’re” and “your,” and when you hear him speak, you cringe because you know he’s SAYING the wrong spelling as well!
I had the dishwasher affliction and didn’t even realize it was a problem until I read Matt McGee’s comment. All this time, I thought I experimenting with different ways of loading the dishwasher to maximize the amount of dishes washed while allowing enough space between the dishes so that everything will be washed cleanly. And, I swear, my way of loading the dishwasher is better …
I do; 1, 2, 4, 5 & 6… so does that make me a full blown anal-intentive person? I hope not, my OCD won’t take it.
Dave- I hear you on the “you’re” and “your”! Don’t forget “there”, “their”, and “they’re”, aaaannnnd…”two”, “to”, and “too”. Yeah, I’m really anal-retentive when it comes to correct spelling and grammar! Hehehehe.
@Eee PC Blogger: LOL, maybe it would make sense if you could proof read.
Top 5 signs you are anal-retentive, and then you list 6??? I hate it when people get teh basics wrong
12. You can’t start working until your desktop is clean of unwanted icons. But what about the folders on the desktop? Are those organized?
I have a particular way that clothes have to be folded for maximum wrinkle reduction. My husband just took over doing the laundry, but before I would let him, he had to promise to do it MY way.
I can’t sleep with dirty dishes in the sink.
I wash my coffee carafe/filter bucket after each use.
I always, always put two ice cubes in my glass of water – not one, not three or more. But in glasses of iced tea/soda etc. I don’t mind if there are more than two ice cubes.
I often find myself re-folding tee shirts for no real reason…I just thought of this, because I did it yesterday…and I had folded and put laundry away the day before.
I do not abbreviate in text messages or emails, either. It’s annoying!!
I clean out/organize my wallet weekly, often every day.
….Yikes.
@Maurice – McKracken on FORTRAN? How many of us are old enough to understand *that* reference?
@Ian M – We Americans tend to insert unnecessary words and syllables, as in “off of” and “preventative”, so I’d say it would be more American to say “anally-retentative-modality”. Clocks sync-ed to atomic time do exist in the US. I sync to GPS time. The satellites have to compensate for relativistic time-dilation in order to geo-locate, so it’s got to be pretty accurate, no?
Re: #5 The anal-retentive in me says it’s “Daylight Saving Time”, not “Daylight SavingS Time”.
This comment is of course anally-retentive.
When I eat trail mix, I separate all of the pieces into their own categories (1 pile of raisins, 1 pile of peanuts, 1 pile of coconut shavings, etc)
I just did # 4 this past weekend. I went through that store in no time. It was great!
7. Keep only two color of thumb tacks at my desk.
8. Separate white socks from black socks in the drawer.
9. Hang all clothes on one type of hanger. In my case, black plastic.
10. Separate “work clothes” from “weekend clothes”
11. Keep pants of like color together.
12. C.D.O…. it’s O.C.D. in alpha order
I just did # 4 this past weekend. I went through that store in no time. It was great!
7. Keep only two color of thumb tacks at my desk.
8. Separate white socks from black socks in the drawer.
9. Hang all clothes on one type of hanger. In my case, black plastic.
10. Separate “work clothes” from “weekend clothes”
11. Keep pants of like color together.
12. C.D.O…. it’s O.C.D. in alpha order
I just did # 4 this past weekend. I went through that store in no time. It was great!
7. Keep only two color of thumb tacks at my desk.
8. Separate white socks from black socks in the drawer.
9. Hang all clothes on one type of hanger. In my case, black plastic.
10. Separate “work clothes” from “weekend clothes”
11. Keep pants of like color together.
12. C.D.O…. it’s O.C.D. in alpha order
Damnit. I guess I’m anal-retentive.
new york escort, I totally optimize my order at Starbucks to avoid that.
Blake Newton, someday those Connells albums will be worth a lot more, because who else has them all? ‘74-’75 FTW! Besides, you don’t want to get rid of those messed up, crumpled Taco Bill dollar bills before the fancy-schmancy singles that the grocery store has?
Nathan, you hate a messy desktop too? Thought it was just me.
I was(am) a OCD patient, but I’m in none of them! Maybe I should be more anal-retentive if I want to be a better webmaster.
I never discard a sliver of soap. I bond it to its replacement.
I not only hate text-message abbreviations, I hate contractions.
I continually correct my wife’s grammar, to her dismay.
My Grandma used to iron all her pound notes.
I spell check a post on my blog, then individually spell check words that I think the spell checker might have missed. Or is it spellcheck? Where is your spell checker? I am uncomfortable leaving a comment without spell checking it. Call me if I misspelled anything on this comment.
13. After eating at a restaurant you put all your used dishes and napkins on one plate. Ofcourse, this isn’t to help the server, it’s just because you hate to see a mess on a table.
With regards to ‘pretty print’ as Jonathan Hochman has mentioned, I am guilty of that. Nothing wrong with legible code.
As far as the rest of the stuff goes, I’d have to say that many of you people have some serious issues to contend with.
For the record #4 shouldn’t be on this list – it’s sensible shopping although I have to admit when the local supermarket recently changed the layout of the hop it did put me off going there again.
Not sure if this is “anal,” but I get up at 4am every morning… on purpose!
Well i do 1,2,4,5 and 6.
Loads of stuff bugs me.
For example, driving 100% in the centre of road markings, whats the point in been of course.
Aiming for a pass mark when you can get 100%
Creating pointless content so you get in google, and then p**S people off as your not offering what you say you are.
List goes on and on, think some may be more gripes though.
I have “meetings” in my sleep, during which I compile to-do lists/action item plan, then wake up too early in the morning and type them out then send to myself. It’s a fine, fine line between anal and crazy.
Damn, I have all of them.
Hahaha, number three got me. Dang.
#13. You prepare for a pre-meeting for a post meeting, meeting.
A lot of these sound more like obsessive compulsive disorders. I recommend taking a break often and going for walks in nature!
)
#2: I’m so glad I’m not the only one!
6. Opening all of your software in a specific order to reduce overall loading time
7. get really annoyed when you load a unix based file on a windows machine and it doesnt display perfectly
8. spend hours ensuring a website displays correctly on Internet Explorer 6,7, Firefox and chrome, when analytics shows the site receives 99.9% traffic from IE 7 Just in case!
9. finding 8-9 alternative routes to work and home from work to maximise your options in case of bad traffic
10. Intentionally numbering your response to align with the title and not the post numbering
11. Put minimal fuel in to increase mpg through not having the additional weight of a full tank of fuel
12. Get annoyed at the american spellings of the english language.
I follow pretty print! and ensure my staff do! I guess I am anal-retentive
Guilty on 1, 2, 4 and 5. With the money each note also has to be facing the right way round and right way up.
Also, I don’t have a dishwasher, but I am just anal-retentive about the order I do the washing up. I have to wash the cleaner things first and work through to the dirtiest, in size order.
Glasses, mugs, cutlery, utensils, dishes (smallest to largest so they stack best on the draining board), plates (again with smallest at the front, largest at the back of the drainer), pans, baking trays, and cat bowls last if the water is still clean enough, otherwise wash in clean water.
I put my clothes away in the wardrobe with ‘play’ clothes on the left and work clothes on the right, with the most recently ironed items in the center, and I pick out items to wear from the outside in. I’m sure there was a Dilbert cartoon about wearing things in rotation too…
Scott Adams controls my webcam.
I would be guilty of No. 4, but I use Splashshopper for all my lists and it alphabetizes them. Speaking of lists, I have one for Travel, so I always check that I’m taking what I should; one for Hurricane, so I take what I need if I need to evacuate (can you tell I live in Florida?); Books I’ve Read; Books I Want to Read; Shopping (for household and sundry items, not to be confused with Groceries); Gifts (to keep track of what I want to buy for whom); and several others. Oh, and these lists sync to my Blackberry, of course. I like to keep lists online because I have such horrible handwriting (another A-R solution).
Some of these sound more like OCD actions not anal-retentive behaviours.
E.g. folding food wrappers neatly, placing in bag neatly, folding bag and then throwing away is OCD. Re-folding T-Shirts is OCD.
Some of these are definitely common sense, economic with regards to time and money, and make for an easier life.
E.g. buying only the same style black (and white) socks. E.g. finding the quickest way to drive or walk somewhere, and sticking to it. E.g. washing dishes cleanest to dirtiest, smallest to largest.
Those that get annoyed at someone that is precise, thorough, pedantic, accurate, or shows attention to detail are likely to call that person an anal-retentive. If by being any of the above it negatively affects your life then you may be an anal-retentive.
For those that do the same thing the same way every time… well most people do; studies have been done that show that although we think we operate by choice/randomness every day, the majority of what we do is just routine. E.g. I dry myself exactly the same way after every shower. Big deal… I do it on auto pilot, I don’t “forget” a bit, and it is the optimal way of drying.
Correct spelling and punctuation is still a must in this day an age of text messaging; it shows laziness and a lack of intelligence / education to not spell and use punctuation correctly. Insisting on the correct usage of spelling, punctuation and grammar is more pedantic than anal-retentive, although by continually correcting others, people could validly call you anally retentive.
By me spending time writing this response, and it annoys you, you could also call me an anal-retentive!
1) Check the locks on your house not just once but at least two times before calling it a night. Sometimes, three of four times are not enough and will sometimes mean getting back out of bed because you’re not sure you did it the first two times.
2) Cut open bottles of lotion to obtain every last drop of your purchase.
3) Follow a recipe exactly, meaning you DO level off your flour, sugar, etc. with a knife – drives my husband nuts! Otherwise, you start over.
4) Organize your pantry based on can height and group items together according to the meals you are planning to prepare because you’ve already sat down with the sales ad, planned meals based on the sales in that week’s ad, and written the grocery list in the order that they can be picked up without traveling through the aisles more than once.
5) Cut wood siding to fit house. Paint siding leaving ends unpainted to be completed at a later date. Nail siding to house using pre-made tool that will insure that each siding panel is the exact same distance from the previous panel. Do not nail siding all the way into house because it will need to be removed and the ends painted. Why? Just in case the first time was not perfect enough.
I think most Americans are somewhat anal-retentive.
They go beserk whey they see someone pick their nose (when the other person thinks
there is privacy)
They dont let dogs into pubs
When people fart —come off it Yanks, farting while mildly disgusting is not a terrible
morally disgusting thing.
They arrest people while driving with far less than .08 alcohol rather than just giving them a stiff ticket.
And most of their yards look like the front of a funeral home.
I thought I had a problem – I was listening to a radio show in Atlanta that was talking aobut how you need to check your balance in your online brokerage accounts. Appranelty somebody had cracked his assitants code and chagned the address in the account and started selling her trades. Because she checked everyday she saw this and put a stop to it. She could have lost over $200,000 and the brokerages are not liable. Their advice was to check it everyday. Anal retentive is always bad I guess. The problem is when you can’t be retentive and you are just anal! ha
You know you’re anal retentive if 1.) you’ve driven at least one spouse completely off the edge with your fixations, 2.) You can’t maintain a serious relationship with a rational human being not in a work situation (in other words paid to be with you) for more than 3 encounters, and these 3 include saying “excuse me” while on public transportation, 4.) You love your children/grandchildren only when they are cute/handsome and successful…to your standards.
Sounds like a pretty lonely life, Why don’t you stop laughing and seek professional help? It’s really not that funny after a while.
My ex-boyfriend put me in charge of his personal life. On the top edges of each dresser drawer were tiny labels: v-neck/ turtleneck/ crew-neck/ long-sleeve…etc. On the tiny edges of the glass shelves in the medicine chest: iodine/ deodorant/ razor-blades/ mouthwash, etc.
In the closet, areas for play/ formal/ business/ etc. separated by shirts/ jackets/ pants…etc. and then by color! You notice I say EX-BOYFRIEND! I, personally, never throw away ANYTHING…AND there is so much new coming in everyday that I have stacks everywhere BUT I can find just about anything no matter what or how old within 5 minutes! I have a sign over my desk…”A cluttered desk is a sign of genius” Please, who is sicker, me or him?
I am guilty of 1, 2, 3 and 4 !
I am also guilty of organising clothes including underwear and shoes by order of importance-
special occasions, office, casual…for my clothes the hangers are colour coded….LOL
Years ago I thought I was crazy…now… I just laugh at myself…I AM ORGANISED !!
I match 3 of the 5, but I also do many more things like order my clothes by color and type. I also like all of my drinks in the fridge facing label out. I think some of this could be Obsessive Compulsive Disorder.
I love all Ya’ll!! (That is Southeastern drawl for all you Yanks)
I also eat the broken chips in the bowl first so the bowl only has whole chips in it.
Same for mixed nuts, same reason.
MY truck is pin neat with no odors/smells; think that one is (OCD) Obessive compulsive
I am training myself to abbreviate in texting, still cannot use numbers for words.
I use the same hangers for my clothes, no one else in the house uses any of them.
Fold my wrappers of fast food, very neatly before throwing away. ( Had a friend who tells he and his wife fold their dirty clothes to put them in the hamper)
I work in a grocery store, so I separate the tags that hang in front of the food by location in the department as to alleviate wasted time hanging them all.
I have difficulty discarding anything that has percieved value, when others say not to keep it.
I eat around my plate, one item at a time until finished, unless I get “wild ” and allow the corn to mix in the mashed potatoes and let them go down together. (fun times)
Another “fun” thing to do is set clocks to different times to keep me doing the math to stay on track: Stove is accurate, alarm clock is 20 minutes fast, truck is 15 minutes fast, watch is 10 minutes fast. Keeps a soul hopping mentally.
I also love my wife, kids, parents, family and friends from church who put up with me.
Wow. I ALWAYS do #’s 1, 2, 5 & 6. I thought it was just me lol.
I think this anal-rententive thing is ridiculous!!! It is a bunch of crap…. We alll have the way we do things and we all have issues, of course unless someone thinks they are GOD!!!!!!!!!!!
I hang all my clothes according to size. I colour code the close pegs. I place all my friends in different categories and my relationships with my gilfriends change when they get pregnant. I make a budget that includes everything and all my bills are organised in separate areas. I label everthing thats mine and I’m very possessive of things that are mine. I hate to abbreviate when texting.
You’re bothered by inaccurate precision.
Yes, I’m anal retentive …….. but in a good way …….. LOL
Everything on my desk is arrange neatly into a grid like pattern and when something gets moved, it has to be fixed…immediately.
Eee PC Blogger on March 1, 2009 at 11:39 pm:
9. You double proof read even your casual emails send to friends. “SENT” Dammit!!! it is a Verb!
Nice List! Is it available as an organised reference somewhere?
Fortan IV was it not??
1. I HATE wrong use of terms MASS and WEIGHT – i.e. a Truck has a mass of 7.5 tons, not weight – to the point I want to write letters to TV / radio stations using “weight” instead of “mass” in traffic reports.
2. Most of my clocks are radio controlled (DCF77). I set all other clocks & watches to EXACT second on DST change. Luckily the computers have SNTP.
2a: I hate cell phones without automatic clock setting (received from network).
2b: I am annoyed by a local TV station with 1 second time lag on their Teletext
2c: I never again listened to a radio station with 2 hours time lag on RDS system (which messed my car radio’s time setting).
3. I have a reminder set in my smartphone in 3 month intervals to add salt to dishwasher – in that time, the salt does not run out completely yet (I decide when I want to add salt, not the dishwasher warning message, thank you), but there is enough room left in the dispenser to add a complete 1kg package of salt.