Every now and then, my mind wanders off into the depths of pettiness and stumbles upon something to develop a gripe about. After becoming sufficiently disgruntled, it then moves on to its next task (typically overthinking or self-doubt). Normally, such thoughts rapidly fade back into obscurity but, occasionally, one of them sticks with me and resurfaces with renewed contempt.
So, “every now and then” is a phrase that popped into my mind sometime ago and has occupied a space ever since. Why, you ask? Because it betrays its own meaning. It’s supposed to mean “occasionally” or “infrequently” but the choice of words is irritating to me. “Now” is the present time. It’s always the present time because the present time is an infinitesimally small unit of time that is forever moving forwards. So, “every now” is constantly applicable. And then, just to make sure it really does mean constantly, “and then” has been bolted on to the end to mean “after that”.
If you do something occasionally, just say it as such.