I do things little and often, the above don't work for me
this post was submitted on 19 Oct 2026
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The most important thing for me was to select a task (like move the mugs), and let that be the end of the task if I'm not feeling great. If I know that I'll have to finish the room, it makes starting the first task impossible.
Non zero days are important. Even the smallest task (one piece of rubbish in the bin) will add up if done every day.
When I'm depressed and non-productive and the place is a mess, I tell myself: just one thing in every space, one thing in every space. Eventually I'll get moving.
It doesn't matter what the one thing is? Picking a leaf off the entrance floor counts, so does putting the empty toilet paper rolls into recycling, so does putting one glass into the dishwasher, so does recharging my watch. Walk into a room or hall or stairway landing, find one thing that isn't right, fix it and move to the next space.
Somewhere a little over halfway through, I'll get a run of energy. I'll usually stay in whatever room I'm in and just keep moving stuff, cleaning, straightening up, doing whatever needs done. At some point, I'll notice that I'm running out of energy. At that point, I'll finish whatever single task I'm doing in that area, and go through the rest of the place, fixing one thing in every room.
I meantioned elsewhere, but I will sometimes break it down so far as to say "I'll walk in the kitchen and look at it. Adn if I turn around immediately, that's okay, I tried." and that doesn't always work.
But I need to do dishes right now, so I'm going to do just that after hitting reply on this and see if I can go unload the dishwasher. Will I load it again? We'll see, but i'm taking a couple of dirty dishes in there with me as I go. So it'll be progress, no matter how tiny.
edit: dishes unloaded, dishwasher loaded and started, whee
This is also what I do. Have a one item todo list and have it be a success if that task gets done.