This morning my brain feels as if someone has stuffed it with cotton wool, put a plastic seal over the top and proclaimed it 'tamper-proof'. There are lots of Good Ideas rattling around in there, because the cotton wool never does a perfect job, but I can't get to them. Can't pry off the seal, can't get the wool to pull out of the cavity, not sure the ideas will prove useful if I do get to them.
If I can't think, then I should be working at mindless tasks. There are lots of those. I should be stuffing the underwear into the washer, since the pile in the dresser drawer is almost non-existant. The bed linen needs changing and washing too. No enthusiasm. My desk and bookshelves are more than usually chaotic. I could at least file stuff. Yawn. I should certainly be making a list of the jobs I have acquired at the meetings I was at yesterday. I am pretty sure there are five or more. I should be working on one of them this morning, in between laundry loads. Maybe later.
I am on my third cup of coffee, too.
Instead of doing any of these good things, I am alternately reading brilliant posts from the talented (and, I am sure, organized) folk on my Reader, throwing in the occasional very dull comment, and playing Spider solitaire. And losing.
Enough, already. My talented and organized mother, when she found me in this kind of funk, always urged me to pick up one corner of one task and worry away at it. Get just a bit done. The momentum, she would tell me patiently, would then carry me forward and I would amaze myself at how much I could accomplish. And of course she was right. As soon as I finish the coffee, the post and have a wee nap, I will find a corner of something and start in on it. Honest.
If I could only pull the cotton stuffing out of the small hole in the top of my head, that is.
And my coffee got cold while I was doing the drawing. Now I have to go and warm it up.
i have had these mornings. (days... weeks...)
ReplyDeletethat start on a corner advice makes sense. it's the getting started part that's so hard!
I complained once to a neighbor that my yard was so full of weeds, I didn't know where to start. It's too overwhelming! I said. And she said, Just pick any spot. So I bent down and pulled one of the weeds under my foot... It is amazing how motion sets one in motion, eh? Momentum is your friend.
ReplyDeleteIf you need to "clean"' or "do" I think that feeling can be fulfilled by clearing out the blog readers and inboxes? Ok yeah that's a stretch, the only thing I accomplished was my twice monthly grocery run and stripped and remade a bed. I think I may have to stuff some wet clothes into the dryer because the sun is not cooperating today. IT's here it's not it's here it's not.
ReplyDeleteWe are having the same day.
ReplyDeleteI have a friend who advocates spending only 10 minutes a day at an unpleasant task that is overwhelming. I tried it today and got the floor washed. Now, back to reading blogs....
You know...not every day needs to be productive. Sometimes the most productive thing you can do for yourself is to just go with the ennui. Try not to feel guilty. Banish that nagging "I should do something" voice in your head and just have a lazy day. Nap, read blogs, drink coffee, eat delicious things. The next day you'll be a whole new person.
ReplyDeleteHarg! That's a laugh stuck in my throat. Your poor mother...you drove her nuts, didn't you? Ya, me too.
ReplyDeleteWoman in a Window, you're absolutely right. I think she loved me anyway, but was she ever pleased when I produced a granddaughter for her whose organization, talent and work ethic had clearly skipped a generation.
ReplyDeleteXUP, that siren song. The trouble is that I do it too many days.
VioletSky, I do that. In consequence both the sewing/laundry room and my office are a Total Disaster. And here I am, on the computer.
kyooty, I'm using the dryer too; but we are promised some sun by tomorrow, so I have saved all the big stuff.
Jennifer, entropy is my enemy. And I have given up on the weeds; I decided to learn to love them.
Maypole, oh yes. I have hardly got started at all and it is almost 10:00 pm. Mind you, I like late nights, but only when accompanied by late mornings and tomorrow I have to get up, shudder, early.
Your mother was right, but it's a struggle some days. Don't beat yourself up about it.
ReplyDeleteI am not the organized granddaughter .... as for me - I am at work (!) reading lovely blogs. Gotta stop that now.
ReplyDeleteMy own mother's answer for every single ailment, concern, problem, worry, and issue was the same: "Put your hands in warm dishwater." Sigh. And guess what the very first gift was that the four of us kids bought with our pooled money from "real jobs" was? Yep! An automatic dishwasher.
ReplyDelete