Picture this scenario: you walk into your home and immediately notice a pile of clean, crumpled laundry. You think about folding it, then you tell yourself you’ll fold it later. You step over those clothes, oh, about ten times that evening, all the while feeling annoyed that the laundry exists in the first place, wondering why you didn’t fold the clothes after they first came out of the dryer because now everything is all wrinkly. Or maybe you’re great at folding laundry, and instead it’s hard for you to follow through on something else, like picking up clutter or emptying the recycling bin. For me, it’s mail. The other week I needed to mail a donation from an event I attended. I wrote the check, sealed it with a stamp…and left it on my counter for two weeks. It’s not like the mailbox is far away, either; it’s literally at the end of my driveway, and putting anything in there takes about two minutes round-trip. Here’s the funniest part, in my opinion: every time I saw that envelope, I thought about how I really needed to put it in the mailbox. I spent priceless mental energy lamenting this tiny task on my to-do list when it would’ve taken me a fraction of that time to just do it!
If you’re feeling overwhelmed by everything on your plate, then start by checking just one thing—ideally, a super simple, “You’ve been meaning to do it anyway” thing—off your list in a given day. Once you’ve done that, you can take it a step further and take care of a few more. Again, make it easy on yourself—pick the ones that don’t require three phone calls, four stops, or any paperwork whatsoever. Write them down, because the act of writing them down will add a little edge of commitment to following through, and then give yourself the option of completing one per day or using a block of time in the week to do them all at once. The how and when doesn’t actually matter, just the task itself, so do what’s best for you and check those items off your list.