Start from a corner of the room

Sometimes when the house is a shambles and there is stuff everywhere I can find the idea of tidying overwhelming. This is because my brain wants to figure out the most efficient way to do the process. I want to know the best place/way to start and because I can’t figure that out I struggle to start at all.

When I start mentally “spinning” like this, I use the strategy of just starting in one corner of a room, and moving across to the other side, putting each thing away in the order it appears on the floor. It most likely is not the most efficient way to tackle the room, I undoubtably do a lot of unnecessary walking back and forth between places, making it take longer. But it’s easy for my brain and body to follow, no overthinking required. Eventually, the task is complete!

This strategy can be applied to other, digital spaces, too. Email inbox: start at the top and keep moving down to the bottom. Same goes for cards on a kanban board, or a list of tasks in a task manager. There’s probably better, more efficient, more sophisticated systems for getting the work done, yes. But you’re far better off making some traction than being stuck, unable to move forward because you’re unable to decide how to start.

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This has been post no. 21 for #WeblogPoMo2024 and it is what I was interested in today.