I have some interesting personality quirks.* One of them is that I rarely take the first (or even second) opportunity to do something. Instead, I usually procrastinate until the last minute – and then get really overwhelmed and almost panicky when things pile up and I really think about all the crap I need to do. It happens all the time, so why don’t I learn my lesson and just do things right away rather than putting them off? Who knows. That’s just how I am.
Anyway, one of the things that was on my growing mental list of things to do for weeks is cleaning my house. Every time I went into any new room, I thought about it… and groaned… and then didn’t clean it.
Foolishly, rather than taking it in pieces and doing a room each night after work, I was waiting for a weekend at home so that I could get it all done at once. And because I’ve been out of town every weekend since before Christmas**, it was put on the back burner.
When there are too many items on my self-inflicted to-do list, I have a hard time ‘allowing’ myself to do things I want to do for ME – like going to the gym or for a run – because I have x, y, and z to do. It’s an tragic cycle, and what I all too often end up doing is a whole lot of nothing. (Again, I’m calling this a lovable quirk…)
So this weekend, which was thankfully not spent traveling, was spent cleaning. Every item of clothing is clean. Every dish is washed. Floors are vacuumed and Christmas decorations have finally put away. There’s more that could be done, but it’s a world better, and I no longer feel overwhelmed by it.
For the time being, I’m simply whelmed.
And that leaves me free to run my little heart out. Which I did today. In the rain.
*If you happen to know me, this is not an invitation to share with the internets my many idiosyncrasies. Besides, you know they make you love me even more!
**Plus I really didn’t want to do it.
