Unfuck Your Habitat

I hope you don’t mind if I echo some advice I’ve given in the past in a very similar situation.

I feel you. Those times when it is just absolutely unfathomable that you’ll ever be able to get out of bed, let alone do something productive, and looking around at the mess just sinks you in deeper. 

Here’s what you do. You’re home now, yes? After you read this message, get out of bed. If you think I don’t know how hard this is, you’re wrong. Close your laptop/shut your monitor off and just stand up. Look at the surface closest to you: coffee table, night stand, end table, whatever. Whatever’s nearest to you that you’re going to see when you get back where you are now, reading this. Take five minutes, just five. Set a timer if you can, or listen to two songs back to back (that may be six minutes, but it’s close). For those five minutes, just focus on one thing: clearing off that surface. Throw the trash away. Put the random stuff back where it belongs. Bring the dishes into the kitchen. Wipe it off with something. Whatever’s there, just deal with it for five minutes.

When you’re done, come back here and tell me what you did. I won’t publish it if you don’t want me to, but I want to know that you did it. I want to know you have one nice, clean thing to look at while you work on building up to more.