How to Do a Lot of Things at Once

"Let us say you feel it's important, for some reason, that tomorrow you must make five-dozen cookies, wash and iron the bedroom curtains, write a long, chatty letter to the family, and shorten a skirt, which is a frolicsome Monday for you, but there it is.

"Now here's where the efficiency experts say, Make a list! Then, with a high-hearted feeling of accomplishment, you cross off each job, one by one, as you get it done.

"Of course, that's one way. But for the random housekeep, it seldom works too well. Often you get such a feeling of virtue from merely making the list that you don't feel compelled to do any of the things on it.

"No, you need a bigger burr under your bustle.

"So. The night before, as you're going to sleep, you visualize the results you aim to achieve: the family letter written, the cookies made and packed, and so on.

"Then, next morning, you forget whatever your fourth grade teacher told you about finishing one job before starting another, and you start all four projects at once.

"You stamp and address the envelope, and write a paragraph or so of the letter.

"You sift the dry ingredients for the cookies.

"You slide the curtains off the rods, onto a sullen heap on the floor.

"You set up the sewing machine, and wind the right thread into the bobbin, and you set up the iron and the ironing board.

"And now you're royally stuck. You've brought yourself to the point of no return. You'd feel a little foolish about rehanging the curtains without washing them. You certainly can't unsift the dry ingredients. You're definitely not about to waste all that good bobbin work. And there is the desk, with the letter well started, addressed, stamped-

"You must forge ahead, that's all, and, often as not, you do."

The I Hate to Housekeep Book, by Peg Bracken, page 106