Cleaning the Screen

The perils of working at home most of the time are that the tasks to be done somehow manage to stretch to fill all the time available, and simultaneously it is often hard to start anything at all. The pressure caused by paying for childcare should focus my mind, but sometimes pressure is just pressure.

Basically, when I don’t have a structure imposed I find it takes so long to think one up and impose one on myself that it seems like a waste of time. It strikes me that this is the kind of thing people pay life coaches to help them with, and I could spend not only time and energy but also money on fixing this!

Just start the first thing and keep going, I think, and then a message pops up on Skype or I notice the pile of washing up, or that I haven’t got dressed yet, or someone demands something from me or I realise that if I don’t go outside the door soon it will be dark, or I get an uncontrollable urge to make another move on Scrabulous.

Yesterday this disorganisation and distraction reached critical mass. Even the decision whether to make a cup of coffee or not was becoming difficult for me. And then I just got up and got a cloth and cleaned the computer screen. While I was at it I cleaned several hidden corners, untouched for years probably by human hand or duster. When I sat back down, the screen was clear, bright, and refreshing, as it still is today. I switched it off and read a book.

When my thoughts become too much, when I pile the pressure on myself from every side, I can always remember that my brain also has a screen, and when it is covered in grime and neglected, it can’t see outside properly and starts chasing its own tail.

Doing something totally different — whether that means meditating, going for a walk, or quite literally, cleaning — stepping outside the obsessive thoughts and calculations brings that clear, bright, refreshing feeling back. It cleans the screen.