I like the slogan (borrowed) "do today's work today" because, though I don't always follow it, it reminds me of how and why I can get behind, how and why I can get ahead (de-clutter, organize, or take on a new project), and what I have to do to prevent problems. This helps for procrastination and general keeping up. Works for home and office, both.

So you know the problem is, if you don't do today's work, it becomes tomorrows, but then tomorrow you will have today's work and yesterday's, too.

Some work is truly "daily"--the exact same things have to be done over and over. But even these can often be simplified --cooking and cleanup, for example are really "meal obtainment and aftermath"--so you can plan cook-once/eat twice, when to eat out, simplify, etc.

Other work is intermittent, but if you leave it, then soon you have intermittent A and intermittent B and today's daily work--we all get the picture!

Anyway, the point is, I often have to remind myself--am I going to have the time and energy to deal with this, that, and the other today, or will I end up leaving some of it and then facing it tomorrow, and if so, will I truly "catch up" tomorrow (obviously the tasks and activities of life have ups and downs) or be in same spot, and if likely to be in same spot again, do I need to a) use discipline to develop more energy and focus and gut through more tasks today, or b) use discipline to simplify and NOT start that project, cooking project, or whatever.

This is where you can sometimes find yourself sabotaging your own goals, by cluttering up with non-essentials. Like the thing-in, thing-out, time and projects too can be treated the same way and say, hmmm, if I want to fit in this event(wedding, church meeting, movie, good book, closet cleanout)--whatever-- then I need to streamline somewhere else, because I KNOW I will fade out and not want to face the other things afterward, or before. Or at least, you can try to get to the point where you recognize and accept your own fade-out limits instead of fantasizing that you're this different person with unlimited time and energy. And at the same time, you can still engage in self-reflection and see if what you truly want REQUIRES more effort and you're willing to do that.

I notice this a lot when we return from a trip, or houseguests are leaving. Suddenly you see, all this stuff to put away--maybe you don't do it all that day--then, who knew, tomorrow it would still be there plus new stuff to do! But if I can just act like I have a learning curve, I can try to plan to streamline things in the day or 2 before or after.

One thing I notice is that it can be really hard to accomplish some of these ideas if you have a family-duh-because it's seldom that the rest of the family is thinking along these lines, because at least in my family, I'm the only one bothered by clutter and dirty house (that can be a good thing, too, since no one is criticizing!). But it means I may feel like a weenie or killjoy if I say, well, I don't think I want to plan to do this or that the day after ___ (fill in the blank) (unless someone is planning to help me do ___). You know, the family is willing to "stretch" to have fun, but not stretch to catch up after it!

It's like weight loss or weight maintenance--calories in vs. calories burned--pick one, both, or a combination.