Staring at the dishes and the laundry

It was one of those afternoons where the house felt too quiet, but my head was too loud. I was standing in the kitchen doorway, just looking back and forth between the sink and the laundry basket. I couldn't decide which one to start, and honestly, I didn't really want to do either.

The weight of a simple choice

It wasn't about the tasks themselves. They were small, manageable things. It was the energy it took to pick one. My brain felt like it was stuck in a loop, weighing the pros and cons of soap suds versus fabric softener.I must have stood there for a good five minutes. The sun moved across the floor tiles. The cat watched me from the couch, probably wondering why I was frozen. I knew I had to do something, but the act of deciding felt like its own separate, exhausting chore.

Letting go of the decision

That's when I remembered the little spinner app on my phone. I opened it and just typed in the two options. No deep thought, no strategy. Just 'dishes' and 'laundry'.I tapped the screen. The wheel spun for a second, a silly little animation, and landed on 'laundry'. A wave of relief washed over me. It wasn't that I wanted to do laundry more. It was that I didn't have to want to do it anymore. The choice was made.

The quiet that follows

I walked to the laundry room and started sorting without another thought. My mind was finally quiet. The mental tug-of-war was over.

It's not about the task

The funny thing is, half an hour later, I did the dishes too. Once the pressure to decide was gone, doing the other thing didn't feel heavy anymore. It was just the next thing.