This advice is only applicable if you are the kind of person who gets distracted from bringing in the groceries by seeing a piece of trash you could pick up on the way, and you only realize hours later that you never finished bringing in all the groceries.
Algorithm for improving the house without despair when I have low working memory:
- Explicitly enter THE MODE. Part of the despair is not knowing when I should be in THE MODE or not. Set a timer for the end.
- Amble around. Eyes alight on a todo.
- If it is possible to do without coordinating with housemates, start doing it immediately. If it is not possible, add it to the need-housemates list (AND BE SPECIFIC.)
- Do NOT get distracted by another todo that I see and start trying to do it in parallel.
- I am too stupid to do things in parallel.
- I have to accept that I might forget it for another week.
- I have to accept I might go up and down the stairs three times when I could have done it in one pass.
- It is more important to keep doing tasks in a calm linear fashion.
- Do NOT keep a todo list. This is me having sex with my house. I would not keep a todo list of what sex moves to do during sex.
- When I am done with a task, just let my brain suggest the next one to me.
- When the timer goes off, finish the current task and stop.