Dear Human 💕,

You’ve come back smelling like campfire, covered in mosquito bites, dog hair, and bruises shaped like dog paw prints. I think those are signs that humans had a fun weekend. I can smell DOG on you, so I am going to ignore you this morning.

Now you’re looking around the apartment. It’s a mess! There’s so much to do. Laundry, the dishes in the sink, recyclables piling up, cat and dog hair all over the floors, and your calendar pop-ups are reminding you of all the important things you planned to tackle this week. You don’t know where to start.

Let me help you. You can’t sit at your desk until I’m done with my morning nap, so let’s start with some clean up. I know you think it will take days to do everything around the apartment you think you should do at some point. Meow. It will. Decluttering the closet will take half a day alone and suck all the energy out of you. You want to do it all. You want it to be perfect.

But it’s too big of a task, so you don’t even start. That’s human. You tell yourself you’ll wait until you have enough time to do it all. I can tell you there will never be a time when you feel it’ll be enough. Never.

Here’s what to do instead: Don’t aim for perfection. Aim for progress.

You don’t need to turn the apartment into an IKEA showroom. No visiting humans are coming. I hope.

Instead of “I’ll do it when I have a whole weekend,” try “I’ll reserve an hour. What can I do?” Set your timer. When it rings, you’re allowed to stop.

Now, start with something. Start the washing machine. Put the dishes away. Wipe the counters. Send that annoying robot to suck up the cat and dog hair. Anything you do is progress. Even putting the scissors back is progress.

An hour of clean-up will tame the chaos. That’s good enough. That voice saying “It’s a mess!” gets quieter. Now you can focus on the important tasks you put on the calendar. I know quite a few feel too big. Pick the most important one. Tackle it with the same mindset. Give it an hour and see how far you get. However far you get, it’s progress. You’re further than you were before my nap.

I’ll go watch some birds in an hour. Then the desk is yours.

Yours,
Cat 🐾

P.S. Be careful. I noticed humans often use cleaning to avoid something harder. If the apartment is spotless but the important thing you’re dreading is still untouched, you’ve been cleaning for the wrong reason. Tame the chaos, then get on to the important task!