It can be easy to get caught up in all of the (wonderful) tips for better living you'll find doled out in spades on sites like Apartment Therapy, but when it comes to putting everything in practice, it can easily become just another task on top of an already monumental pile.
While I'm not saying the answer is to give up on a cleaner/better/healthier/enter-awesome-descriptive-word-here environment and revert to your sloppier self, I am suggesting an occasional dose of perspective can't hurt. The thing is this; better habits make for a better life, but it's not going to happen overnight, and it's not going to be perfect 100% of the time. I don't care if you're Gwyneth Paltrow. It just won't.
So here is my anti-advice advice, take it how you will. Take smaller bites: instead of tackling everything at once, figure out what small task you can tackle now, then take pride in doing it instead beating yourself up for things you haven't done yet. Don't set yourself up for failure by creating laundry lists of things to get done in one day — divvy them up over a week or even a month and just focus on completing 2–3 each day. Finally, if you need a break, take a break. While it's not ideal to let things slide, it's better to let them go until you have the time to properly devote to them than it is to burn out or only do things halfway.
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Guides for better living are not intended to stress you out just to be more efficient. If you are stressed that is another problem.
I think the solution to better living is tackling a little of everything everyday, clean something, run an errand, call one friend, watch one tv show to balance your life.
I really like Unfuck Your Habitat (http://unfuckyourhabitat.tumblr.com/) for help in getting me going when I'm stuck, whether it's on tackling housework, job hunting, or whatever. They're 20/10 method--doing whatever needs doing for 20 minutes, then taking a 10-minute break is really helpful for daunting tasks.
OMG, Unfuck Your Habitat is exactly what I need - a blog that will help inspire me to clean my place, and formulate a plan for how to accomplish it. Woo hoo!
OMG...thank you for sharing http://unfuckyourhabitat.tumblr.com...I think I have a case of inattentive ADHD when it comes to housework.
I discovered that site a few weeks ago and it makes me so happy. I've been an ADHD-riddled 20/10 person for a while now. So glad to see there are other people like me. And it's nice to see befores & afters in "normal" (i.e., not staged) homes. Plus, hilarious gifs.
I have to disagree with " it's better to let them go until you have the time to properly devote to them than it is to burn out or only do things halfway." Doing part or doing help way is better than doing none when it comes to keeping up with the dailyness of home life. It seems that "doing things properly" is often the enemy of doing anything at all, which really doesn't end up helping in the long run. Having kept a house for a long time and having been through all permutations of upkeep, I'd argue for trying to "do enough" as opposed to "doing it right/completely" any day of the week. Enough tends to be enough to keep it livable; doing it right tends (at least for me) to lead to procrastination and avoidance.
My problem with procrastination is that I never can seem to get around to it. Maybe I'll procrastinate mañana.