Quirks of the Mind

The mind can be a fickle and quirky thing.  It thinks of things that need to be done, and motivates action of the body toward the goal.  Then, it sometimes tosses the idea aside before the thing, so important just moments before,  is completed.

I often deal with this by holding my attention on one task until it is done.  That that can be done is interesting too - one part of the mind can be used to keep another part of the mind focused on a thought.  But does it take yet another part of the mind to choose to do that?  help to keep a thought Today, however, my primary focus was on location.  I was on the main floor of the house, and there were three things to do on the bottom floor.

One was to look for a tool (sturdy cutters for opening packages) that Pam noted was missing from its drawer in the kitchen.  Another was to take new bicycle light mounting brackets down and install them.  The third was to take a load of laundry down and get it started.

In the process of getting the laundry ready to take down, I nearly forgot (or forgot, and then remembered) the bike light.  Then, after a few minutes working with the lights - reading the instructions and making sure I knew the right orientation, I started for the stairs and was nearly heading down when I remembered I had forgotten about the laundry.  So back to get it.

All this because I wanted to make just one trip down, and then up the stairs.

Downstairs, I started the load of laundry, then went into the utility room to install the brackets on the bike.  I thought the cutters might be in that room, but they weren't, so after looking in the utility and box rooms, I found them in the music room, where I had left them some weeks ago.

Then, back up the stairs to put the cutters where they belong.  One trip down, one up, three things done - mission accomplished - though with quite a bit of mental energy expended and a couple of times that I nearly lost track.  Three trips might have been easier.