Things to Do, And Yet Here I Am Blogging

Ok, so I'm sitting here drinking my morning coffee and I'm considering my plans for the day. Yes, I just posted on this here blog, so the fact that I'm posting again in such quick succession is probably not a good sign for my motivation levels. I think the issue is that I have a number of things that I could do, but they don't fall into one category.

Thing I'm strangely feeling most motivated to do:
Finally finish that journal article on which I've been working, which is nearly complete but which requires some additional citations. Now, having let the thing sit for a few weeks, this seems like an easy job. And finishing this would allow me a) to return library books, b) to clear away the article detritus that litters my dining room table, and c) to feel as if I've accomplished the last major research thing on my plate this summer. That said, such things always seem to take longer than one thinks they should take, and I'm not certain that I want to devote my entire day to working on this, which will likely be the case should I commit to doing it.

Other possible options:

• There are any number of things that I could do around the house, but the most primary among them would be to clean out my closet and reorganize it and/or to go into the second bedroom/study and do major weeding out of crap and reorganization in there. These are things I typically do in the spring, and I haven't gotten to those things in large part because I've been teaching. Of course, I'm still teaching, and so one wonders whether it is wise to undertake such Major Tasks when I know that I can't really dig into them over the course of about three solid days.
• I could also, should I chose to do so, do some grading and some prep for the classes that I'm teaching. Thank god that the teaching is almost done.
• I could do some straightening up around the house, unrelated to major weeding out of shit.

The fact is, though, that as much as I'm feeling minimally motivated in all of these directions, I'm having trouble committing to any of them. One answer might be to make a big list of doable, individual tasks and to just start tackling it willy-nilly. This often produces good results for me. But sometimes when I make such a list, the list-making itself exhausts me and so then I don't actually do anything. But then I think, well, I'm not doing anything right now, so at least if I did that I'd have a list to show for my time. And no, what I've done above does not count as a workable list. Lists are something of an art, and what you've got before you really is just not up to snuff.

Hmmm. Ok, I'm going to try to go and start on something, if only so this day isn't an utter loss. I just caught up with some email, so at least that's one small thing taken care of. More later, I'm sure.