Please Note: I vacuumed again

I did it. I vacuumed.

That's twice in a week.

Can I get a woot woot?

Because I was a little vexxed by my book, which did not get its fatty bits written while I was away in Toronto, I decided I had to clean. And add furniture. My friend Kim was giving a way a little table and my mother was giving away a very nice, uh, thingy that has shelves and holds the microwave.

So I kissed my husband and sent him on a trip to get the table and my mother kissed her husband and sent him over with the thingy.

I pulled the kitchen/dining room apart and threw out a lot of paper that I had lying around. I've also vowed to read every magazine that comes in my door within a week of arrival; I have far too many magazines still in their wrapping, lying around in piles and stagnating. I knew I was a lost cause when I found the SELF "Summer Special" still in its packaging.

(Can I make a belated New Year's Resolution? Stop buying magazines!!)

But after the dust was swept and the floor washed and the carpet vacuumed... I felt a whole heck of a lot more peaceful.

It's like that sometimes, when I feel stuck, when things aren't flowing... I have to organized my external environment so that my internal one can clear. Sometimes just walking in to a room and seeing clutter can make me stop in mid-sentence, I'm so distracted by the sight of it.

Of course it can become a bit of a procrastination technique quite easily. I try to be aware ... am I cleaning the kitchen for the third time today, can it wait?

Does anyone have any other techniques they use to procrastinate from writing or things that they need to do before they can write with a clear mind?