The first things to fall off the edge when your life accelerates into utter chaos

Life is floating along quite nicely and then somehow, without realising it, you find yourself in the rapids, veering around rocks. All The Things that need to be done are coming at you faster than you can handle. You are now at risk of going over a waterfall.

There are warning signs that your life is starting to accelerate at an unmanageable rate. The first things to fall off the edge. If you start to observe the decline described below in your daily life, consider slowing the hell down and doing fewer things. Take heed.

• Flossing: When your dental hygienist asks how often you floss, you say every day, which is not a lie. At least in the week preceding and following your visit to the dental hygienist. But when your life intensity ratchets up, the best you might manage is a cursory nod and an empty promise to your floss, in the corner, alone, gathering dust.
• Reading: You want to be known as a reader because of the erudite vibe. And with the best intentions you’ve acquired choice books, and stacked them around you: beside your bed, in your office, on top of an already too-full bookcase. But collecting books is not the same as reading the words on their pages. When push comes to shove, you decline from reading a chapter a day to a few pages, then... you’re just glancing at the bedside book pile before lapsing into sleep, until finally... you’re just stacking things on top of the books, like they are the building foundations for more pressing concerns.
• Complicated cooking: When things really hit the fan you might just downgrade this from “complicated cooking” or “fine dining” just to “cooking”. If you were never much of a cook in the first place the progression (decline) might go more like: cooks rice → butters toast → scoops peanut butter out of a jar.
• Cleaning: You might need to make a distinction between cleaning (making things not dirty) and tidying (making things not chaotic) here. When life’s turning to custard, perhaps it’s your tidiness that will suffer: clothes pile; stuff accrues in corners and on tables; one must wade through the house. Or perhaps you just give up on being squeaky clean: clothes smell; dust accrues in corners and on tables; one must wallow through the house.
• Exercise: You might be, as most are, naturally gifted at convincing yourself that you needn’t go for that run, that swim, that trip to the gym. Exercising is essentially a never-ending battle against such excuses, which just come so easily... But when life bears down hard, your brain elevates such excuses to The Truth. Holy Writ. There is no question. Of course you are too tired, too busy, too... flummoxed to exercise.
• Lawns: Honestly, you wonder when it’s all become a bit much, why don’t you just plant the whole thing with stuff that doesn’t grow so fast? What are lawns anyway, but an insidious plot by lawnmower manufacturers to ensure that there can be No Quiet Sunny Days Because It’s Mowing Weather.

👇 Go on. Add your own in the comments.

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