Welcome to Spaghetti Junction! Population: me

What is it with wires, eh? They’re an indispensable part of our modern lives, powering all our gadgets and gizmos but leave them alone for five minutes and they get more tangled than Taylor Swift’s love-life. You might try to get along without untangling them but eventually, you have to spend twenty minutes or so restoring order. And for a little while, everything is tidy. Well, have you ever had the feeling that the cables in your brain have become jumbled?

That’s definitely how I imagine things are in my head at the moment. What with New Year’s resolutions, writing and doing things with my family, my wires have got tangled up and it’s hard to know which one to pull first. Should I rewrite that tough chapter? Clean the bathroom? Go for a ride on my new-but-as-yet-unridden bike? Play Angry Birds? Write some of the book I need to finish by March? AAAARGH! I think I have bitten off more than I can chew.

So, how do I get things straight? Well, I start with a calming cup of camomile tea. Then I make a list of all the things I need to do, including the dates they need to be done by – this is kind of like unplugging all my cables to see what goes where. With the help of several glittery pens, I put them in order of importance:

1. Chapter Rewrite
2. Write Book – Chapter 1
3. Eat Chocolate
4. Clean Bathroom
5. Write Chapter 2
6. Ride Bike
7. Write Chapter 3
8. Play Angry Birds

And soon, my wires seem less tangled. Notice that I broke down my scary Write Book item into one chapter at a time? And that there’s a reward after each chapter? Sometimes when the cables are really messy, it helps to free just one at a time and then have a break. Before you know it, you’ve unravelled the one which was trapping all the others and the job is much easier after that.

So how to cope when your brain is all mixed up? Do you make a list? Go for a walk? Eat chocolate? All three?