I’ve experienced what you’ve described numerous times - it’s difficult to accept that the messy counter is perfect just as it is at the present moment that I am mindfully making my coffee. My mind keeps becoming distracted by the mess, and then agitated by the fact that I do not appear to be doing anything about the mess. I don’t know if it’s good or bad, but there are times that by the end of whatever task I’m working mindfully on, I’m more annoyed and agitated than I was when I began.

Which usually leads to a chance to spend an extra few minutes on a loving kindness meditation lol

I find this a very very hard task to accomplish mainly because people [I myself am guilty] - are not focused enough. We’re constantly overstimulated so we can’t keep our minds on one thing. Often though, it’s not always bad.

Here’s my extreme example. After vacuuming my room, I wanted to sit down at my desk and eat my orange. Unfortunately, my desk was a mess so I decided to clean it up. I was left with a bunch of textbooks I needed to sell, so I went on to eBay to list them. Then I cleared out my desk, wiped off the dust in obscure corners, and conveniently placed only items I would need [1 picture frame, pen holder]. THEN, I sat down and ate my orange while reading my Google Reader & listening to music. Good stuff. So I guess in wanting to get one thing done, I got a lot of tasks out of the way!

But I agree. Mindfulness is the way to go.