I notice that people have a very hard time keeping their homes clean. Their houses are either spotless or pigsties with no in-between.
It takes a lot of time and effort to clean just one room, or do the laundry, or do the dishes. So it makes more sense to just do a little bit each day. Throw out a few pieces of garbage, vacuum one floor, wash four plates, etc. And once you adopt this habit, the house will become clean within a short period of time.
But then there’s a new problem: when you actually clean your house, you lose the habit. After all, the house is already clean! So there you go, falling back into the old habit.
I think the solution is to behave more like a Sea Org member: giving yourself unproductive busywork, like wiping down a clean door, or re-washing a spotless window, or sweeping up dust that doesn’t exist. That way you don’t lose the habit.
Perhaps a more sensible solution would be to interact with a symbol of this habit. Instead of re-washing your socks, you slide a rubber duck to the back of a shelf. Then the next day, slide it to the front, and so on.
