So I posted this on facebook to share with the handful of friends I know that are also suffering from mental illness. Unfortunately it was met with a wave of "GET HELP" messages that were not warranted or asked for.

So I'm going to share it here with you folks and hope that it helps at least one person.

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I want to share something with all of my friends that are suffering from depression, anxiety or other mental illness. It's something I've been trying to do since I moved and I'm making it my official new years resolution. I won't promise it will work for you. We're all different, but it has helped me.

Every day pick one productive thing to get done. Just ONE. Even if it's something insignificant. Especially on the days you just want to stay in bed and wish for death and you can't find any motivation to do anything else.

Even something as simple as washing your hair. Wash that one pan you've been letting 'soak' in the sink for the last three days. Do one load of laundry and actually fold it and put it away. Sweep your kitchen floor. Vacuum your living room. Wipe your kitchen counters. Just one thing, even if it only takes 5 minutes.

Sometimes you may even find that overcoming that initial inertia gives you enough energy and motivation to do more. Maybe you clean the whole kitchen instead of just doing that one dish. But don't worry if it doesn't. As long as you do the one thing.

Just doing one productive thing each day can make you hate yourself a little less and feel a little less worthless. And maybe when you come home from work and walk into a slightly cleaner kitchen you'll have a little feeling of satisfaction that is often elusive to those of us suffering with mental illness.

It's not a cure or anything. It might not even work for you. I don't know. I just wanted to share something that has helped me a little. Maybe it can help you too.

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That's what I posted on facebook but I want to lay down some rules for this exercise.

1. **Don't** make a 'to do' list. Writing down everything you need / want to get done and having a big list to look at can be incredibly overwhelming and may cause you to recede further into your illness and retreat. We don't want that. Pick the one thing you want to get done either the night before or that morning and just do it.

2. Your basic responsibilities such as going to work and feeding your children / pets does not count. Most of us have already learned to go through the motions of doing these things without reaching out of our comfort zone. Pick something you would normally procrastinate on or not do at all.

3. Do it every day no matter what. No matter how shitty you feel or how badly you want to stay in bed. Staying in bed and doing nothing only feeds into our sense of worthlessness and self hatred. Get your ass up and at least do the one thing, even if you go right back to bed afterwards. If you are having an extraordinarily bad day pick the easiest thing you can possibly think of to get done and do it. Even if it only takes 30 seconds.

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Please feel free to share / discuss any other rules for this exercise that should be added.

And of course PLEASE share with us how / if it's working for you. Tell us the things you accomplished today and in the future.

For me today I cleaned my critter cages and took one of them that is no longer in use out to my garage and vacuumed the room I keep them in.