You’ve been sitting at your desk for nearly an hour trying to decide what to do.
The problem isn’t new. You’ve thought about it before. But today every option seems bad. One feels risky. Another feels exhausting. Doing nothing feels impossible. You keep going over the same possibilities.
Eventually you get up because you’re hungry. You make something to eat and take it outside. Afterward, you walk around the block before going back upstairs.
When you sit down again, the problem is still there. But it doesn’t look quite the same. One option that seemed impossible an hour ago now seems merely inconvenient. You notice something you could postpone. Nothing has been solved, but there is a little more room around it.
You had been trying to change your mind about the problem while your body was hungry, tired of sitting, and asking for something else.
Sometimes the conditions making something difficult are partly physical. Before continuing to think, explain, decide, or solve, it can be worth asking whether something more immediate needs attention.
Maybe you haven’t eaten, need to move, have been sitting too long, or are simply too tired to make the decision now. You don’t need to account for everything. You can take care of what is obvious and see what the problem looks like afterward.
The problem may still need your attention. It just may not need it yet.