What causes fatigue?

"Nothing [is] so fatiguing as the eternal hanging on of an uncompleted task."
--William James

(via Gretchen Rubin--The Happiness Project)

Do you think William James was right? I do. Someone else (I looked for the quotation, but I'm not sure exactly how it goes or who said it) said something like this: "It's not what you do that makes you tired; it's what you leave undone." I really think this is true too. Even tasks that may seem too little to worry about hang over our heads like big black clouds.

As embarrassing as it is to admit it, I am writing thank you notes from Christmas this week (February 6-12). My goal is to get them out before Valentine's Day! Now there are only a few, and they are not difficult to write...so what's the hold-up? I don't know. It's just one of those things that when the job pops into my head, I say, "I'll deal with that later." Well, later is now. And the undone task does hang over me leaving me feeling defeated. Every time I see one of these sweet people at church, someone who thoughtfully remembered us at Christmas, I would get a pang of guilt. Guilt is exhausting, and so is having to remember things. Once the job is done, you can relax and forget about it.

So I'll let you know when I can forget about this!