Cleaning, tidying up and organizing can be overwhelming if you try to tackle everything at once. If you get demotivated by it, you won’t be able to do your job properly (or at all).

If this applies to you, you need a plan of action that will not only keep you focused on the task at hand, but will also keep you feeling positive and motivated. Consider the so-called “ski slope method.” This method focuses on keeping your morale high by keeping your tasks discrete and manageable.

This technique comes from Anita Yokota, a licensed therapist who approaches organizing from a perspective informed by her expertise in mental health. She describes the method in her book Home Therapy: Interior Design for Increasing Happiness, Boosting Confidence, and Creating Calm.

Yokota sees a connection between the clutter in one’s life and the clutter in their home, and how the two things can exacerbate each other. To that end, she suggests recognizing that cleaning is a “mental marathon,” something that happens over time (and continuously) rather than all at once.