Does this help explain why any simple household activity has a frustrating ~50% chance of turning into a string of dependencies and dependents that make you spend 10x the time you expected on it all?
E.g. you figure it'll take a minute to take the trash out and wash your hands. But on the way you discover you run out of trash bags, and while washing your hands you run out of soap, then as you pick the refill bottle from storage some light items fall out, and you need to put them back into a stable configuration, then you spilled a bit of soap during refilling so you need to clean up, but you just run out of paper towels, and...
What you've described is called "yak shaving", which is a series of neverending tasks that must be completed in order to complete the original task. It's apty named since shaving a hairy yak is a neverending task.
Right. I know the name (though it took me longer than I want to admit to connect the term with situations outside programming!) - what I now seek to know is, how to minimize it in personal life.
Letting go is probably most people's answer - nothing bad will happen if I do all the dependent tasks (cleanup, restocking things that just run out) later in the day - but I have difficulty getting them out of my head, they keep distracting me until they're completed.
When reality doesn't match your expectations, why do you blame reality instead of your expectations? Especially for thing like running out of soap, trash bags or towels that should be at least 90% in your own control.
E.g. you figure it'll take a minute to take the trash out and wash your hands. But on the way you discover you run out of trash bags, and while washing your hands you run out of soap, then as you pick the refill bottle from storage some light items fall out, and you need to put them back into a stable configuration, then you spilled a bit of soap during refilling so you need to clean up, but you just run out of paper towels, and...