What am I doing?...........................

     Asking yourself, What am I doing? will help you overcome the habit of wanting to complete things quickly.  Smile to yourself and say, Washing this dish is the most important job in my life.  When you ask, What am I doing?, reflect deeply on the question.  If your thoughts are carrying you away, you need mindfulness to intervene.  When you are really there, washing the dishes can be a deep and enjoyable experience.  But if you wash them while thinking about other things, you are wasting your time, and probably not washing the dishes well either.  If you are not there, even if you wash 84,000 dishes, you work will be without merit.
     Emperor Wu asked Bodhidharma, the founder of Zen Buddhism in China, how much merit he had earned by building temples all over the country.  Bodhidharma said, "None whatsoever."  But if you wash one dish in mindfulness, if you build one small temple while dwelling deeply in the present moment - not wanting to be anywhere else, not caring about fame or recognition - the merit from that act will be boundless, and you will feel very happy.  Ask yourself, What am I doing? often.  When your thinking is not carrying you away and you do things in mindfulness, you will be happy and a resource for many others.

-Thich Nhat Hanh,  The Heart of the Buddha's Teaching:  Transforming Suffering into Peace, Joy, and Liberation