But unless my readers are exceptional women, they all know what it is to be so pressed with things that must be done that they do not know what to begin first.

Having chosen the most important task, attack that, and when you have once laid hold of the plough, drive straight ahead, not allowing the sight of another furrow, which is not just straight, to induce you to stop midway to straighten it before you have finished the one upon which your energies should now be bent.

Too many women are mere potterers, not earnest laborers.

They begin to make a bed, and stop to brush up some dust that has collected under the bureau.
Before the dust-pan is emptied, the thought occurs of a tear in one of the children's aprons, and by the time that is mended, something else appears that needs attention, and all day long tasks are half completed and nothing is entirely finished, until at night the poor toiler is weary and discouraged, with nothing to show for her pains, except an anxious face and a semi-straight household.
Woman's work is quite as dignified as man's, and why should it not be arranged as carefully and systematically?
If some thing must be crowded out, let it be, with forethought and reason, set to one side,--not shoved or huddled amid mess and confusion..