Getting the Chicken Across

When I was in high school, we did lots of brain teasers and logic puzzles. One was about a fox, a chicken, and a bag of corn.  You have to get them all across the river, but your boat can only carry one thing at a time.  If you leave the fox and chicken alone, the fox will eat the chicken.  If you leave the chicken and the corn alone, the chicken will eat the corn.  So how to you get them all across, one at a time?
You get the chicken across first.  Then you bring over either one of the other two, it doesn't matter which.  Then you bring the chicken BACK, then the other item over.  Then you go back and get the chicken again.  That way, the only two things you've ever left alone are the fox and the corn, who don't care about each other.
As fun as these puzzles are, I was thinking about this recently, because this seems like a recurring motif in our lives. In order to get something done, we have to do something else first.  Then to do a third thing, we have to undo the first thing we did, then we have to do it again later.  Put everything from the boxes on the table, so you can see what it all is.  Then put it back in boxes, so it doesn't take up the whole room.  Build a makeshift counter to get some stuff off the floor, so you can see the floor to plan the real cupboards.  Figure out your Email, so you can know what people are writing you, so you can figure out what to write back.  Collect everything that is being asked of you in one place so you can prioritize it, then start on the most important.  When I put boards on stacked bricks (not cinder blocks!) to get some books off the floor, I never imagined they would still be there now.  But the makeshift works for now, and there are other higher priority items to be done today.
Make space to be able to think. Use the space. Clear the space for something else. Get some rest. Get out all that stuff you threw in boxes to make space earlier, and figure out where it should go.  Then put everything back in boxes until you get real furniture. Get more money. Order more furniture. Then go and ask (again) how your furniture is coming.  Get the furniture. Get stuff out of boxes, and put it up.  Now use the space made by those boxes to get out more stuff, and figure out where to put it.
Anyway, there seems to be a lot of chicken-moving to get the foxes and bags of corn in this world where they belong.