For most of my adult life I hated cooking on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Weekends I was fine — I had time, energy, a clear head. But after 10 hours of work I would look at the kitchen, feel the whole weight of chopping and pans and cleanup, and order Chinese. Three or four times a week.
The change: I bought a second Dutch oven. I already had a big Le Creuset for weekend cooking. I bought a small 3-quart from Lodge (they make the good cast iron for a fraction of the price of the fancy French brands) and left it on the stove. Not stored in a cabinet. On the stove, always. That specific piece of visual real estate started doing all the work.
What happens now: I come home, I see the pan, and the first thing I make on a Tuesday is a one-pot meal. Rice and beans, or pasta and greens, or eggs and potatoes. All of them start and end in the same pan. Nothing gets chopped that could be crushed with a fist. Nothing gets pre-heated except the pan. The whole cognitive weight of “what am I making for dinner” got compressed into “what goes in the pan tonight”. It sounds ridiculous. It changed my week.