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If you want to get on the modern hype train, you can think of it as a "mindfulness" exercise. There is something therapeutic about having busy hands and letting the mind wander.I don't mean to be gatekeepery here, but aren't "mindful" and "letting the mind wander" pretty much opposites?
"Wash every bowl, every dish as if you are bathing a baby - breathing in, feeling joy; breathing out, smiling. Every minute can be a holy, sacred minute. Where do you seek the spiritual? You seek the spiritual in every ordinary thing that you do every day. Sweeping the floor, watering the vegetables, and washing the dishes become holy and sacred if mindfulness is there. With mindfulness and concentration, everything becomes spiritual." - Thich Nhat Hanh, in "How to Eat".
"Zen does not confuse spirituality with thinking about God while one is peeling potatoes. Zen spirituality is just to peel the potatoes." - Alan Watts.
It sounds more like the modern "productivity" hype train than the mindfulness one; "do two things at once, and distract yourself from life, if your eyes are busy, fill your ears, fill all your senses all the time".
> the disaster that my wife leaves it in (i.e. How hard is it to actually nest the dishes instead of building them into some precarious tower?),
mindfully criticising your wife in public for a cheap laugh. :eyes: