Weirdly, I find I'm *more* clumsy with the giant plastic things. I have no idea why. (Well, maybe I do: I have very small hands, so smooth round cylindrical things that don't have handles are hard to hold.) Also, I have always had the kind of cat that considers that kind of thing fair game for exploration and rubbing against.

There's also a certain amount, at home, of "If I use a mug that only holds two cups of water, I will lever myself off the couch and out from in front of the computer slightly more often than if my mug holds more, and this is probably good for me."

I hear you on the defensive. I find I do best writing them when everything is going okay but when stuff has been sorta dire recently enough that I remember which bits are currently an issue. I do a lot of editing on them, too.