5 Minutes That Can Change Your Life
Ok. So maybe “change your life” was a little strong. But I have created a new rule for myself that has really pushed my productivity and the feeling of “being caught up” over the edge.
What is this rule? I’m glad you asked.
If a task takes 5 minutes or less, and I have 5 minutes to spare, I can’t put it off. It is absolutely crazy some of the things we put off. And I would venture to say that 99% of the time we aren’t saving time and we are making it worse. Here are some examples:
The mail - So someone brings the mail in from the mailbox and sits it on the kitchen counter. We can: A. Quickly flip through it and determine was is important. Trash the junk mail. Open what is important and either shred it or put it in our To Do folder. That should take less than 60 seconds. OR B. Move the mail when it’s time to cook dinner. Move it back. Put it in a basket and deal with it later. We have just added an additional minute to a task. And we run the risk of misplacing something important.
The microwave. Have you ever opened the microwave to discover that the last person who used it didn’t put a paper towel over their dish and splattered it all over? We can: A. Grab a washcloth or paper towel. Dampen with warm water. Spray the microwave and wipe it up. OR B. Ignore it until the little splatter has been caked on and we have just added 5 minutes of scrubbing to this task.
I think you get my drift. I am really trying to pass this on to my family. It takes 7 more seconds to rinse a cup and put it in the dishwasher than to sit it in the sink. 7 seconds. Why would we ever just not do that?
So while I am challenging myself to do this, there are quite a few areas that I can catch up on. If I completely caught up on mending, I can discard the mending basket and just grab my sewing box and sew that button on in less than 5 minutes. Why put it off?
The only time I can justify putting a small task off is when I’m running out the door. I hate being late. But if I am ever late, you can pretty much guarantee that it’s because I thought I could do “one more thing” before leaving. I’m trying to get better at that. Otherwise, there is no excuse to just do it.
For the month of June, we are doing a challenge over on Instagram. I invite you to join me! I have made a list of things we all tend to put off or areas that we can quickly clean and minimize. These have been compiled from things I put off and ideas my IG followers have submitted.
I do a little thing sometimes where I time myself when I do something. 1. I like a little competition. And as an Enneagram 1, competing with myself is what I do best. 2. It also reminds me that something I might dread or put off will likely only take me a few minutes.
We will have 5 tasks each week. I will focus on these Monday through Friday and then a bonus task for the weekend!
I am excited for you to join in! Let’s see how much we can get done this month.