The mail stacks up in piles. There are months worth of pictures trapped in your digital camera. The bills are scarily close to overdue and the laundry pile is monstrous (with an odor even your digital camera might find offensive). Each day begins with the intention to take care of some of these issues, yet the magnitude of each task sends us running to the mall or shoving things under the rug. It’s too overwhelming to start, so we don’t start at all.
At the end of the day, we have heaps of guilt about not “getting stuff done” (as well as a fresh pile of catalogs and coupons to sort through). I’m sure you’re familiar with the internal dialogue script. Mine sounds something like this: Why are these simple things so hard for you? You’re at home all day staring at this stuff and nothing happens! What’s your problem, anyway?
The problem is, your kids keep you in perpetual motion. You’re constantly on the go, whether you’re shuttling your kids to swim lessons or just chasing a sticky toddler around the ottoman in a rousing game of “Where’s the Rest of Your Popsicle?” So finding a quiet, uninterrupted stretch of time in which you can really calm your mind, focus on a task, and see it through to completion is kind of a joke. Unless you have got the latest Harry Potter video and a mound of snacks in cartoon-adorned packages, those nagging to-dos will have to wait until after bedtime, assuming you didn’t fall asleep during bedtime story, which pretty much obliterates the evening’s productivity.
A good friend and organization guru once gave me a tip that has worked wonders for my guilt over not keeping up with domestic tasks. Here’s an idea that works with—not against—your fragmented time schedule: Tackle things in blocks. Give yourself permission to work on something for a designated time period ... and that’s it. For example, you decide to work on straightening the playroom for ten minutes. And when those ten minutes are up, you’re done. Move on. No matter if the playroom isn’t completely immaculate—that’s what tomorrow is for.
As a life coach, I’m always talking to my clients about setting goals that are “accomplishable.” That’s why I find this technique brilliant. You give yourself a small, achievable task that isn’t focused on completion, but on forward motion. Finishing the ten-minute interval means you feel good about accomplishing what you set out to do, and you can make room for really enjoying the rest of the day. There’s an added bonus too: success and accomplishment inspire more action. So one little ten-minute interval begets more ten-minute intervals, and pretty soon you’ve got a handle on what once seemed to tower over you. You can use this phenomenon to further motivate yourself with little rewards (i.e., “After three blocks, I’ll treat myself to a mocha-frappa-whatever!”).
One of my favorite Chinese proverbs is “Be not afraid of going slowly, be only afraid of standing still.” In my life, I use this to remind myself that as long as I’m moving forward, I’m making progress, and not to be concerned with how quickly things are happening. So next time you’re staring blankly at a wayward pantry or a mound of mismatched socks, tackle them in small-time blocks. Not only will you get more done than your realize, but you’ll make more room in your life for the fun stuff (like finally finding the popsicle stick in a melted gooey mess behind the piano).
