There’s a ton of stuff you don’t do when you could, and so getting things done causes you stress.
Small stuff. Stuff that accumulates during the week, stresses you out to the point of flipping, when you embark on a frenzy of activity, getting things done, cleaning cars, getting to the dry-cleaners, writing your thank-you notes, before repeating the cycle over.
Boom and bust.
These bipolar bursts of activity rock the steady foundations of coasting along as the suave man-for-all-seasons you aspire to be.
(We’ll deal with the danger of aspirations another day.)
So here’s the problem:
You want to be the kind of host that can offer a gin and tonic to a friend that drops by at no notice, in an apartment free from piles of laundry and cat hair, and from a kitchen that isn’t doubling up as a petri dish.
But you can’t find the time to do the laundry and clean up the cat hair, and you always forget to buy tonic.
And here’s a couple of steps towards a solution:
Pick your tasks one at a time, and apply the eight-minute rule.
Most of the things that need doing around the house can be done in under ten minutes. That’s a really short period of time. If you have your snooze button set to ten minute intervals, you’ll appreciate just how little time that is.
BUT. It’s enough time to do LOADS of stuff:
- Taking out the trash – 2 minutes
- Loading the dishwasher – 4 minutes
- Hoovering one room – 7 minutes
- Ordering a crate of tonic water online – 4 minutes
- Ironing two shirts – 8 minutes
- Going around your bedroom, picking up every stray sock and t-shirt and chucking all in the laundry bin – 5 minutes
- Paying five utility bills – 6 minutes
- etc etc etc
If you’ve got young kids, eight minutes is about the maximum time you get to yourself anyway. Load the washing machine in your first eight minutes, and drink that gin and tonic in the second.
When you get home tonight, after boiling the kettle, and in the eight minutes before Eastenders starts, do something. It won’t take long (under eight minutes, in fact), you’ll experience the warm glow of achievement, and you’ll be one step closer to being the domestic goddess you aspire you to be.
There are a ton of tools that help you get things done. Start using them. They might just work.
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I get chores done on commercial breaks when I’m watching prime time. After watching TV for an hour, I have all of my basics done (dishes, trash, kitty litter, putting things away).
@Jenna – great use of the Eight Minute Rule.
Somebody’s mother once said to “never wake up to a dirty kitchen”, which I can’t say I always apply, but doing something you *want* to do after something you *need* to do always feels so much better.
Hi, a great improvement happened for me when I started thinking in increments instead of entire tasks (they kept ballooning in my mind). I think it’s important to realize that psychologically a small task done well serves as a foundation over time; whereas a big task done partially merely increases dread, frustration, and self-loathing – and, in effect, only causes MORE procrastination, not less. I’m glad you’re not a fan of David Allen’s overly ‘processed’ approach – personally I think Allen’s approach is a good one but, for some of us, it’s running before we can walk. Focus on the small steps, write down and review your successes (ignore your failures) and things will get better if you have patience (hard these days, I know).
This is excellent advice. And patience – what happened to that?
It took me awhile to get to this post, but when I did, it was a game changer for me. It also inspired my latest blog post http://chicagowalk.wordpress.com/2010/03/14/a-system-that-worked/
Thanks for the advice!
i absolutely love this blog. i just found it about 20 minutes ago via stumbleupon, and i’m about to go through and read every one. it kind of gives me that feeling that you’ve acknowledged that society is comprised of morons, and one most cater to the crowd, teach to the capacity of the audience. blunt, basic, dry, and en pointe. i love it.
Society is comprised of morons. We should all acknowledge our inner moron, and take things a little less seriously. Thanks a lot for your kind comments.
I’d like to reiterate the fact that society is comprised of morons: (love your blog by the way) I just started a job as a guest service agent for a Hotel- you have no idea how many morons I encounter.
This blog is pure genius. I happily and gladly mentioned it as one of my favorites in a recent interview on imnotafamousblogger – which I only mention having stumbled across this page and being reminded of how awesome it is.
For years I bemoaned the fact that I no longer had time to sew garments, one of my favorite hobbies. Then I read a tip similar to the eight-minute rule: if you break the different moments of sewing a garment into short tasks and do one task whenever you have five free minutes you’ll have sewed a complete garment in about a week. It may be years before I have uninterrupted hours to sit in front of my sewing machine again, but five-minute tasks are totally doable every single day.
In our household we’re all, “We’ve got eight minutes, let’s cue up ten movies to download.” But I can’t help it, I’m obsessed with films.
Arrived here from LifeHacker. Cheers!
It is pure magic, it is like validation, everyone has advice and then you look at their life and they are morons, someone said it in a reply I just read “don’t sweat the small stuff” and that’s peoples moronic statements. This is an amazing site! Cheers!!!
8 minutes for 2 shirts? I’m thinking 12.
Rob, maybe your shirts are larger and take more time.
Great tip. I like the 8-minute rule. It’s so true, with just a little time, we can actually get a lot done.
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