Tuesday, October 12, 2010

How much can you do in an hour?

Sometimes the house is such a mess it's hard to know where to start.  Sometimes I want to bury my head in a pillow and hope the mess goes away on its own.  Sometimes I do...but it never does.  I've figured out a few mind games to play with myself that have been quite effective.

First, don't let Tuesday off the hook.  Tuesday likes you to think it's an unimportant beginning-of-the-week kind of day.  There's a whisper in your ear, "It's just Tuesday, you have plenty of time before Friday."  But somehow, it jumps from Tuesday to Thursday in the blink of an eye and that means Friday is the next day!  I have learned that Tuesday is pivotal.  If I slack off on Tuesday, I'll regret it on Thursday and Friday.  If I banish much of my To Do list on Tuesday, the rest of my week flows much more smoothly!

Second, set the timer.  Maybe I just work well under pressure, but it seems if I ask myself, "How much can you do in an hour?" and then set the timer for precisely that length of time, I can get a surprising amount done!

My kitchen was a mess...dishes from the weekend...toys, craft supplies, and clothes left by the children...drygoods from Sam's Club not yet put away.  So I set the timer for an hour, cranked up the music, and went to work.  An hour later (okay, only 50 minutes this time...Little Guy came and asked to nurse -- he can sign it now -- and I had to quit early) my kitchen was a decent place again!

I didn't get to sweep, but if I hadn't been interrupted by my wee man, I'd have finished that in the remaining 10 minutes -- might have gotten it mopped too!

 So how much can you do in an hour?


  1. Tuesday is important around here too. If I don't get things going on Monday and Tuesday, I feel overwhelmed on Saturday playing catch-up. Good job on getting so much done in 50 minutes!

  2. WOW! you got a lot done and you have the most amazing kitchen!!

  3. Thanks! I love my spacious kitchen...it is so much better than the one-butt kitchen we had before. (I'm not joking, the kitchen in our apartment in California was literally 5x5 feet and that's before you subtract counter space!)