One Task at a Time
Last week I shared one of my goals for 2006… to do a top-to-bottom house cleaning.
I’ll admit that I’m still feeling pretty overwhelmed with all that I have left to do.
I created a checklist of things I needed to do to finish cleaning the den. It had 5 tasks on it.
Den cleaning
* Clean off desk top
* Dust pictures on walls
* Wash ceiling light
* Wash sliding doors
* Clear rest of stuff off the floor
Yesterday I made a commitment to clean off the desk top. This was the most obvious mess. When I finished that task, I treated myself to a tangerine, a handful of Wheat Thin crackers and a glass of apple cider. Yum!
I briefly debated whether I wanted to do some PC work or watch some television. Then a third option presented itself. I could complete another task in the den. So I washed the sliding glass doors (brrr… it was cold outside!). I pulled out my list and placed a heavy black line through that task.
Hmmm… did I want to keep going? I wiggled for a moment like a child trying to decide if he needs to use the toilet. I decided that yes, I did need to use the bathroom–and yes, I did want to keep cleaning.
Next I washed the crystal chandelier. You should see the beautiful pattern the light shines on the ceiling now that dust isn’t covering the glass panels!
I crossed that item off my list. Yes! Only two more tasks to go.
You guessed it, being so close to completing this goal, I stayed at it until the job was done. What a feeling a satisfaction I felt when I crossed off those final two tasks as well as the task title.
You’ve probably heard that goal setting advice before… break down bigger jobs into smaller tasks. If you don’t typically do this, give it a try. You really feel like you’ve accomplished something when you see check marks beside or lines through each task that you’ve finished. It also helps you use little blocks of time more effectively.
Yesterday I had a large block of time available. That isn’t the case most days.
But the principle of breaking big jobs into smaller tasks really works when you don’t have much time.
In fact, one of my kitchen cleaning tasks is to clean the four drawers in my kitchen. The total project will probably take about 30 minutes. They’re pretty well organized and just need to be wiped down and the contents straightened. Finding 30 minutes to do this may seem impossible on most days. But when I consider that I can do one drawer at a time, taking about 5-8 minutes each… I think I can do that.
In fact, I have a few minutes now, before I drive my son to school. So rather than waste time playing Freecell solitaire on the computer, I’ll work on my goals.
What are you doing today?
