This morning I'm having my usual morning coffee. In a few I'll have some juice with breakfast. What's your favorite morning drink?
Ask yourself, "Am I a procrastinator?" At first glance you might not see yourself as such, but if you live with clutter, the answer may be a surprising, "yes."
Think about it: clutter. What is clutter? Clutter is a magazine that wasn't put in the recycle bin or reading basket. Clutter is a few stray coffee cups sitting on the end table. Clutter is a still clean shirt draped over the bedpost. Clutter is a pair of shoes beside the back door. Clutter is art supplies strewn all over the dining table.
All of these things individually aren't a big deal. They take very little time.
- Picking up a magazine: 5 seconds.
- Putting stray dishes in the dishwasher: 1 minute.
- Hanging up a shirt: 1 minute.
- Putting away shoes: 1 minute.
- Picking up art supplies: 5 minutes
However, when you procrastinate, all of these tasks completed at one time would take you about 10 minutes. It really isn't a matter of saving yourself time, but more a matter of saving your sanity.
Here's a quick project that should get you on the right path.
Pick up 5 things, and find places for them. These should be things that you use - but that you can't seem to find a place for. Find one. - find a place for these items. If you don't know exactly where to put them, designate a spot. Go ahead. Make the decision right now. Find a designated area for these 5 things and put them away. What's holding you back?
Now, determine to do this for 5 more things tomorrow. Then five more things the day after that.
Once you've determined where to put things, there's no reason not to! You're never too busy, too far behind, too tired or too stressed NOT to put away 5 things every day! You can see from the list above, you may only be talking about 10 minutes. Every one has 10 minutes!
Retrain your brain! Stop procrastinating. It only causes you stress!
When you get home, put your shoes away. When you take off a shirt you only wore for an hour, hang it up. When you bring in the mail, sort it. When you're finished with your snack, put your dishes away.
We just got back from Spring Break with our kiddos. We stayed in an average sized motel room. I did a little experiment with myself. When I was done with my hygiene supplies (ie toothbrush, hairbrush, flat iron, makeup) I took an extra minute and put them all back in my bag. Honestly, it took me one extra minute to maintain my space. I wasn't stressed each morning to find my toothpaste. I wasn't hunting and pecking through all the counter clutter to find MY hairbrush. I knew where they were.
Want to know the surprising part? My family followed suit without me mentioning it. My husband put his things back in his shave kit. My kids put their things back in their bags... it was astonishing!
Today, pick up those five things... then five more tomorrow. Stop procrastinating these little tasks and see how much less clutter you have. Go ahead. Put yourself to the challenge.
You can do it!
Only By His Grace,
Billie