The laundry needs to be put away
My favourite boots need cleaning
My eye brows need waxing
I need to text an address of one friend to another
The fridge is messy
The cutlery drawer drives me mad every time I open it
I need to send two cards and I forgot to buy stamps
I need to buy some cleaning supplies before the cleaner next comes
I haven’t watered the plants in days
The same pile of random crap has sat on the end chair in the dining room for over a week. And I suspect people are adding to it
I need to arrange to pick some clothes up from a friend
This is a snapshot of a list of things that I currently have on a mental to do list.
What do they have in common?
they are all teeny tiny things which would take me on average 10-15 minutes at the most to sort. But I haven’t. So they pop up, like annoying little reminder boxes on computers, but in my head. Whilst I work, drive, write, cook, before I fall asleep.
We all have big goals, big projects which can sometimes be hard, time consuming and challenging. But to my mind, there’s nothing so annoying as the little things we put off doing. It causes low level stress. We find ourselves distracted and then more annoyed with ourselves as that’s the 5th time this week we haven’t taken the opportunity to strike that little task off our list.
It drains our energy, gives us an excuse to beat ourselves up or reinforce negative self belief ‘I am lazy/ disorganised/ undisciplined/ forgetful/ selfish etc etc – and let’s face it, few of us need much of an excuse!
So why not make a new habit to clear ourselves of these little jobs as an when they come up? Don’t put them off, just do them! Make it a habit to spend 15 minutes a day getting through as much little stuff as possible. If you are forgetful, keep a list for things you can’t do right now, and make it your goal to delete them as soon as possible.
Have a rule which says a task can only spend 48 hours on the list.
When we relieve ourselves of these minor irritations, life is simpler, clearer, more focused. We get more done. We feel like we accomplish more and have more control over our time.
So what are we waiting for?