Skip to main content

The one-minute cleaning rule that will change your life


I HAVE spent the majority of my life being uber-organised so that I could fit more STUFF into my days.

But it is only in the last year or so that I have come to my senses and instead chosen to use my free time to look after myself better, rather than squeezing more and more commitments into my days.

So I want to share with you with my most favourite tip in the world for creating more me-time, but before I do, let me tell you that back in the day I was a pile-a-holic:
* I had a pile of papers (bills, statements etc) in an in-tray in the study.
* I had piles of clothing on top of the dresser in my cupboard.
* There was a pile of unused DVDs on top of the DVD player.
* There was a pile of books on the counter top.
* There was a pile of magazines on the floor in the toilet.
* There was a pile of newspaper all neatly stacked in the corner.

They were all very neat these piles, but they were everywhere I looked and every single one of them did my head in because I was thinking about them all the time.
Source: http://www.freedigitalphotos.net

The smaller piles were irritations - a form of mental as well as physical clutter. The larger piles were yokes around my neck - the bigger they got, the more time it was going to take to sort them out, so the less inclined I was to tackle them.

Inevitably a day would come where I would wipe out an entire weekend day to do a year's worth of filing. Or I'd lose a whole morning to going through the pile of clothes on my dresser to determine what could be hung up and what had to be washed or taken to the dry cleaner. Often, instead of sitting for 10 minutes with a cup of coffee I'd decide that ‘no, I simply can't relax with all these piles around me' and instead spend that 10 minutes dealing with the piles instead of chilling out.

This is where the one-minute rule comes in


Gretchen Rubin mentioned it in her New York Times Bestseller The Happiness Project and I have been a devotee of it ever since. The rule is simple - if something takes less than one minute to do, do it straight away.
So that piece of clothing you just took off - it takes less than a minute to fold it or hang it up.

The newspaper that you've finished reading - it takes less than a minute to walk outside and put it in the recycle bin.

The bill you've just paid - less than a minute to file it.

It also takes less than a minute to replace a book on a bookshelf, put a DVD back in its case or wash that cup you've just finished with.

An interesting exercise is to make a mental note throughout the day of all the little things you find that you can't be bothered doing immediately that take less than a minute - you'll be stunned!

For me, I have found that ever since implementing this rule I never get that situation where 10 minutes of blessed time-out for myself is forsaken in favour of dealing with clutter. And I can't remember the last time I had to give up a precious weekend day to sort out a recalcitrant in-tray either.

See more from Kelly Exeter here

Read more: http://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/home-garden/the-one-minute-cleaning-rule-that-will-change-your-life/story-fnet0iz7-1226481766200#ixzz27ecRlAgf

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Box Hill High School Zone

Parents are struggling with moving into a good reputable school for their kid(s). Here is the zone for Box Hill High School.   Good luck with house hunting!

Brivis Heater - Error Code #69

My Brivis HX23 Heater broke down this week.  H01 Code #69.  This code was not even listed in the User Manual!  Searching around the web and here is what I found: Secret Reset: This is not in the User Manual.  On the networker controller press FUNCTION > 1 > 4 keys and the screen will go blank and come back on after 30 seconds, this has rebooted the main PCB and reset the fault code. Use this with caution as too much gas build up could cause an explosion. Use it only after the unit has enough time to air out the gas build up. What is Code #69 or any other unpublished codes?  The best way to find out is to open up the heater unit.   There is a little LCD on the PCB showing what error exactly is. (Note: Opening up the unit may void your warranty.)

The Bose Soundbar 700 Won't Connect to App

Bose has one of the best speaker sound. I learnt about Bose more than 25 years ago and still a fan.  I bought Soundbar 700 in 2018.  It took me a while to set it up but it has been giving me troubles once a while.  Recently, I was not able to connect Soundbar 700 with my phone.  Done the factory reset on the soundbar, it didn't work. I spent hours reseting everything multiple times and finally I found this article,  https://www.bose.com.au/en_au/support/articles/HC1380/productCodes/bose_soundbar_700/article.html .  Tweaking them all and finally got it to work again. I think the most important setting is to TURN WPS OFF on the router!  Hope it helps.