The 10 Minute Tidy. Shannon McGinnis
you walked in with your coffee mug from yesterday, and it’s still on your landing pad, take 10 seconds to put the mug in the dishwasher. Or, if your children’s landing pad is getting cluttered, remind them that it’s important to put their things away in the proper place. Shoes or lunchboxes don’t belong on a landing pad. Where are they supposed to go?
You may realize that you are not using your landing pad every day; now is the time to evaluate why. Is it located in an easy-to-reach area? Is it large enough for you to be able to empty your hands when you walk in the door? Perhaps you need a landing pad for household items and another for your work stuff. Determine why you are not using your landing pad and create one that would suit your needs better. You might even consider moving the furniture around!
A landing pad that you use everyday will save you lots of time and stress when you can find all of your most important daily items always in the same place. Train yourself to use your landing pad daily and I promise you, the mad dash out the door does get easier.
Tip 4 Consolidate Your “To Do” Lists
There are always things to do! Writing a list is a great way of keeping track of all that needs to be done. Perhaps you have multiple “To Do” lists. Now is the time to consolidate your lists onto one page. If you have various things to do, a small notebook with several sections could help you designate: Calls to Make, Events to Schedule, Items to Follow-up, and all the broad categories that are on your list.
I believe that every adult needs administrative time. Whether you work for yourself, someone else, or manage your household, everyone needs time to pay bills, make calls, and complete projects. I highly recommend that you schedule time to do the things you need to do on your lists. In 10 minute increments of focused, productive time, you can complete items on your To Do list.
A mantra that I suggest is: “If it takes less than one minute, do it now.” Remember this when you are recopying items to complete from one To Do list to another. Rather than rewrite “Write Sally a Thank You card,” take the time to do that right now. It takes about a minute to write a quick thank you note.
You may even want to send a card online so you can save yourself the trip to the mailbox and the stamp. It really is amazing how many tasks you can get done in about a minute.
Consider asking others to help you if you have something on your To Do list that hasn’t gotten done yet. Perhaps you could have a conversation with a friend about what your resistance is to this task. You can also ask your friend to check in with you to ensure that you are accountable for getting it done.
Tip 5 Write Your “Top 5 Things To Do Today” List
It is easier to get your tasks accomplished when you prioritize your day. Create a “Top 5 Most Important Things To Do Today” list and post it somewhere that it will remind you to stick to your priorities. Perhaps you have picked an area that you want to focus your 10-Minute Tidy on today. Be sure that it is on your Top 5 list.
You may write down more than 5 things to do today, but be sure to prioritize the items in order of importance. This simple time management systems works! Have you ever heard of the 80/20 rule? This is a principle known as Pareto’s Law, which states that 80 percent of your effectiveness will come from achieving 20 percent of your goals. That’s why it’s important that you focus on the most important items on your “Top 5 Things To Do Today” list.
Tip 6 Write Your “Top 5 Things To Do Tomorrow” List
At the end of the day, it’s important to review what got done and decide what the priorities are for tomorrow. It is easier to get things done when you prioritize what you want to accomplish each day. Create a “Top 5 Most Important Things To Do Tomorrow” list at the end of the day and keep it somewhere where you will see it early in the morning. This list will remind you to stick to your priorities. Then your “Tomorrow” list effortlessly becomes your “Today” list when you return.
Tip 7 Schedule Self-Care Appointments
On every airplane flight we are reminded to put on our own oxygen mask first, before we help our children or others around us. Self-care is so important, yet sometimes we need to be reminded to do this. Now is the time to schedule one or two self-care appointments.
Self-care can look and feel very different for each person so take a moment to think of what would be fun for you to do. Your options are endless but here are a few suggestions:
go for a walk with a friend
have a fancy lunch date
get a massage
have a pedicure or manicure
plan a few hours to be home ALONE
Health-care appointments are also necessary so consider scheduling an eye exam, teeth cleaning or a mammogram. It is important to take care of yourself every day, make it a daily practice.
Tip 8 Schedule and Use Your Gift Certificates
Another part of being disorganized may be that you have many gift certificates all around your home or office and don’t know where they are or when they expire. As soon as you find a gift certificate, call or schedule a time to take advantage of this great gift someone gave you. Even if you have to schedule time to go to the mall to visit a particular store, take the time to schedule this now so that you don’t miss a great opportunity.
You may also want to create a place where you put all of your gift certificates that you are not able to redeem right away. One option is to keep them in the kitchen in your recently organized coupon holder (or accordion check file, see Tip 21). Or you may create a file labeled Gift Certificates. Keep them all together in a place where you can easily find them when you want to take advantage of a free meal, round of golf, or a great massage!
Tip 9 Set All the Clocks in Your Home to the Same Time
How annoying is it when you get ready in the bathroom and then go into the bedroom to get dressed and dash to the kitchen to grab coffee and some breakfast only to realize you have been basing your schedule on clocks that are all set at different times? This is so frustrating when you are running late and you look at the atomic time clock on your cell phone and realize it is more than a few minutes off from the other clocks in your home.
Take your cell phone, which is linked to the atomic time clock, and go room by room resetting all alarm and wall clocks. Also check everyone’s watches so that they are also set to the exact same time as everything else in your home. Finally, synchronize all of the clocks in each of the vehicles.
Celebrate this message to the universe that everyone will easily be on time now!
Tip 10 Create a Donation Bag and Put Five Things in It
If you are reading this book, you probably have at least five items that you could donate to someone else. I encourage you to create a donation bag and keep it centrally located in your home. The front hall closet, the laundry room, or in the garage are all possible places for the family donations bag. Once everyone knows where to put the clothes that don’t fit, the books they have read, or the toys they no longer play with, the donation bag will fill up quickly. When it is full, put it in your car to be dropped off at the nearest donation center, church, or homeless shelter so that others may benefit from the items that you no longer need.
If you have larger items to donate, consider contacting the
Salvation Army www.salvationarmyusa.org
Goodwill www.goodwill.com
St. Vincent de Paul www.svdpusa.org
for pick up. It is wonderful to offer to others the things you no longer use. See Tip 11 for possible tax benefits.