I think it’s probably pretty safe to say nearly everyone is familiar with the Nike swoosh “just do it” campaign. I take the just do it message from exercise into other parts of my life.
Yes, while this is primarily a healthy living blog, I don’t think living healthfully just merely encompass fitness, but should be included in the other parts of our lives as well.
Since transitioning from living with someone to living on my own (is anyone else sick of me saying that. Just, ugh. Sorry, but it’s a fact) learning how to get the house ish done was a big thing for me. There’s no longer anyone to barter with for chores, “If you vacuum, I’ll fold laundry”; it all falls on my shoulders.
Gross, right?!
One of my favourite tricks to get myself to do something is to time myself. I know, it sounds super lame doesn’t it? Kind of like timing a child to clean up.
Hey, I have an idea, you put your toys away and I’ll time you! Ready? GO!
Except, mine isn’t quite that lame.
I’ve found I usually anticipate tasks to take far longer than they actually do, so instead of actually doing said task, I’ll hem and haw, and think about doing said task for much much longer than it would actually take me to do the dang thing!
Enter: timing.
From experience I know it takes me roughly 6-8 minutes to load and unload the dishwasher. Seriously. Less than 10 minutes to get ‘er done. That’s nothing!
A few weeks ago I was commenting that I didn’t want to vacuum and actually puttered about for 40 minutes before vacuuming. How long did it take me to vacuum? Roughly 10 minutes (my condo is only 650 square feet, so your mileage my vary).
Another evening I knew I needed to clean my bathroom. Like, needed to. I also needed to preheat my oven to cook my salmon for dinner. I decided to see how much I could clean in the time it took my dinner to cook. Well, in 45 minutes I managed to scrub my bathroom from top to bottom, load and unload the dishwasher, and clean the kitty litter and take it downstairs to the garbage.
Normally I’d have puttered about, accomplishing nothing while waiting for my oven to preheat and my dinner to cook, but by the time my dinner was done, I’d done all the cleaning I needed to do. What a good feeling!
I’ve also starting making rules for myself. For example, anytime I boil water for tea I also empty and load the dishwasher. In the time it takes for me to do that, my water is boiled. It’s become second nature, so the point where I don’t even notice I’m automatically dealing with my dishes.
This approach can be extended to so many areas of our lives. I know I will spend far more time anticipating a task than actually doing the task, so I’m working to get rid of that yucky anticipation feeling as much as possible.
The next time you’re dreading a task, I challenge you to get off your duff and just do it! I bet you’ll be suprised by how little time it actually takes!
Tell me: what’s your most dreaded task and how can you motivate yourself to get more ish done?
Mine is folding laundry. I despise it.
Cowgirl Runs 