Thursday, August 13, 2009

A New Plan!

Martin Luther King had a dream... but I have a plan!!!

It all began with my friend Emily. She and I are IM Queens, everyday, all day. NO, not every minute...but plenty of them! Anyhoo, just for this week, this friend-of-mine decided to do 15-minute segments of chores. To do this, she wrote down all her chores and general to-do items on slips of paper, folded them up, and tossed them happily into a bowl. Then, twice and hour, in her hand would reach, dipping into the bowl for one of those folded-up surprises.

Well, here am I, getting nothing done all day. When my to-do list grows longer than my brain stem, then I just completely shut down. Thus, Emily's plan sparked something in me... a plan to end all plans (I would love if that hope turns into reality...I am clicking my heels three times, while chanting, I think I can, I think I can).

Anyhoo, here's the simple plan. When ideas, chores, to-do, honey-dos, don't-wanna-dos come to mind, I am gonna take them off my mind and slip them onto a freshly scissored piece of paper. Then, I will neatly fold it, or quickly crumple it into a ball (depending on the chore), and once or twice an hour, I will choose one and do it.



This is a momentous moment, so... take a deep breath...



And now... clap!!!! (Oh, and exhale!)

I figure that for 15 minutes, I can endure even the worst of chores.

My hope is that this will get rid of that ever-residing pressure I put on myself to get stuff done "RIGHT NOW!" It never happens, because there's always more to do than there are minutes in the day. Senselessssssssssss! (I purposely added all those sssss' because it's so like the slithering enemy of our souls to keep me so dog-gone nuts.)

Something I did think of as I tossed in all my pink slips for the day, was that you do not want too many things in there. So, you might want to have a present-day bowl, things in which are must-dos. Then another for the funner things of life (sewing,reading, art, photography lessons) or long-term chores. I have two closets that must get cleaned this month, before school starts back up. We can't even walk in the darn things. So, that might be included in my daily bowl, till all the 15 min segments reward me with an orderly, functional closet. And then, that pink slip will go in the trash. Get it?

Anyhoo, if you are a procrastinator/ADD/ADHD like me, then this plan might work for us...we can sure dream it will!

6 comments:

Lift Up Your Hearts said...

Yay you for putting the FUN in functional!!

Mummy McTavish said...

YAY, I got back into the 15 minute routine yesterday... for the morning at least. I got lots done! But this was my problem, after the obvious 'clean the kitchen back to being hygenic' task, the rest seemed insurmountable... where to start??? I will do this. My first 15 minutes will be to write and chop up my list... I am sure that alone is a cathartic exercise!

Smilie girl said...

I like this! A procrastinator of a high degree, 15 minute surprise jobs I can do!
Thank you!

Scuba Wife Life said...

super cute and super fun! I definitely fall in the "procrastinator/ADD/ADHD" category!! lol :)

Mr. and Mrs. Nurse Boy said...

I like this!!! What a great idea! I finally had to stop having "cleaning days" or "organizing days". It became too much. I like to break it down and it seems to keep things in order around here. I just might give this a try for some of my cabinets and closets that I just never seem to get around to.

Mrs. Nurse Boy

Aimee said...

I am going to try this! It even sounds exciting, and anything that can make chores sound exciting has got to be good!