How Long Does It Really Take?
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Are there certain routine tasks or chores that you dread?
If you’re anything like me, there are! And you may find yourself putting these off, looking for an excuse to do something — anything! — else rather than the one thing you’re avoiding. And I don’t know about you, but in my quest to avoid that undesirable chore, I probably think about it a dozen times, letting the feeling of dread hang over me.
For me, the two biggest chores I dread are unloading the dishwasher and folding laundry. I don’t know what it is about those two things, but they are definitely the things that can become a bottleneck as I go about my daily routines.
Or at least they were.
Until one day I decided to time how long it actually took me to just get them done. What I found was that I can fold a load of laundry in somewhere around 6-9 minutes (depending on the ratio of adult clothing to small children’s clothing) and that I can unload the dishwasher in under 5 minutes.
All this time I’ve been wasting much more time than that dreading these chores when all I had to do was take a few minutes to just get them done!
The 2-minute rule is a time management technique for knocking out the little things quickly and easily. But how many times do we put off other easy tasks just because they seem like a hassle when it would really be so much easier to get them done?
Your dreaded tasks might be different — maybe backing up your computer files or cleaning the bathroom or paying bills — and they might take longer than 5 to 10 minutes. But chances are that the time that it actually takes to do them might still surprise you and make it a little bit easier to motivate yourself to just get them done. Try it!
What chores do you dread? Have you ever tried timing how long they really take to do?
Taking care of the yard chores for me. Mowing my 0.93 acre = 2 hours. Using the string trimmer, edging the sidewalks and driveway, blowing the clippings into my neighbor’s yard (she doesn’t care and it shows) = 1 hour. The bad thing is, down here in the South, there is so much humidity that you can’t really start until lunchtime because the grass is still wet. By the time the grass dries, it’s so hot you almost melt. Yes I *could* hire someone else to do it, but I’m just waiting until my nine year old is heavy enough to keep the auto-shut-off switch on the lawn tractor’s seat compressed!!!
Ron´s last blog ..12 Great Father and Son/Daughter Outings for $50 or Less
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Mandi Reply:
September 10th, 2009 at 6:36 am
I don’t know, Ron — I’d have trouble motivating myself to go out and do that no matter how “fast” it was. Three hours in the afternoon heat is NOT my idea of a good time!
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Yes! I do this all the time. A big one for me is mopping the kitchen and dining room floors. It takes about 30 minutes start to finish, and I love having clean floors, but for some reason, that chore is one that I dread. This post is a good reminder.
Holly´s last blog ..Eating the rainbow
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For some reason, I just hate unloading the dishwasher. I will avoid it like the plague. One day I was heating up something in the microwave for 2 minutes and I decided I would just see how much I could get done in those couple minutes. I about fell over when I finished unloading and I still had 10 seconds left! It seems so silly to complain and dread something painless that take less than 2 minutes!
Marci@OvercomingBusy´s last blog ..You Asked For It – Recipes
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I too hate unloading the dishwasher, and it has also screwed up my day because of it. And you are right, it usually only takes 5 minutes.
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I’ve had dread hanging over my head for the BIG things like going through years of homeschool materials and cleaning out books. Pictures in boxes haunt me. I wake up in the early morning hours thinking of things I should do when I get up. And do you know what I do? Get on the computer and read about how to do it. I’m pitiful.
Thanks for the encouragement.
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I have not “officially” timed various tasks but I can tell you one thing, they never take as long or as little as I anticipate!! My secret to getting things done is to set the time for lets say, 45 mins. My reward at the end of that time is a 10 min break to check my email (the great black hole!!). I am continually AMAZED at how much I get done in those 45, very focused minutes!! On the other hand, I can plan 3 hours to clean out a room, which ends up taking me ALL day??? I think I need to break the bigger projects into smaller “goals” & then time those goals. I think we are way to cavalier with our time, one used, we can never get it back. But if used wisely, it will pay over & over again!
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Mandi Reply:
September 10th, 2009 at 6:37 am
This is a great point, Sherry. I was definitely thinking specifically about small routine tasks, but your point about getting sucked into a project that ends up taking all of your time is important as well. I tend to fall into that trap as well!
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I have found this to be the case with me many times!
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My dread/put off is changing the bedlinen. It takes me 5-10 minutes at the most and I so appreciate the bed (and my effort when I’m done) but I still put it off and put it off.
It’s off the subject but something that rang a bell for me is also the time it takes to go to the bathroom when you’re at work and busy. I’m a nurse and it’s always busy, I put off going to the bathroom all the time and was unconfortable for hours until one day I timed myself and found that the whole thing took me less than 2 minutes. I never ‘hold on’ again.
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[...] How long does it really take? I mean really? Mandi points out that most of the chores we dread can be accomplished in just a few minutes, sometimes less! [...]
I like to batch tasks like folding laundry, unloading the dishwasher, etc, and do them while I listen to a podcast, audiobook or energetic playlist on my iPod.
It makes the tasks *seem* like they didn’t take long at all.
Michele Connolly, Get Organized Wizard´s last blog ..Fresh Start: 12 Days of New Beginnings [Day 11: Time Management]
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