Ten Minute Tuesday: The Egg Timer

When I was a kid, my sisters and I hated cleaning our room. (Nothing has changed!) My mother would finally lay down the law and set her kitchen timer on our dresser with an allotted amount of time. At the end of that time, she would "mom clean" whatever we had neglected to do. She cleaned with a black trash bag. (I never really knew if this stuff went in the actual trash, or just in the attic...)

This introduced me to the world of working under pressure. Throughout school, time limits were a motivational tool to me. More like a brain trick, really. I would tell myself, "Try to get three more math problems done before 8:53," or "If I can get all of this done by 9:00, I can reward myself with a movie/show/snack/etc." I still have that same programming at my job even now, years later. "I'll do 3 more minutes, then get up and stretch my legs/get a cup of coffee/pee/etc."

Up against a time limit is how I work best. I am really not a very productive person when something could, or couldn't get done, and it's not really that important. I could clean my room this weekend. I could finish up the filing on Friday when it's slow. I could cut up that fruit some other time. I could deep clean the bathroom when it really needs it! :)

According to this article we work best when we have boundaries around our time. I like that phrase. I tend to have very tight boundaries around my time when it involves others, as most Type A personalities do. YOU are making me late. YOU should have had that done yesterday so that I could finish my work. I wanted to clean the garage and YOU agreed to help me today. YOU should have found a babysitter for this night a long time ago. (Sound familiar to anyone else? Please say yes....)

Something as simple as limiting our time on something that doesn't matter, or allotting a small amount of time to something that does can make a world of difference in how we do things, and in how much we get done. I tend to spend long chunks of time on projects. I really throw myself into it, and make it perfect. And then I don't want anyone to touch it. I don't want a "lived in" house, I want a magazine house. And if I can't have that, I guess I'll just have a messy house. That perfectionist, "all or nothing" attitude toward work is what exhausts us.

And it is because I have exactly that perfectionist, "all or nothing" attitude toward my house that I am beginning Ten Minute Tuesday. Today I downloaded a free Kitchen Timer App onto my smart phone. I didn't even have to go to the store, or spend a dime! (Or, put off beginning this challenge until I bought a timer!) I'm starting of small, with only one Ten Minute Project on my list. On Tuesdays, I'll check in and let you know how the Ten Minute Project is going. I'd like to work my way up to spending about an hour each day maintaining my home, or on some looming projects that I need to do...but not all in one chunk. My goal is to spend smaller increments of time on big projects- whether that means limiting the time I spend on things I like (like coupon clipping and matchups) or increasing the time I spend on things I hate (like cleaning the bathroom).

Ten Minute Project #1: 10 minutes daily on my bedroom. (You do not even want to know what it looks like. Here's a visual: The jewelry and hair extensions I took off right after the wedding are still strewn across my dresser. That was almost 2 months ago. That's all I'll tell you!)

How do you motivate yourself to use your time efficiently? Will you take the Ten Minute Tuesday Challenge with me?