Have you heard the time management story about the big stones, little stones and sand? If you haven’t you can read it here. This story plays itself out in my house every single day, and I’m sure it does in yours as well. I’ve adapted by creating 5 minute sand systems. Let me tell you what I mean.
I have things that get done all the time… laundry, blog posts, other work related things, getting Hanna to school, projects with Hanna, preparing and eating dinner as a family. These are like the big stones of my life. These are also things that I love and treasure (or have to be done). That makes them pretty easy to fit in the vase and get done, no matter what.
However, there are other things in my life. The things I hate to do, the things I dread doing. The things I would much rather spend time on twitter or facebook than do… those are the things that really need to be done, but it’s easy to rationalize there just isn’t enough time.
I love to cook and we do need dishes to eat… so I’ve created a little 5 minute sand system. I’ve created these throughout the day… they’re small systems that fit those “I hate to do that” items in the little spaces throughout my day.
Here’s what I’m talking about.
In the morning, while I’m waiting for my coffee water to heat up I empty the dishwasher. I can get it done in the 2 minutes and 20 seconds it takes for my water to heat up. Once the dishes are out of the washer there’s no reason why other people can’t start putting their own dishes in the rest of the day. It’s that little hump of having an empty dishwasher that stalls the process… so I’ve figured out a way… while I would otherwise be standing in the kitchen simply staring at the microwave to overcome that little hump.
The bathroom is similar. I admit I’m not perfect with this, but when I manage to stick to it, my bathroom is always clean. It’s a little tip from the FlyLady. Swish and Swipe. Just before you leave the bathroom in the morning, grab the toilet bowl brush and just swish the toilet (you can put a little dish soap and water in the holder so it has a little soapy goodness to do its job), and just swipe over the counters with a damp cloth.
Those two little things can make all the difference in a bathroom. They take all of 30 seconds in the morning but they create a system that works. I notice when I know I’m going to have to swipe in the morning I don’t just dump stuff on the bathroom counter tops. 🙂 Win/Win.
It’s not about forcing yourself to set aside time to do stuff you know you’re not going to do everyday. It is about creating a little system that can be done in under 5 minutes that you can squeeze into the open cracks of your day that will give you the biggest bang for you buck. You only have so much space for the big rocks, but these little sand systems can easily allow you to fit in just a little more than you thought you could.
So what 5 minute crack filler systems do you have in place? I’d love to hear… feel free to share in the comments.
image credit: clearly ambiguous
