We all have ‘busy tasks’ – things that we must do each day that are essential, but aren’t tangibly linked to our bigger goals. These things may include cleaning the house, laundry, paperwork for bills, personal emails, etc. We all must do these things, but they can be frustrating and drawn out if not put in your schedule consciously. Our advice is this: Deal with it once, deal with it once and deal with it completely. For example, I clean the house every evening after putting my two sons to bed (a wipe down and vacuum, dishes, put away laundry). I set my sand timer (1 hour) and get to work, knowing that I will not do more housework after that sand timer has stopped. Surprisingly, knowing that this is the time limit gives me more momentum to get the task done and I often finish with lots of time to spare. With the toys or things I use through the day, they get put back as soon as we finish using them – so the stress isn’t big at any point in time. If you are more of a ‘once-a-week-cleaner’, then set aside a scheduled time each week to give your place a clean. This helps as you don’t potter around at many times during the day or week cleaning so you feel like you are ‘always’ cleaning the house. Keep the task contained and free your mental space from that tasks for the rest of the time. The same goes for emails; I set two times of the day to check personal and business emails and deal with them instantly – if it is a bill, I pay it or set a reminder in my phone for when it is due and any other information and then I delete/file the email out of my inbox, if it is something that needs a response – I respond instantly and write any action points in my diary if necessary, and the email is deleted. In this way, I don’t feel as though I am ‘always’ available on my email, but I know that I am on top of things and I don’t need to worry about them at any other time. What tactics do you have in your household or are there any ideas that you think could improve your productivity and mental space?
LLUMI Australia 