Here’s a tip for the organizationally-challenged: Follow The Two Minute Rule. What’s the Two Minute Rule?, I hear you ask. Well, it’s pretty simple, and no, I didn’t make it up, it’s part of a larger organizational/time management system called GTD (Getting Things Done). The Two Minute Rule is this: If, during the course of your day, you come across a task that needs doing, and the task can be done in two minutes or so, do it immediately. Get it out of the way.
For example, if you pass through the kitchen, and see that the dishwasher needs emptying, don’t put it on your list of things to do, just do it. The other day, I asked my son to empty the dishwasher. He rebuffed my kind offer to include him in the glorious service of house-keeping, but I insisted, despite his cries of a lack of time. “Aha!,” I cried, “There is enough time to squeeze this chore in.” And I timed him. Much to his surprise, he emptied a full load of dishes in two minutes, thirty-four seconds. And then it was done, one less item on the never-ending to-do list.
The Two Minute Rule applies to all people of all ages. Your 9 year-old late for school? Get ‘em to make their bed anyway. Shouldn’t take more than a minute and a half to straighten the pillows, sheets, and blankets. And then it’s out of the way.
I’m no prize-winning housekeeper. In fact, it’s my weakest area of adulthood skills. And yet The Two Minute Rule keeps me from appearing slovenly and lazy, which is my simple intent.
Do you have any similar techniques?
[tags]organization, housework, gtd, getting things done, the two minute rule[/tags]
Photo graciously provided by ratterrell, through a Creative Commons license, some rights reserved
5 responses so far ↓
Thimbelle // May 31, 2007 at 11:25 am
BIG fan of GTD - the 2 minute rule works wonderfully!
Problem with Twinks is that she has no concept of time - 2 minutes or twenty, it’s all the same to her.
Instead, I try to bring order out of chaos by doing what we call “room checks”. The concept is simple: Look around the room, and find one thing that belongs in another room. Pick that up, and put it where it away, in the room it belongs in. If the room is really messy, then everyone does a “take 3″ meaning you find 3 things to be put away correctly in another room.
Highest we have ever had to go was “take 5″ with all three of us working together. We can tidy and straighten the whole house in less than 30 minutes this way.
Stu Mark // May 31, 2007 at 5:05 pm
I *love* Room Checks! I’d never heard it before, but it’s now top of my list of things to try. Dig it, thanks Thim!
Erika // May 31, 2007 at 6:40 pm
One small way I stay on top of the chaos is Never Leave the Room Empty-Handed. There’s always a dish, or a book, or a piece of some toy that needs to go from the room I’m in to the room I’m heading to (or through). Sometimes I feel like my whole day is spent moving things from one place to another…
Stu Mark // May 31, 2007 at 7:43 pm
Erika, I completely empathize. My day is absolutely centered around moving things from one room to another, from one end of the house to the other, from clean to dirty, always moving things. And for this I went to college?!?!
tanyetta // Jun 2, 2007 at 11:58 am
i am taking notes! i need tons of help over here.
my problem is, i start 5 projects and finish none
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