Perhaps the greatest roadblock in my road to organization was facing the heaps and piles. When would I ever have time to do it? I was working a sixty hour work week and was too tired to move when I got home.
I was reading a lot about the organization process when I came across the key which put me on the path to success. I call it the Ten Minute Rule and, I will freely admit, the idea is not mine. I'd gladly give ackowledgement to it's author if I could remember where I read it first.
The gist of the thought is...it took you years to build those piles of clutter, heaps of clothes, stacks of book...you're not going to get it all straightened out overnight. You have PERMISSION to take your time.
Hah! Time what's that? It's the time you spend waiting for the coffee to drip ...the slice of time waiting for a meeting to start...the minutes between commercials on tv...the time in the doctor's waiting room...those minutes before the kids get out of school. You get the idea.
We all have at least a couple of minutes of "free" time during our busy days. Since we all have so much to do there will always be those few minutes when you don't have time to start a new project because you have to do something else in the next fifteen minutes.
Use that time. Use it to do something small that you've been putting off; like organizing one desk drawer or cleaning out the glove box.
Use it to start that big project that seemed so overwhelming that you didn't even want to begin.
You'll be amazed what happens to those BIG projects! Taken in ten minute bites, the project suddenly seems less like a mountain. Soon you'll notice some progress in what once seemed an impossibiity. You will start to gain momentum so that you'll do a little more, then a little more and when the project is finished you may start looking around for the next thing to tackle. It feels that good!
The key to getting started is in knowing that you only have to spend ten minutes doing that dreaded chore. Set a timer and when the time is up you are allowed stop. This works equally well in getting the kids to clean the garage and Mom and Dad clear out the spare room.
So set that timer! After all, it's only ten minutes.
The 10 Minute Rule
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