Skip to main content

How much can you do in an hour?

Sometimes the house is such a mess it's hard to know where to start.  Sometimes I want to bury my head in a pillow and hope the mess goes away on its own.  Sometimes I do...but it never does.  I've figured out a few mind games to play with myself that have been quite effective.

First, don't let Tuesday off the hook.  Tuesday likes you to think it's an unimportant beginning-of-the-week kind of day.  There's a whisper in your ear, "It's just Tuesday, you have plenty of time before Friday."  But somehow, it jumps from Tuesday to Thursday in the blink of an eye and that means Friday is the next day!  I have learned that Tuesday is pivotal.  If I slack off on Tuesday, I'll regret it on Thursday and Friday.  If I banish much of my To Do list on Tuesday, the rest of my week flows much more smoothly!

Second, set the timer.  Maybe I just work well under pressure, but it seems if I ask myself, "How much can you do in an hour?" and then set the timer for precisely that length of time, I can get a surprising amount done!


My kitchen was a mess...dishes from the weekend...toys, craft supplies, and clothes left by the children...drygoods from Sam's Club not yet put away.  So I set the timer for an hour, cranked up the music, and went to work.  An hour later (okay, only 50 minutes this time...Little Guy came and asked to nurse -- he can sign it now -- and I had to quit early) my kitchen was a decent place again!


I didn't get to sweep, but if I hadn't been interrupted by my wee man, I'd have finished that in the remaining 10 minutes -- might have gotten it mopped too!

 So how much can you do in an hour?

Comments

  1. Tuesday is important around here too. If I don't get things going on Monday and Tuesday, I feel overwhelmed on Saturday playing catch-up. Good job on getting so much done in 50 minutes!

    ReplyDelete
  2. WOW! you got a lot done and you have the most amazing kitchen!!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Thanks! I love my spacious kitchen...it is so much better than the one-butt kitchen we had before. (I'm not joking, the kitchen in our apartment in California was literally 5x5 feet and that's before you subtract counter space!)

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

No More Quiet Time

I  have always thought it sounded trite to speak of “falling in love with Jesus.” But trite or not, isn’t that what I want for my children? To learn to “love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might” (Deuteronomy 6:5). With that in mind, and having run across this blog post on Pinterest several months ago, I created a morning devotion basket for the kids and I to use. You see, up till now, I would typically find time to read the Bible and pray away from my children. Away from distraction, away from the demands of dust and dirty dishes, and away from the 437 questions a four-year-old asks every day. Then I realized I was doing them a major disservice by disallowing them to see me in the Word regularly. If I want them to love the Lord God, then I must show them how I love the Lord my God! Our new routine is to wake up in the morning, prepare a simple breakfast — usually cold cereal for the kids, toast and tea for me — and sit d...

Review: Seed Starting by Gary Emmett (an ebook)

As I've already confessed, I am a plant murderer .  I have, however, had marginal success with container gardening.  The past year or two I started seedlings with my dad, which means the kids and I dropped a few seeds in pots and my dad cared for them.  Once they were established outside, I was able to keep them alive long enough to harvest a few peppers and tomatoes and have a pretty pot of flowers on my doorstep. (At least until a horrid heat-wave and drought came along and killed them all; it's hard to keep containers well-watered when it's that hot!) In spite of the 10+ inches of snow on the ground right now, it's time to think about starting seeds again and I figure if I'm ever going to develop a green thumb, I better start educating myself!  That is why I jumped at the opportunity to read Gary Emmett's book Seed Starting: The First Step to Gardening . (affiliate link) Available for your Kindle or Kindle app from Amazon. Currently priced at $2...

Homeschool Sanity Saver: Meal Planning for a MONTH

Last year while on my blogging hiatus, I did something crazy. I planned meals out an entire month or more in advance!   And it was heavenly. I give a lot of myself during a typical school day. My energies are consumed with many, many details. Did this child read today? Did she understand math? How many minutes did that lesson take? Do I need to supplement this topic? How long until they need a break? Did we cover everything? Is that spelled correctly? What is 7x12? How are we doing for time? Did I take my vitamins? Do we need to be anywhere today? And on and on.  By the time our lessons are over, I am frequently suffering from decision fatigue. I just cannot make choices about what we will eat for supper.  I will literally stand in front of the fridge or cupboard staring at ingredients for 15 minutes, then give up and order Jimmy John's. To relive myself of this burden, I have discovered that having a meal plan in place is essential. I have enough physical energy t...