10 minutes is all it takes - As taught by Flylady

Have you ever put yourself off from cleaning, tidying, organising or similarly riveting tasks because it "takes too long", because "I haven't got the time now" or simply because you thought you'd do it later. All of these brilliant reasons for procrastination can be swiped away with a simple rule.


Do it for 10 minutes.


First of all you will be surprised how much you can accomplish in a mere 10 minutes. The first time you sort out a drawer or tidy up a small area completely in such a short space of time you will be very proud of your achievement.


And that is what it is all about. Giving yourself that feeling of success that will spur you on to do more. Now don't go overboard and add more and more time until you reach burnout again, because you've marathon cleaned or tidied for hours. Simply see whether you can speed up within the 10 minutes to achieve more.


If you then do something else for a while, even take a little break or do another 10 minutes somewhere else in the house you will come back refreshed and with "new eyes" to do another 10 minutes.

You can accomplish quite big things with 10 minute bursts. I once managed to clear my daughters bedroom, which had been in quite a state, with this technique. We both worked for 10 minutes together, in effect making it 20 minutes (10 each). It took us about a week or so and the room was in great shape. Now I send her up every few days to "do 10 minutes" and this way she keeps on top of things and she's been able to maintain a decent state of her bedroom for several months.

If you check out the link in the title of this post, you will see that Flylady actually recommends 15 minute sprints and that works just as well. I personally prefer the 10 minute sprint, since I then have even less excuse to procrastinate for such a short assignment.