"It's only 10 minutes"

After almost a week of being sick, I was starting to feel better. Looking around my house, it looked like someone who's had zero energy has been living here. Piles of mail that needed to be sorted, all kinds of half-started yet unfinished projects all over my office floor, loads of laundry and dishes to be done. These were the only things I could see and I couldn't stand it.

I heard yesterday that there's a phenomena that when we're overloaded with choices we just freeze. It's why in the wild if a lion is hunting a herd of antelope, let's say (if that's the kind of things lions hunt), if there is too many antelopes, sometimes the lion is unable to pick out one to focus on and it just stares.

That's how I felt about where to start with tidying.

At the same time, I felt that being surrounded by things to do was keeping me from being able to focus on getting anything else done. I've learned several times now that having a clean space helps me to think and focus on my writing projects.

So I decided to take the advice I give to others.

To begin by setting a timer for 10 minutes.

In that 10 minutes, I'd focus on one of the areas that needed improvement with the commitment to work on it for only 10 minutes. Somehow knowing that there's a time limit is helpful for my brain to focus on the single task.

I began with the mail. Within a single 10 minute chunk, I had sorted it all and had taken a huge pile of junk out to the recycling. That's what I'm talking about! Seeing my newly clear counter space was motivation to keep going. I working in the same 10 minute chunks for several hours. When the timer would go off, I'd take a break and play a song, grab a snack, or just generally admire my progress. Then I'd set the timer again and get back to work.

It was also helpful to see how much I could actually accomplish in just 10 minutes. Is that really all it takes to change my bed sheets and pillow cases? To hammer through the pile of dirty dishes? To clear out all the annoying "did-I really-subscribe-to-this" emails out of my inbox?

Not only did I get a lot done, but I taught myself how much little time it takes to do the things that I'll so easily put off.

So the next time you're faced with what feels like an overwhelming series of chores, try doing one thing for just 10 minutes and see how far you get.