It’s About Time: Stay Organized by Tackling 1, 5, and 15 Minute Tasks

I once read a book about a man whose wife divorced him because he was a total slob. He wanted to clean up his act, but he wasn’t going to spend longer than absolutely necessary on any chore. So he timed himself doing various household tasks to find the most efficient method.

With dishes, he assumed it was better to let them pile up in the sink and soak, then wash the whole load at once. To his surprise, rinsing and putting them into the dishwasher right after eating was much quicker.

If you’re familiar with productivity expert David Allen’s 2-Minute Rule, this won’t surprise you.

The 2-Minute Rule states that if you can do something in two minutes or less, do it now instead of putting it off for later.

It’s more efficient to get little tasks out of your way than it is to let them build up into mountains of work.

My client Meredith* knows this first hand. We had cleared, sorted, and organized several rooms in her  home, but Meredith struggled to keep it up. The mail piled up in front of the door, dishes overflowed the sink, and hills of laundry littered the bedroom floor. While we cleared the backlog, I had Meredith time herself doing routine tasks so she’d have a realistic sense of how long things take.

Meredith found that she liked the challenge of timing herself and how it turned chores into games. If it took her 18 minutes to fold laundry one time, she’d try to beat the clock and do it in 17 minutes the next time. Now she knows that putting off chores only makes them grow, so she’s more motivated to get them out of the way.

Here are some tasks that you can start timing yourself doing chores. Work a few of them into your daily and weekly routines and you’ll find it’s easier to maintain your home and you’ll be less stressed.

1-Minute Tasks
Just like brushing your teeth, these mini tasks can become second nature.

• Make your bed
• Load the dishwasher after a snack or one-person meal
• Hang up your coat and bag when you come home
• Wipe down the kitchen counter
• Break down and recycle a shipping box (Don’t let those Amazon boxes pile up.)
• Start a load of laundry
• Lay out your clothes for tomorrow
• Put dirty clothes in the hamper
• Fold and put worn-but-clean clothes away
• Take the plastic off your dry cleaning (Laurie Palau will be SO happy if you do this!)

5-Minute Tasks
You’ll be amazed at how much more smoothly your day will go when you start working some of these 5-minute tasks into your routine.

• Open and sort mail (Downgrade this to a 1-minute task by using the PaperKarma** app to unsubscribe from junk by taking a picture of your mail.
• Empty the dishwasher
• Delete and unsubscribe from emails
• Take out the trash or recycling
• Tidy the car, picking up trash and bringing things into the house
• Make lunch for tomorrow
• Vacuum or mop one room
• Pack your bag for the next day

15-Minute Tasks
These tasks prove that you can get significant work done in just 10-15 minutes.

• Load the dishwasher after a meal
• Fold a load of laundry
• Put away a load of laundry
• Clean the bathroom (Yes, the whole bathroom!)
• Change bedsheets
• Evening sweep — Pick up and put away all the miscellaneous toys, shoes, papers, etc. that got strewn about the house that day.

If any of these chores are taking you significantly longer, then we need to talk.

​Most likely you’re dealing with too much stuff or you’re making something more complicated than it needs to be. Perhaps you’re just not very good at the task and need to learn some skills, like how to fold like a pro. It’s time to call in a Certified Professional Organizer® to troubleshoot. Book your free consultation with me today: 

Let's Talk

*Name changed to protect the disorganized.
**I love PaperKarma so much that I’m an affiliate and earn a small commission when you purchase through my link.