Out of Chaos an organizing newsletter
Jump Down Turn Around
I’ve been doing a lot of writing lately, and I find it pretty challenging to sit at my desk for a long stretch of time. So here is what I do: I give myself a goal: finish this section or write for half an hour and then I get up. I get up and do five minutes of stretching, or I go put the chicken for dinner in a marinade or I sort the laundry. Then I go back and I work another half hour. First of all, I can’t believe I’ve gotten to the point where I think that sorting laundry is a break, but I have. Secondly, I think this works so well for me because I’ve been working this way all my life.
When I was a kid my mother really didn’t regulate television the way some parents did. What she regulated was commercials. To this day it fills me with a kind of ‘ooo my parents are away’ kind of glee to sit through a commercial. When I was growing up it was Pavlovian: The minute a commercial came on my mother would hop up and start the dishwasher or do some other kitchen chore, while my sister and I would brush our teeth, put on our nightgowns and zoom back to the living room for a few more minutes of TV. In retrospect, this was great, because even if we watched a show or two every night, we weren’t really sitting still for very long. Then, when the show was over, we were all ready for bed: Our teeth were brushed, our faces washed there was nothing left to do.
You would think it would make me less efficient to keep jumping up from my desk, but because I make sure I achieve my small goal (half an hour of writing, finishing a particular section) it actually makes me more efficient. By taking frequent mini-breaks, I focus more intently during the time that I have assigned for writing.
Where can you experiment with this technique? What is it that you dread or postpone? Bill paying? Filing? Do you avoid putting your clothes away at night? Try tacking these things onto an existing habit. For example, you could put your clothes away during the commercials of your favorite TV show. Or try scheduling a block of time for a dreaded task, like I’m going to pay bills for half an hour, then I am going to go into the kitchen and trim the green beans. If you didn’t finish the bills, you can go back to them after the beans. Somehow, things are easier to manage when they are in small chunks, and just like kids, we are more likely to stay on-task if we get to jump up and move around every so often.