In marketing they say it typically takes six “touches” before a buyer will buy (a new product, or whatever). We humans need to see/hear/experience something again and again, sometimes in slightly different ways, before we are comfortable purchasing. Of course, this six touch idea isn’t limited to the marketing of consumer products … it can apply to any “behavior change” … for me, I’m noticing that a lot of what I am willing to act on these days, was potentially introduced to me many, many years ago (by my MOM).
My mom in the second iteration of the kitchen on Nadal Street… that kitchen had 3 versions in the 11 years we were there!!
Check out her sweet laundry room c1972 – yes, that’s me in that spinny chair.
FlyLady (FL) suggests that anyone can do anything for 15 minutes. My mom had a similar message; she suggested spending 10 minutes in each room of the house (picking up, organizing, whatever). This meant actually setting a timer and literally STOPping, and moving to the next room when the timer went off! If you’ve ever tried anything like this, you’ll know it can be incredibly effective.
So what is it about this reasonable, 15-minute time-limit?? I kinda think the 15 minutes “in one room” thing is about FOCUS. I mean, it is so easy to be distracted … We start in the bedroom, decide we must bring X down the the basement, get distracted by a load of Y in the dryer… you realize you are out of Z…. next thing you know you are writing a grocery list!! Half an hour goes by and nothing has been done to the bedroom… yea, so it’s about FOCUS, right?
And this totally happens at work too. I’ll be finishing an email, an associate comes by to ask about X, so now I am opening database Y… when the associate is all set, I look back to my computer screen with no sense of where I was or what I was doing!! Don’t get me wrong – I pull it together pretty quickly – but I’m sure that many can identify; our minds tend to wander in all environments, in many directions, for a lot of reasons…
So 15 minute spurts are about Focus, yes, AND I’ve been noticing that they might also be about Control and Freedom. There is something liberating about the thought that you only have to get through 15 minutes (of perceived torture, that will ultimately make your life better, or so they say…)… because getting to the bottom/end of the “pile” (or project, or work-stream) seems way too laborious and there is no way you have THAT kind of time!! But 15 minutes seems manageable, doesn’t it?
ASIDE:
I realize as I write that it must sound like my house is a TOTAL mess, or WAY cluttered, or something out of the TV program, Hoarders. My house is by no means any of those things. The house IS small and it is the merging of two *fully grown lives* (my husband and I were single to our mid-30s and each brought fully established homes to the relationship). I moved in to his home a little over 4 years ago and the process of revamping and merging has been slow. We are in the home stretch of renovations (all of which we have done ourselves, on weekends we weren’t occupied with skiing, or boating, or golfing); and now that the house actually looks nice when it <is> clean, I am more motivated to keep it that way. AND, as with everything else in my life, learning AWESOME tricks (in this case, household tricks) from others who have mastered systems, is my bailiwick!
ANYway, beyond the household stuff, I’ve been employing the 15-Minute-Trick in other aspects of daily life. I said above that the 15-Minute-Trick has the following effects on me: I am totally way more focused on the task at hand; I feel *in control*; and the set timeframe allows a sense of freedom. These add up to the perfect Procrastination Anecdote!!
Linda’s Procrastinations:
{per FL, “Our perfectionism is what causes us to Procrastinate” – I get what she is saying, but how about good old fashioned LAZI-ness being the cause!! more in this later.}
- Exercise – there is always something better to do than exercise, right? (well, maybe some things I would rank lower than exercise…). I will totally have set aside the time to go for a run and then can easily convince myself why NOT to go. My internal dialog might say, “you’d get some much more done if you just stick around the house!” But, with the 15-Minute-Trick, I can actually suggest to myself that 15 minutes of running is totally manageale… if after 7 minutes I want to turn around, I give myself permission [usually, by then I have convinced myself that’s its worth continuing (for the full amount of time it takes to do at least 3 miles)] – employing this trick for exercise is AWESOME.
- Food/Treats – sometimes I set myself off by having one delicious cookie (one is totally reasonable, IMO)… but just having one tells my brain that about 5 cookies (not as reasonable) would be more satisfying. I have actually used the 15 Minute Trick in this instance! I set the timer and if I am still longing for those cookies, I eat them.. (I also continue to do whatever I am doing – and hope to get distracted enough to let it go…)
- Work – For the less than stimulating, but necessary stuff you have to do at the J-O-B… yep, I’ll set a timer on this too. When I don’t allow myself to be distracted by ANYthing, I can usually get past the part of a task that seemed debilitating at the outset… sometimes I finish the darn thing!! Most times, I realize it’s really not as bad as my mind made it out to be… and for the next round, I might set the timer for 45.
Overall I am thrilled with the re-introduction of setting a timer for bite-sized bits of focused work (home and office), exercise, and confection control! Do any of you apply your attention in a similar way? Oh, and does anyone happen to know of cool online timers I could use for when I am doing computer work? I use my phone all the time, and my kitchen timers when in that space, but it would be cool to use something on my laptop that would flash “time’s up” without entering it into my Outlook calendar AND without using my phone…
Recent Comments