I have developed a method. A method for cleaning my kitchen.
When I look at a messy kitchen I get so weary in my soul, I really just want
to, not clean it. Go to bed. Do it later. But what's worse than coming back to
a messy kitchen, getting up in the morning to a messy kitchen? So, the method
is this: I split myself into two personalities. Yep, sounds a bit scary but it
works.
Lazy Me, who really can't deal with it right now. Who's too
busy, got too many other things that just must be tended to. Wise Me, who
knows that the energy drain of not getting that something done is massive, almost incapacitating. Totally out of proportion to the actual task of getting that
thing done, be it that messy kitchen or something else on the list of
to-do's.
Wise Me then sets my kitchen timer. 10 minutes. Yep, that's
it: 10 minutes. Even Lazy me can deal with just about any task if it's only
for, promise, just 10 minutes. Then Wise Me divides my kitchen into sections.
That space to the left of the sink, the sink, the space to the right of the
sink, the stove, and that space to the right of the stove. Eating nook, narrow
counter, sweep the floor (mop if necessary).
To make the whole situation more bearable, Wise Me also
lights some incense and puts on some music, that really soothes Lazy Me and
makes me more cooperative. Then the timer starts and Lazy Me gets anything but
lazy, works really hard and fast. Fast because I've only got 10 minutes, and I
must get all this done. Section one, done. Section two, done, three, done.
Always catching a backwards glance at the completed sections because nothing is
more satisfying than a completed section.
Ten minutes later, the kitchen is almost done, the timer on
the stove goes off and Lazy Me is frantic, No, not yet, I am not done! Give me
a few more minutes, I need to sweep too; and I also want to do a quick mopping
to make it all extra fresh! Wise Me allows it. Yes, you can have 2 more
minutes. I will set the timer though.
Two minutes later, well a total of 12, the kitchen is done. For real. That's it.
The dreaded task is just done and the whole kitchen, and my mood, is lifted and
beaming.
And my other tasks are not so different. It takes very
little to overwhelm me. Too feel completely weighed down by my own to-do's and must-do's - they so easily feel like can't-do's.
The only thing that seems to do the trick is for Lazy Me and
Wise Me to work together and that always seems to involve setting a time. A
deadline. A 'you-won't-be-stuck-doing-the-kitchen-sink-forever-promise'.
I have expanded this method to the rest of the house and beyond. When
it's all a big mess (usually got that way with generous help from children) -
then I divide the house into sections. 10 minutes, Lazy Me, that's all, 10 minutes
per room. Go! For half an hour. Then perhaps another half an hour.
And voila! The house is unbelievably, incredibly, amazingly
transformed. It's borderline magic.
