So my husband cleaned out the freezer yesterday.
cleaned. it. out.
It took him 10 minutes, but it literally changed our week.
He was so pumped that he could do so much in such little time. Something that we gripe about all the time, was fixed, gone, borderline beautiful after just 10 minutes of focused, intense attention. We both literally had our fists up in the air.
Breakthrough.
So I started looking around, scrolling for new micro mini projects, wondering what else could be transformed in my world with a set amount of low expense focus. 10 minutes is cheap in this surging, multi-tasking, get it all buttoned up everywhere you can world. I could give a tour around my house of things that could use just 10 minutes of my attention. I walk past them, I skip them, I laugh about them over wine. We all have them.
I live a good portion of my days in 60 second intervals- how have I not implemented the 10 minute tidy more often?
I walked up to THE stack of papers and catalogs and billsy stuff- I gave myself JUST 10 minutes. "EVERYTHING HAS A HOME!" was my mantra as I trashed, sorted and filed what has been piling up next to my laptop.
I returned phone calls to friends that have been in my voicemail for days. Guess how long that took?
The tubs of kids clothes- omg the tubs of clothes.... well I gave myself just 10 minutes to chip away, and I was actually impressed and excited about what can be done in that time frame.
The pantry... 10 minutes. Wow.
Laptop desktop cleanup. Incredible.
All the while I kept thinking, I know this has power outside of this house.
So I left the house and I called my dad. I talked to him, for 10 minutes. Amazing.
I picked up my daughter from school and left my phone somewhere else on purpose. I checked out her new playground with her and listened to stories about lunch and what she wants to do for her birthday party in March.
I then wondered what would happen to my workout if I focused on only one muscle group for 10 minutes. My abs....... my ass....... so sore.
I'll take it.
Our offices are always so fun and actually, pretty tidy- but I gave myself the cheap deadline and did what "I've been meaning to" and those things that I "hadn't crossed off my list"... I delivered bulletproof coffees (YES) to my hubby and the team, revised a proposal that had just been sitting there, finalized an invoice and.... that was that. All in a itty bitty focused effort. Nice.
I drove errands around Park City not talking, just driving and taking it all in. My phone was somewhere, who knows. 10 minutes of the beauty of this town can recharge your mind and soul.
I took all of my kids on a walk to get the mail before dinner. No phone, just toddler chatter amongst the 3 of them. "WHY are we walking to the mail"... "can YOU carry me"... I watched them walk, listened to them talk, said thank you to the heavens. It only took about 10 minutes...
So my takeaway here is this... the projects and things that require hours of focus and attention are separate and who knows when we get to THOSE. But the 10 minute tidy- applied in nearly any facet of your village, is awesome and totally satisfying.
Like writing this blog...I was almost certain it wasn't going to happen today... but then I sat down,
and gave it ......10 minutes.
What can we tidy next?