A little at a time…
Little by little, a little becomes a lot.
Tanzanian Proverb
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Recently I was reading a blog about hiking which discussed how it is best to take smaller steps rather than lengthening your stride. This improves balance, conserves energy, and reduces stress on joints; it’s especially helpful on tough uphill climbs or seemingly endless downhill stretches. All this was not new information to me, but it made me think about how I have applied a similar approach to breaking up some household and yard tasks into smaller more manageable pieces. Just as a ten mile hike is really a series of small steps, punctuated by timely breaks, so too can household tasks be handled a little at a time.
On the home front, I’ve acquired the habit of using repetitive patterned activities to dovetail boring or hard tasks into smaller “bite sized” increments. For instance, while I like my clean clothes to be folded and put away, folding clothes is not one of my favorite household chores. So when I’ve just finished drying a load of laundry, I put it on my bed. Every time that I go upstairs, I stop to fold and put away three or four pieces of clothing. By the time the day is over, the laundry is not only washed and dried, but folded and put away.
Similarly, cleaning out the cat’s litter boxes is a rather automatic quick daily chore, but, in the spring and summer, after visiting the trash can, I grab a weed puller and pop out ten weeds in my front yard. In this way, I keep on top of the weeding, but don’t feel overwhelmed at scheduling and completing hours of weeding at one time.
Sometimes I even use small “rewards” for tackling chores. If I have a puzzle out, I may allow myself 15 minutes of puzzling AFTER I’ve paid some bills or done some other unpleasant task. Silly little ways to handle not fun work, but it sure helps me to get things done.
Do you have little life hacks that you’ve created to make mundane unpleasant work into more manageable small bits? We can all learn from each other so please be encouraged to share ideas in the comments section. I know that I’m always grateful for new ideas!