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I require what I call a, "clean up" day once every few weeks. I wish I had one every week. It's a day when I can sit on my computer or around my apartment and d

I require what I call a, "clean up" day once every few weeks. I wish I had one every week. It's a day when I can sit on my computer or around my apartment and do all those little things that pile up. Re-potting the plants? Never urgent enough to be top of mind but will become an issue later. Those 15 opened and unread tabs? Let me at em. Painting that spot on the wall? A tad too inconvenient for a normal Tuesday but perfect for the clean up day.

samstave 8y ago
This is the type of task that can be positively gamified. Give yourself a reward for accomplishing these, if you have a roomate/SO, try to compete in a light way, on doing certain things, such as race to see who can do similarly sized tasks first/best/best-outcome etc
nickjj 8y ago
I think life becomes less stressful when you just bang those things out on demand. How long is it really going to take to glance through those 15 unread tabs? Chances are you'll do a legit sweep of them in 45 seconds and then maybe 1 or 2 things will be worth reading. Before you know it, you just knocked it off your list in 5-10 minutes. The same can be said for painting that spot on the wall, 10 real minutes end to end and you're done. Now they are out of your mind instead of piling up between those clean up days where all you think about is "I wish I had time to do all of these things!". I know personally I'm the most happy when my queue is nearly empty.
- Taylor_OD 8y ago
  I agree with you. However life gets in the way sometimes and those little quick things get delayed until later. Enough of those build up and that's when I run into those. The tabs are all things I've sent to my phone/home computer via pushbullet because they were articles I was interested in actually digging into and maybe doing more research on the topic later so they do takes some actual time or at least mental energy. The wall painting and cleaning stuff is all quick time wise but there are other potential costs that accompany it. Painting brings the possibility of spilling the paint or getting it on my clothes or something. I also need to clean up the paint brush thoroughly which takes some time. Same with re-potting plants. What if I spill the soil and it goes everywhere? Big clean up. Yes unlikely but if I've only got 20 minutes on a Tuesday before I head out to do something else I don't want to risk it. I am the most happy or at least the most focused when I finish all of these things thus the clean up day. It almost feels like there is a part of my brain that is dedicated to these tasks even if they are just sitting on my computer or around the place to be accomplished. It's great to finish them.
  - nickjj 8y ago
    > I am the most happy or at least the most focused when I finish all of these things thus the clean up day But what happens for the week or weeks in between that? Are you also equally as happy because those tasks are out of mind? For me, I just constantly think about "I should have done...", "damn it, I really should do...", and before you know it, you get overrun by those thoughts and nothing gets done. The only way I've learned how to bypass that is to just do things as soon as possible. Sometimes I'll delay things from the morning to do at night, but I really try my best to do them now. Then you're just constantly crushing out tasks and getting things done and it builds up a lot of positive momentum.
- ghaff 8y ago
  I'm not much for time management systems in general but one of David Allen's GTD tips I always liked was the advice that, if something will just take you five minutes, just do it. Sometimes easier said than done I know and I always dread whatever yak-shaving is going to result from easy task. But it's good advice in general.
  - Taylor_OD 8y ago
    Yes - I, like many, never actually finished GTD. But I still use the general approach. The sticky things tend to be the non critical more than 7 minutes but less than 20 minute tasks. But I will credit GTD with helping me get over the, "this thing is going to take so long" mindset and more often than not the, "this will only take a minute or two" mindset.
    - ghaff 8y ago
      His ideas around doing reviews of your todos, etc. are also useful. Even if you don't do a formal review every Friday afternoon or whenever, the general concept fits well with his overall ideas around breaking tasks into manageable chunks and generally not being overwhelmed with an undifferentiated 75 item todo list.

samstave 8y ago

This is the type of task that can be positively gamified. Give yourself a reward for accomplishing these, if you have a roomate/SO, try to compete in a light way, on doing certain things, such as race to see who can do similarly sized tasks first/best/best-outcome etc

nickjj 8y ago

I think life becomes less stressful when you just bang those things out on demand. How long is it really going to take to glance through those 15 unread tabs? Chances are you'll do a legit sweep of them in 45 seconds and then maybe 1 or 2 things will be worth reading. Before you know it, you just knocked it off your list in 5-10 minutes. The same can be said for painting that spot on the wall, 10 real minutes end to end and you're done. Now they are out of your mind instead of piling up between those clean up days where all you think about is "I wish I had time to do all of these things!". I know personally I'm the most happy when my queue is nearly empty.

Taylor_OD 8y ago
I agree with you. However life gets in the way sometimes and those little quick things get delayed until later. Enough of those build up and that's when I run into those. The tabs are all things I've sent to my phone/home computer via pushbullet because they were articles I was interested in actually digging into and maybe doing more research on the topic later so they do takes some actual time or at least mental energy. The wall painting and cleaning stuff is all quick time wise but there are other potential costs that accompany it. Painting brings the possibility of spilling the paint or getting it on my clothes or something. I also need to clean up the paint brush thoroughly which takes some time. Same with re-potting plants. What if I spill the soil and it goes everywhere? Big clean up. Yes unlikely but if I've only got 20 minutes on a Tuesday before I head out to do something else I don't want to risk it. I am the most happy or at least the most focused when I finish all of these things thus the clean up day. It almost feels like there is a part of my brain that is dedicated to these tasks even if they are just sitting on my computer or around the place to be accomplished. It's great to finish them.
- nickjj 8y ago
  > I am the most happy or at least the most focused when I finish all of these things thus the clean up day But what happens for the week or weeks in between that? Are you also equally as happy because those tasks are out of mind? For me, I just constantly think about "I should have done...", "damn it, I really should do...", and before you know it, you get overrun by those thoughts and nothing gets done. The only way I've learned how to bypass that is to just do things as soon as possible. Sometimes I'll delay things from the morning to do at night, but I really try my best to do them now. Then you're just constantly crushing out tasks and getting things done and it builds up a lot of positive momentum.
ghaff 8y ago
I'm not much for time management systems in general but one of David Allen's GTD tips I always liked was the advice that, if something will just take you five minutes, just do it. Sometimes easier said than done I know and I always dread whatever yak-shaving is going to result from easy task. But it's good advice in general.
- Taylor_OD 8y ago
  Yes - I, like many, never actually finished GTD. But I still use the general approach. The sticky things tend to be the non critical more than 7 minutes but less than 20 minute tasks. But I will credit GTD with helping me get over the, "this thing is going to take so long" mindset and more often than not the, "this will only take a minute or two" mindset.
  - ghaff 8y ago
    His ideas around doing reviews of your todos, etc. are also useful. Even if you don't do a formal review every Friday afternoon or whenever, the general concept fits well with his overall ideas around breaking tasks into manageable chunks and generally not being overwhelmed with an undifferentiated 75 item todo list.