My Elephant…And Yours

Continuing with our theme of “spring clean” and Janelle’s encouragement to “pick one spot” I want to share the following excerpt from our forthcoming book, Shopping For Time:

This final suggestion will assist us in tackling those outsized projects—the ones that simply don’t fit into the sixteen waking hours of a given day. Instead of being intimidated by their sheer size and running the other direction, we can break them down into small, manageable segments. Plan to do a little bit each day. Or, as the phrase goes, “eat an elephant one bite at a time.” 
In the book, Life Management for Busy Women, Elizabeth George explains her approach:

I'm working my way through my house by my own method.  I call it the “one foot” method.  I clean out at least one drawer, one shelf, or one foot of space every day.  And it's usually done during transitional time, while I'm doing something else, like warming something in the microwave, waiting for the coffee to brew, heating food on the stove, talking on the phone, etc.

        Organizing an entire house is a daunting task, an elephant; but one that can be accomplished by eating it a bite at a time. So what’s the elephant in your life—boxes full of old photographs, piles of unsorted papers, a big thick book? Simply subdivide them into smaller portions and eat them one bite, one day, at time.

There is a room in my house that I am seeking to avoid at all cost!  It’s my storage and laundry room.  Yes, it is quite messy right now and no, you may not go into it and borrow something (as I told someone yesterday).  I would be happy to get it for you.

Every time I walk into this particular room I exit mentally trying to figure out how I can make enough time to bring it back to order.  Needless to say, that “time” has not magically appeared. You see, the last month has been rather busy for my family and the stomach bug brought my laundry piles to an all time high (my boys rarely made it in the bucket).   

This room is my “elephant.” So inspired by this quote I decided to come up with a plan to tackle this project using the “one foot” method.  This week I am going to spend twenty minutes per day organizing this room. It may not all get done but progress will certainly be made!

So let’s do it together.  Find that spot in your house that you want to avoid at all cost and plan to organize it for a certain number of minutes each day. You, like me, will probably be amazed to find out just how much progress you’ve made by the end of the week.