Lately, I was “busy” or the better term is focussed on other priorities – Job Hunting. As they would say treat Job Hunting as a full-time job, and it is true since it has taken a lot of my time during the day browsing job posting sites, searching information on these companies, reviewing my technical skills and so on. With this new high priority at hand, I had lesser time to do my household chores in which before my day would be filled in. It turned our house a little bit chaotic than before and can be frustrating at times. I need to do something about it, asap! Before it gets worst.

So I start doing a 5-minute rush and it’s been promising. This is the steps I followed:

  1. Identify the “choke point” in our house or the spot often used.
  2. Identify what is the issue that’s been bothering me or sore to my eyes.
  3. Identify what are the things I want to improve within that “choke point”.
  4. What can be done in 5-minutes or less.?
  5. Challenge: make it a habit.

With these steps, it made my task manageable, doable and repeatable. For example, one “choke point” I identify is the bathroom. If left unattended, it’s amazing how dirty the floor can get with all those falling hairs and dust – it’s really sore to my eyes. Following my steps, I then get this:

  1. “choke point”: Bathroom
  2. Issue: Dirty floor
  3. I want to improve: Remove the falling hairs and dust
  4. What can be done in 5-minutes or less: Using the tissue, get down into the floor and wipe it off.
  5. Making it a habit: Before I take a shower, I will do #4.

How it helped me?

It made my brains process effortlessly which dictates my action seamlessly. By identifying a specific context, an issue, the things can be done and made it part of my routine made my task a “no brainer”.

It’s the same concept with coffee in the morning. I think most of you would agree that after you wake up you are driven to the coffee maker, brew the coffee, pour the coffee into the cup and drink it – you just do it without really giving it much of a thought or brain processing. But I must admit before you get to that point of “auto-pilot” you must first learn it, do it repeatedly then it becomes one of your “auto-pilot” tasks.

How about you, what are the things you do to make your house still spick and span but at the same time still be able to focus on your top priorities?