119 - Twenty 5-Minute Tasks

Once you have streamlined and moved most of your household tasks to large chunks of time in your calendar, you can now start to use 5 minute snippets of time to knock off some of the repetitive routine tasks on your list. This opens up more valuable chunks of time to get done bigger - and more valuable - projects.

I know it sounds kind of counterintuitive, but if you are always doing little tasks here and there, you never feel done. If you have a 4-hour time block set aside to do those tasks and can knock 30 minutes off during the week through six 5-minute chunks, you feel accomplished and organized! Here are twenty tasks I do in 5-minute pockets of time to get you started thinking about what your twenty tasks will be:

• Start a load of laundry
• Empty the dishwasher
• Fold a load of laundry
• Clean off the kitchen counter
• Do the dishes
• Clean out a shelf in the pantry
• Empty all the trash cans
• Pick up toys in the family room
• Collect all the towels and start the laundry
• Vacuum a room
• Delete email and voicemail from your phone
• Change your furnace filter
• Take items up or downstairs
• Go through your mail and open it all
• Write a thank you note
• Book a doctor appointment
• Refill soap dispensers
• Clean out 1 drawer
• Shred paper
• Put 10 things away

Use those minutes you spend talking on the phone or waiting for people knocking off your repetitive tasks!