The first, and most
successful, in the series is the original. Get It Together Girl: A 28-Day Guide to Practical NOT
Perfect Home Organization is built around the power of the
Focused 15. I am constantly amazed at how much can be accomplished in a
dedicated quarter of an hour.
I gave a series of 15
minute assignments to be completed Monday through Friday. We move from the
kitchen to the bathroom to the bedroom (and the closets!) and finally the
living room and work areas. If just the Monday through Friday assignments are
done, you've spent over 5 hours organizing!
For example, Day One is
the Refrigerator Run-Through. You aren't cleaning the fridge out so much as you
are getting rid of everything that is "moldy, hairy, furry, gooey or otherwise inedible."
At the end of the week,
I provide a series of steps that help you stay organized. Most can be
accomplished in less than one minute. For example, get undressed while standing
in front of the hamper. This way your dirty clothes go directly into the hamper
without making a pit stop on the floor. Also, if you keep your
hangers on the hamper or in another accessible place, it is easy to hang up
things that can be worn again.
Weekends are free ...
unless you want to do more. For the overachievers in the group, I give some
longer weekend assignments that make great projects (or possibly punishments
for the kid! LOL!).
Challenge: Try the power of the Focused 15 for yourself.
You don't have to limit yourself to organization, it works in almost any area.
Devote 15 minutes to a specific task: walking, cleaning, organizing, reading,
filing, talking to someone on the phone, budgeting.
At the end of 15
minutes, one of two things have happened. Either you have made a dent in
whatever you are working on or you've gotten your momentum going and are ready
to keep going.
The key to an effective
15 is to seriously devote 15 minutes to the task at hand. This is not 15
minutes spent multi-tasking or with a split focus. It's called the Focused 15
for a reason!
No comments:
Post a Comment