For people like us who are Organizationally Challenged, the phrase that Nike made famous “Just Do it!” doesn’t work.
We ask, “Just do it? Just do what?!” You and I know that so much has to be done, so what is it we are supposed to do?
What we need to say instead is “Just do it ANYWAY!” Because we have to do it anyway.
We have to do housework, even though we don’t know what to do, or how to do it.
So, I am going to talk about 2 things. I am going to talk about what to do, and how to do it.
What to do is what will make you most happy.
Look around at what has to be done, don’t think ‘priority’ think happy and chose to do that, what will make you most happy if it were done? Do that!
Then, when you are done with that particular thing, think of the next thing that would make you most happy to do, and move along with your list.
Now for the HOW… How to do it?
How do we do the things that need to be done? How do we do the things that we WANT to be done?
We have to “Do it anyway.”
For us, doing housework when we are tired, when we have had a long day is counterintuitive.
Counterintuitive is acting on something that is contrary to what is our instinct. Even if we WANT a clean kitchen, we will NOT clean it up after dinner because it is what we are in the habit of doing (or what we are NOT in the habit of doing, as the case may be).
We are in the habit of listening to the voice that says “Do it Later! You are tired!”
But we know that if we want things to change we have to do things differently. Listening to that voice that says “Do it tomorrow!’ just doesn’t serve us.
We know how hard it is to live a disorganized life, to live in a mess… It is harder than pushing through and just doing the freaking dishes after dinner!
We have a warped perception of time. We think things will take so long, and the truth is, most housework jobs takes 5 minutes or less. If you started with a clean kitchen, dinner clean up could be as little as 15 minutes. (and if you don’t eat alone, you should not be cleaning up alone)
You know when you are on a diet and that voice is saying “EAT THE ICE CREAM!” but you don’t listen to it, you obey your higher self and you stay away from the ice cream. This is the same thing.
When you are saying I want my house to feel good and look good, then you must ignore that familiar voice (felt as a gut feeling) that says “GO TO BED NOW INSTEAD OF CLEANING UP THE DINNER DISHES!” you must ignore it and DO IT ANYWAY!
When you do that for a while, that will become the norm, and it will feel wrong NOT to clean it up! You will begin to just do it, I promise!
Please write me, let me know what you think, how this worked for you.
Much Love,
Kathy
The Tidy Tutor