We all have things that come at us all day long, everyday. Some are small and some are big, but they can all be distractions that keep us from focusing on what matters. Over at The Happiness Project I found a terrific idea for managing the small ones, and in my experience, it’s the small ones that most need managing.
It’s called the “one-minute rule” and I’ll let the author, Gretchen Ruben, explain:
“It’s very simple: I must do any task that can be finished in one
minute. Hang up my coat, read a letter and toss it, fill in a form,
answer an email, note down a citation, pick up my phone messages, file
a paper, put a dish in the dishwasher, replenish the diaper supply by
the changing table, put the magazines away…and so on.”
Think about it, most of us throw our coat on a chair, put the mail on the couner, set aside forms, save e-mails ’till “later”, etc., etc. Soon, we have hours of tedious (and often useless) tasks to do, and who has hours to spare? I’d not heard this suggestion before, though I can vouch for the success of the “two-minute e-mail rule” from David Allen’s Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity
Kudos to Gretchen for a great blog and terrific insight into organizing your life.
