Save a Second, Spend an Hour
It’s exactly as it sounds. When it comes to basic organization, general tidiness, and all-around cleanliness, whenever we make the conscious choice to Save a Second by procrastinating, we end up Spending an Hour later catching up.
I’ve seen it time and time again. An overflowing trashcan gets walked by. Dirty dishes sit in the sink ignored. Junk mail lays scattered across the kitchen counter next to empty water bottles and a half-eaten box of Ritz. Laundry litters the floor of the bathroom, closets, and hallway. Before we know it, we’ve lost control of the house and the number of projects that need to be completed overwhelms us. We want to start, but where would we even begin?
Does this sound familiar?
If I’m being honest, I’m guilty of doing it myself. ESPECIALLY with the laundry. Oh, how I loathe, laundry. After doing a quick history search in Facebook messenger between myself and my husband, I discovered that we had said the word Laundry 107 times! Every time he and I were talking about how we’d let it go and were attempting to catch up.
Anyone else guilty of putting laundry off for a week and then spending an entire day catching up? I know I am.
Why does it feel like our lives revolve around menial tasks that NEVER END? Is there really nothing more to our day to day than dishes, laundry, commuting, and leaky trash bags? When I find myself falling down this rabbit hole, I ask myself what our ancestors would say if they could see us today. They were crafting their own tools, hunting for their next meal, and stitching together their clothes. They split wood, hung their sheets on lines, and pulled feathers from chickens to eat them. We’ve got running water, microwave dinners, and refrigerators. Central a/c and mattresses. We have trash services, gas pumps, and fast-food drive-thrus.
We live in an era of convenience and comfort. A unique time in history where just enough is done for us that we feel entitled to a certain type of assistance, yet not technologically far enough along that our every whim is satisfied without personal involvement. It’s an uncomfortable and frustrating state of suspension, but one we must recognize if we hope to move past it.
The first step to overcoming clutter and discord is understanding where it comes from, which- in most cases- is procrastination, and procrastination- at its foundation- is a lack of self-discipline.
2 Timothy 1:7- For the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love and self-discipline.
In my early twenties, I lived alone. It was the first time in my life that I had been without another adult in the house. I had a thirteen-gallon trashbin and that’s where I put my garbage. Over time it became full but instead of taking it out, I pushed it down. You see, I didn’t have time to take it out. (At least, that’s what I kept telling myself.) I was in too big of a rush getting myself and my son out of the door at 6am. When we got home around 6pm, I had to hurry to get dinner completed, get my son and myself ready for bed, get clothes and dishes cleaned, finish my studies for college, and then get at least a few hours of sleep before starting it all over again the next day. When could I possibly work in enough time to drag the trash all the way to the dumpster?
Simple. I couldn’t.
Eventually, and predictably, the day arrived where I could no longer smoosh my garbage down any farther. My toddler was scrambling out of the door and I was failing miserably to pull the bag from the can. It must have weighed thirty pounds! After five minutes, now running late for work, I managed to get it out. Unfortunately, the bag was too heavy for me to carry, so I had to drag it across my carpet and then use every bit of strength I had to toss it onto the trunk of my car so I could drive it to the dumpster. It hadn’t crossed my mind until pulling up in front of the aged blue monstrosity that I was going to have to throw it in.
Lovely.
Sighing heavily, I dragged myself from the car. I could see my breath in the frosty morning as I pulled the garbage behind me. Scooping it from the bottom, I took the bag into my arms and hefted it upwards. Imagine my shock and disgust when it hit the rusted edge and exploded all over me.
Standing there, covered in banana peels and discarded leftovers, I asked myself how I had gotten to this point in my life. To be honest, I hadn’t brushed my teeth that morning. My son was wearing the same socks he’d had on the day before, and I forgot to pack myself lunch for the day. Why? Why did it feel like my life was falling apart?
It didn’t take me long to admit the answer. Procrastination.
I would think about something that needed to be done but distract myself with something I wanted to get done instead. It was easy to say that I couldn’t take out the trash when I needed to rush out the door. I could justify ignoring my dirty floor if I was doing my schoolwork. Laundry could wait. I hadn’t spent one-on-one time with my son in a week. But all that I had accomplished in behaving this way, was putting off the inevitable and making it worse for myself in the future.
What could have taken me a total of three minutes had I done is a few days earlier, cost me nearly half an hour and a slice of my dignity when a coworker pulled a piece of fried rice from my hair.
Thus began my “think it-do it,” practice. For thirty days, if I thought something, I would immediately stop what I was doing, and complete said task. If I was in the shower, mid shampoo, and I remembered that I needed to transfer the wash to the dryer, I would wrap a towel around my body and get it done. If I was half asleep and realized that I hadn’t packed my son’s lunch, I would get out of bed and get it done. If I walked into the house and saw dirt on the floor, I wouldn’t wait to sweep it up. I set my things down and handled it immediately. In the event that household tasks came to my mind at work, I would write them in a list and complete them in order when I arrived home, and the same applied at home concerning work.
It was difficult at first. There was a lot that needed to be done. But after two weeks, I had caught up on everything and each task took me no longer than a few minutes. Yes, I was doing a lot more little things each day, but they only consumed the same amount of time as one large task would previously.
In conclusion, you’re not saving yourself the second by putting off your responsibilities. You’re robbing yourself of time later. So, this is my challenge to you. If you think it, do it. Give it thirty days and see what changes.
You can do it!
If you liked this post, check back soon for my next one, “Kids, Crafts, and Coloring Pages OH MY.”