Working from home is really hard. I am distracted the whole day by tasks that must be done around the house. A friend of mine has several business ventures and spends about ten minutes at a time on each project. When he first shared this, I thought this kind of pace would drive me crazy. How can you get anything done in ten minutes? But now – after days of no productivity – I am willing to give this a try.
I have a hard time concentrating for more than ten minutes. Knowing that in ten minutes I will be doing something else allows me to be in the moment of whatever I am doing. I hate sitting in front of the computer but this is how I make money – so I have to do it. On the other hand, I do love my computer but in small doses. A ten minute window means I can get a blog post done, an article half-written, or some other task done. That is the goal anyway – to get stuff done.
This is why I believe in doing household work this way, too. I cannot stand the idea of cleaning for hours but for ten minutes? I can do that. It is also amazing what can be accomplished in ten minutes: a clean kitchen, a clean bathroom, clutter removed from living room, etc. Plus during the holidays, I can wrap a few presents and then move on in ten minutes time.
The ten minute rule also gives me time to work in frequent breaks where I can check on email, water plants, read, crochet, or play games. My ten minutes are almost up, so let me wrap this up by saying that breaking my day up into ten minutes increments will help me get more accomplished and feel less stress.
