Putting things away
Having a convenient place for everything is important for time management. But it is only part of the solution, the other part is to actually put things in their places.
It is much easier and saves time if you do not drop things just anywhere you feel like dropping them in your room. If you put things away and hang up your clothes at night, there will be no picking up to do in the morning.
The habit of putting things away instead of putting things down is your new goal.
You need to emphasize doing the tasks that will take you less than two minutes to put away, right away. Otherwise that small job will turn into an “add it to my to do list later” item. The more that we can get done in the moment, the less we will have to remember to do them again later.
This principle can be adapted to be even more powerful when you get into the habit of using it beyond physical items in your room or home, but also with digital information and follow-up tasks.
Let’s say you receive an invite for an upcoming party, if you are able to attend, RSVP now, not later. Then mark it on your calendar and throw away the invite. What about emails that comes into your box and needs information attended to? Reply right away, and then you can clear your inbox. Letting your inbox fill up with email is just like leaving items on the countertop because you don’t want to put them away now.
One of my favorite sayings is,
“Never put off till tomorrow, what you can do today.”
Use that even in the littlest of applications in life. If you can put away all your items after returning from a shopping trip now, then do it. Don’t wait till a later time to put things away. Why wait? Stop procrastinating and just get it done.
Hands on skill:
You are going to take note to pay attention to immediately getting done what can be done, instead of waiting until a later time. Apply this principle when returning home from being gone all day, when you complete activities and have to put large amounts of stuff away, and as you go about your daily life. Look at each opportunity to get things done, instead of waiting for a later date.
Are you noticing that you are more apt to just dropping your items and leaving them for a later time? Are you stopping and reminding yourself that instead of putting things down, I need to put them away?
Work this week at being consistent at putting things away immediately instead of waiting for a later time. Do not put off for later which you can do right now. Take the extra two minutes and get it done.
Which tasks, that can be completely in just a few moments, do you put off “till a later time?” Write these tasks down. If you cannot think of any, just ask others in your family which ones they think you need to improve. Sometimes others can see things that we might not see.
