Clutterbug - Real-Life Hacks and Tips to Declutter, Organize and Clean your Home Fast - Time Management Secrets - Get More Done in Less Time | Clutterbug Podcast # 228

Episode Date: June 17, 2024

Do you feel like there is never enough time in the day?! I've got a few little secrets that help me get more done and feel less rushed and hectic!  Listen to today's podcast for some time management solutions that really work.     You can find more Clutterbug content here: Website: http://www.clutterbug.me YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@clutterbug TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@clutterbug_me Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/clutterbug_me/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Clutterbug.Me/   #clutterbug #podcast     Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today we're talking about time management and I'm going to share some of my secrets with you right now. Hey, clutterbugs. Welcome back to the clutterbug podcast. Something has been bothering me for a little while now. It's literally all I can think about. And that is my last podcast. I think it was two podcasts ago where I talked about cleaning my house and how having the surfaces be hot lava means that I can clean my house now. in about an hour and a half. And I was reading a lot of the comments, both on the YouTube channel and in my podcast, and I was hearing the same comments over and over, like, how could you clean that fast? I also hired a professional that cleaned my home that fast. And a lot of people who are professional cleaners were in the comments saying that's at least four to five hours for a house that size. it's impossible. And I started thinking, man, what am I missing? Like, what am I not cleaning? What am I doing wrong? Because it looks clean. But yeah, I'm spending about five minutes a room, which is not a lot of time. And then I started like second

guessing myself am I doing this wrong? And it's been stressing me out big time because I don't want to give you guys false information. I don't want to tell you you can clean a room in five minutes and then you fail because that's impossible for you to do even when you've fully decluttered and organized and everything has a home. Like if this is something that's unattainable, then I shouldn't be saying it. So I timed myself. Every single room I gave it the clean on your mark. at set go and my bathroom was six minutes. Some rooms were under five minutes. And I realize I'm not doing a good job. And I think that's really what this comes down to is I'm not cleaning in the way that is traditionally you're supposed to clean. I'm not doing a perfect job. I'm missing a bunch of stuff. I'm just tackling

the highest priority things that matter. And then once every month or a couple of months, I will do a more deep down clean, but on a weekly basis, it is only the things that matter. So my video on my YouTube channel coming out next week is actually going to be in real time. Emily's going to follow me around with a camera and I'm just going to clean my house and show you how I can clean a room in five minutes and exactly what that looks like. and why it looks differently than a professional would clean normally and how you're really cleaning your house. And I'm not telling you you should take shortcuts and do a crappy job. But I will tell you this.

Sometimes we overcomplicate things and we do things that are time consuming but aren't giving us a big bang for our buck. So that video is coming forward. but I also thought today I would talk a little bit about time management and tell you some of my secrets of things that I don't do that maybe other people see as important or that you're supposed to do in order to be able to get more done in less time. It's all about working hard by hardly working, doing that productive work, the biggest bang for your buck and letting the things that don't really matter go, giving yourself permission to like prioritize downtown free time, relaxation, still get the important stuff done, but kind of not worry so much about

the unimportant things. So we're going to talk about that in today's podcast. I'm also going to give you some tips for breaking big tasks down into small tasks because that is the secret for me, especially I have ADHD, so I definitely have time blindness. I either overestimate or underestimate a chore. And I also have a tendency of looking at things as like a big picture and then getting very overwhelmed. Here's an example. I have to do the laundry. Putting in the laundry, gathering it all, putting it in the washer, transferring it to the dryer, taking it out of the dryer, putting it away. That's like a two and a half hour job. I don't have two and a half hours to dedicate that today, so I put it off till tomorrow.

When the truth is the washer and dryer are doing it on its own, and all I really have to do is put it away. And that takes my chunk down to like 10 to 15 minutes, maybe 20 tops if I have to sort the kids in my clothes separately. They're putting away their own clothes. So it's like it's not that much time, but my brain for some reason immediately thinks of that task as this big, huge, long chunk of time. Same for cleaning the house, same for making dinner.

All, it all goes together, right? I put the whole task together and maximize how long it will take and then try to see if I have that much time in my day, which I never do. So I put things off until later. And it wasn't until I started breaking things down and looking at tasks differently that I was able to really become way better at time management and way more productive. I am certainly not an expert and I have to work on some things, but I'm learning. And I want to share some of these tricks with you. So we're going to start right off the bat with the breaking down because I do think this is probably the most important thing.

But before we jump in, I want to encourage you to take action on your home right now. to make a difference, to do something to make yourself proud. Get up. Do the dishes. Put away a load of laundry. Maybe dust something. Vacuum. Declutter. This is a very impactful thing that you can do. Find things to leave your house. Grab a trash bag on your market set go. Look for 21 things that can leave right now. Whatever you're doing, get up, make yourself proud because you showed up today to listen to this podcast. You are doing the work to improve your life. You're learning. You're looking for motivation and inspiration. You're not just sitting around, you know, letting life pass you by. You are a go-getter. And I know this because you're listening to this podcast. And there's no other reason for you to do it

other than you want to get stuff done. You want to make a difference. You want to be a better version of yourself. So take advantage of this time right now. Be proud of yourself. Be empowered. You are a warrior and you are kicking your house's butt right now. Okay. Let's talk about this mindset shift and this amazing productivity hack of taking a big task and breaking it down and really eliminating that time blindness thing that comes, whether you have ADHD or not. I feel like a lot of people struggle with time blindness. So when you are telling yourself something like, I have to clean the house, and maybe for you, this takes three hours to clean the house. Instead of thinking of it like that, break down the task to every step in there that you have to take. So do you have to pick everything up

first before you can clean? Let's dedicate 20 minutes to that. Do you have to dust? 10 minutes to that. you have to vacuum the floors? 20 minutes to that. Do you have to clean the bathrooms? Let's do another 20 minutes to that. Everybody house is different. But really for yourself, break it down, not only on paper, but also like write down each task and then estimate a time. Now, I know we suck at this, which is going to, the next step is going to come in a minute. But estimate a time that this is going to take for you beside it. Instantly, now, you can say to yourself, I don't have three hours to clean the house today, but I have 20 minutes I can vacuum. You can break it down into a reasonable chunk, which makes you feel more motivated.

You're way less likely to procrastinate. And this also helps you just stay focused. Because maybe you're like, okay, I can dust and vacuum, and then I've got a meeting, and then later tonight I can put away the laundry or clean the bathrooms. You're able to better manage your time. So you're not going to run late all the time. Like this is literally the secret. But now we can take this a step further. We can take a big task that we should do that we don't want to do. And we can break it down into chunks and then estimate the time for each of those different chunks. And now pick one and actually time yourself doing it. Actually time yourself.

This was so life-changing for me because for most of my life, I drastically overestimated the time that it took to do household tasks, which was the number one reason I put them off. An example is emptying the dishwasher. If you would have asked me years ago how long it took to empty the dishwasher, I would say 15 minutes always. I'd be like, oh, it's 15 minutes, which still isn't a lot of time. But it's enough time that I'm like, well, but my favorite show starts in 10. So I'll do it later. You know? Because I would tell myself it was going to take whatever time it was that was always exaggerated. So I got myself a timer. It was like this little egg timer. And I had a piece of paper

and I literally wanted to see how long everything took me. And I was doing this because I had heard of this one minute rule where if it takes a minute or less, do it now. So I started timing myself to see what took a minute and then I took it to the next level. And I timed myself emptying the dishwasher, which, by the way, averages three minutes, three minutes to empty the dishwasher. I timed myself making my bed again two to three minutes. That was it. I started timing myself doing every task, whether it was vacuuming the floors, quickly dusting. And then this magical thing happened. Because now I had real evidence of how long everything took to do. I could evaluate that and say, what's not actually worth it? Or, wow.

vacuuming took me an entire hour, that's ridiculous. How can I reduce this time? Which Roombas came in. Robot vacuums immediately eliminate an hour. That's one hour back that I don't have to do. And I know that comes from a place of privilege. You're like, Must be nice, Cass, to be able to buy Roombas.

It's true. That probably makes me sound like a dick. But it's worth it to me to save for years and years and years if you have to because it changes the game for you. It takes a huge chunk of time off. And guess what else you can do if you can't afford a robot vacuum? You can dedicate vacuuming to a kid in your house. Five, six, seven, eight kids that age can vacuum. Teenagers can definitely vacuum. And we can delegate that job because it doesn't have to be done super perfectly. It just has to be done often.

So that's a chore right off the bat. We no longer have to include that in our house cleaning time. Because we just like, we've either automated it or delegated it to somebody else. And this was so powerful because when I was really looking at how much time I spent on all these tasks, I was able to say, whoa, why am I spending? three hours folding laundry a week. How about I just, like, not fold and start shoving things in bins? Why am I dedicating one hour to dusting baseboards or cleaning windowsills?

I'm just going to not do that step. I'm just going to eliminate that. I'm just going to focus on the top priority things that matter, and how can I get this down to a reasonable amount of time? And it changed the way I thought not only about housework, but every single thing in my life. I think about this. Now, when I have work projects to do, I break them down. I time myself doing them.

I think of everything now in chunks of time. I'm going to spend 20 minutes doing emails. I'm going to spend, you know, 25 minutes writing a newsletter. I'm going to spend one hour recording a podcast and then give myself one more hour to edit and upload it. Like I know now the time and I can allocate it. So now I have a realistic schedule going on. And it all started with this stupid little egg timer that I got off of Amazon. It changed the way I thought. It changed the way I planned my day. So breaking big chunks down into smaller chunks and then really understanding how much time each of those chunks take. And I know we can. And I know we

can't do this for everything because there's a lot of things we probably maybe haven't done before or we don't know how long things take. But a lot of things are repetitive. Wash and repeat. Housework, laundry, dishes, cooking, walking the dog, working out, making our bed, getting ready for bed. All of these things, getting ready in the morning. All of these things are things we wash and repeat, wash and repeat, wash and repeat. But do you actually know how long each of those tasks take and are estimated. How long is your average shower? How long does it take you to do your hair and makeup? How long does it take you to get dressed? Do you really know? Because until you really know, how could you possibly do proper time management? Get yourself a timer.

Use your phone if you have to and start breaking those big tasks down into little ones and timing yourself doing them. It will change everything. And you can make yourself a master list and have it somewhere close by so you always know how long things take. And now we no longer have to put cleaning the house on our to-do list. We can put dust, vacuum, clean bathroom, and we can know exactly how long all of those things take. So when we do have a minute that we can check something off, we're like, listen, I've got 20 minutes right now before my favorite show starts or I have, you know, an hour before I have to start making dinner. Now we don't have to put it off because we don't have three hours to clean the house. We can pick one of those smaller tasks and know with confidence we can get it done and still have extra time.

We no longer lose that motivation. We no longer have a roadblock of time as an excuse to not do things. and it makes us feel more motivated. It really, really does. Okay, I'm rambling, prioritizing, timing. Those things were definitely, definitely key. And speaking of prioritized, this is the other thing I want to mention. I'm a huge fan of writing a to-do list. I think a to-do list is one of the most powerful tools, but it can also be incredibly overwhelming. Because if you are listing a million things you have to do and looking at that list, it can make you want to put your head in the sand in ostrich and just do nothing. You can be like, well, that's ridiculous.

And I'm, I'm never going to get any of this done. And I'm going to fail. So why even bother? So what I really use a to-do list as, it's a tool to help me brain dump. So I write everything down on my list. And if you're watching this video on YouTube, you could see I write all the things that I have to get done on one side. And then I pick three top priorities. And that's my real to-do list. Yeah, I write everything else down. But I don't have the intention of getting all of those things done. I do that so I can brain dump so I know I'm not forgetting anything. So I like, it gets off my mind. So I feel better. So I'm like, I'm going to forget something. This is just like an exercise in making me feel better, writing everything down. It's the prioritizing, picking those three

top things, that's the game changer. That's the moneymaker. That's the thing that's going to take you to the next level when it comes to time management and you're going to get done the things that are important. Those are the three things you have to do today. The rest of the stuff, those are things you can just transfer over to the next day or the next week. It doesn't really matter. At least it's on paper, so it's not rattling around in your poor brain. But it also gives you the ability to now pick the top three and make that the thing you focus on. Changes everything. That's another time management thing that I do that once you start, you're like, wow, this is life-changing.

I'm getting so much more done. I'm going to share the third secret that I do. That is amaze balls right after thanking today's podcast sponsor. Today's podcast sponsor is Earth Breeze. Earth Breeze is like dryer sheets, but it's actually a concentrated liquidless laundry detergent. It's tough on stains. It's tough on odors. And it's really kind to the planet and your skin because there isn't all that extra stuff in there.

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it's more a mantra, I guess, than anything else, but things in motion stay in motion and things in rest stay in rest. And this absolutely, it's not just a physics thing, it applies to our everyday life. I find on those days where I kind of lay around or I stay in my PJs or I'm just like, oh, I'm just going to, you know, do nothing for a little while. The rest of the day I feel like doing absolutely nothing. If I can make myself get dressed in the morning, even when I have no place to go, even if it's just yoga pants, I'm way more likely to feel motivated the rest of the day. And you can take this a step further and literally put running shoes on. And I'm not here saying you need to work from the time you get up till the time you go to bed.

That's not what I'm saying at all. But that little burst in the morning can set the tone for your day. Just getting dressed can set the tone for your day. Having a shower in the morning and putting on clothes, even if you crawl back in your bed, it makes a difference. And the other thing that I've really learned, I mean, I'm 45, man. I've got a lot of years on this planet as a queen expert procrastinator putting everything off to the last minute.

What I've really learned is the secret of five minutes matters. And I say it over and over, but the truth is I only have to do something for five minutes. Whatever that task is, I got to do the dishes. what if I just get up and load the sink with hot soapy water and let some of them soak, and that's all I got to do. Most of the time, just that action, I suddenly feel motivated to keep going. I don't want to stop. I want to do more.

So I went from absolutely not, don't want to, not going to force myself, going to make excuses, to allowing myself to have an out. And there are sometimes that I take the out, and that's okay too. but most of the time getting started is the hardest part and once I'm in motion I want to stay in motion when I allow myself to give in to do nothing at all and stay at rest all I do is stay at rest and it is good to rest and we should relax and we should take breaks but we also need to get up and do stuff sometimes and that's just life unless you're some trust fund kid you know sitting on billions of dollars and you can hire people to do everything we got to do stuff no one's

coming to rescue us no one's going to do it for us we are not a victim we are a hero we got to get up and make stuff happen but what if we just really don't want to we only have to do something for five minutes you don't have to put away the laundry right now what if you just take it out of the dryer put it in a basket, bring the basket by the couch, and if you feel like it, you can fold. Or take it up to you and put it in front of your closet. Maybe just for five minutes, put a couple of things away out of the basket. Can you do five minutes? Can you put a few things away?

I'm telling you, this has changed the game for me. Things in motion stay in motion. When I'm in motion, I stay in motion. I just have to move a few feet. I just need to stand up and do a little something, even when I don't want to. And also, five minutes can move freaking mountains. We talked about earlier,

how long does it take to empty the dishwasher? Three minutes. I want you to time yourself. Please, please, while you're listening to this podcast, if you're in the kitchen right now on a separate device, start a timer, and as fast as you can, empty that dishwasher. Just as fast as you can.

On your market set, go. Empty that dishwasher. Start the timer. How long does it actually take you? Because that's enough. Emptying the dishwasher or loading the dishwasher or putting in a load of laundry. All of these things take under five minutes,

but make a huge impact. We could do five minutes here, five minutes, two hours from now, five minutes a half an hour after that and we could be like I'm a freaking boss look at what I did today five minutes is powerful which leads me to the final thing that I want to talk about about time management and just getting more done in less time and being super productive and that is being intentional you hear this a lot especially life coaches and I hear this a lot I listen to other podcasts and like, be intentional. And at first I was like, what does that even mean? And I hate buzzwords and just

break it down for me like I'm a dummy and tell me exactly what to do. But what it really means is I'm not breaking it down like a dummy for you. I've learned being intentional means like committing to something in that moment, not I'm going to do it later someday, maybe what if. Intentionality means right now or you're setting a schedule, you're putting a meeting notice in your calendar with an alarm to remind you at this time you are doing this thing for this set amount of time. Whether that's working out, someday I'm good, maybe tomorrow I'll go for a run. That's not it being intentional. Tomorrow at 4.30, I'm running for 20 minutes.

That's intentional. Today, right now, I'm setting a timer and I'm decluttering for five minutes. That's intentional. Grab a trash bag. You know the goal. You've set the goal. You've set the time. And you're taking that action.

This is one of the biggest reasons why people are failing to do the stuff that they want to do. Because we are not being intentional with it. We are saying tomorrow, someday, we're wishy-washy. We're not actually setting a date with ourselves, setting a time. We are not, we're like when I feel like it, or maybe, you know, next week or this weekend, I'm going to clean out the garage. What time are you starting? Who's helping you?

Do you have the supplies? Have you set a reminder in your phone? Have you been intentional that 9 a.m., you're going to start working on your garage? and what's the first step that you're going to do? How long is that going to take? Schedule that step in. What's the step after that? Have you broken it down or is it just clean the garage?

No. First it's remove all the trash. Then it's make a pile of donations and start sorting and finding donations. Maybe it's spending a few minutes putting things away. I don't know. You do you, boo. You've got to break down your own big task. But that is what when people say, be intentional.

That's what they're talking about. that is that's what they're talking about no more wishy-washy wishes what's your plan when are you starting this plan how long is this going to take you and have you set reminders have you made it have you made a real commitment that is the difference i talk to a lot of people i clutter i help them as their clutter coach help them declutter their space and they will say time and time again to me i just i can't i haven't i know need to declutter i just have it it's hard for me for whatever reason i my house always looks like a disaster i get on a call with them on a zoom call for a coaching call we spend 20 minutes together and i'm like hey okay right now find five things that can go and they're fill in a bag they've had the time booked

they've come to this meeting with the intentionality of I'm going to declutter for 20 minutes. They have trash bags. They have cardboard boxes. I am useless to them. The only thing I'm doing is accountability. I'm making them be intentional because they've made an appointment with me. And they fill bags and bags and bags to get more done than they have in a year in 20 minutes. Why?

Because they've actually dedicated. themselves time. They've shown up. They've committed in their mind that this is what they're doing during this time and then they've just gotten started. That's the difference. The difference between someone who has a very cluttered home and someone who has a neat and tidy home. The person who has a neat and tidy home has intentionally carved out time in their schedule to do little tasks. They know what those tasks are and they're like, I'm starting, I'm doing it for 20 minutes here, 20 minutes there. That's the difference.

That's it. It's no wishy-washy someday tomorrow when I feel like it. That does not, that's, no one would ever get anything done with that kind of mentality. Sometimes we do feel motivated every now and then, but 90% of the time, we don't. We cannot wait for it to hit us. We have to create our own motivation. And if you're listening to the Clutterbug podcast, it's because you want to kick your house's butt. You're sick of it feeling like a part-time job. You're sick of being embarrassed by the mess.

You're sick of it feeling like this never-ending chore. You're tired of the mess. You want it to be effortless. Okay. Be intentional. It's never going to get better unless you have way less stuff. It's never going to get better until you break down those big tasks into small chunks and you just do the small chunks here and there. It's never going to get better if you're waiting till later. Because it is so hard to catch up. It is way easier to keep up. And I'm going to finish this by saying, while I've been timing myself cleaning my house to really get to like, why can I clean a room in five minutes? It doesn't actually look dirty while I'm cleaning it. It doesn't. because I'm doing it often enough that I can just take a swift or duster and I don't move anything.

I don't move stuff. I just woo. And maybe not everything. My ceiling fan probably needs to be done. It's probably the baseboards probably need to be done. It doesn't matter. Getting the big stuff and getting the important stuff. Quick vacuum, not a good vacuum.

I don't move things, not even in the corners, just in the high traffic areas. And then a speed mop and I move on. It's about consistent maintenance. If I do during the week, spill something, get toothpaste, notice a goo, I'll wipe it immediately. I don't wait till I clean the house on the weekend because then I have to scrub. If I'm having a shower and I have conditioner in my hair and I got to wait a few minutes for it to do a thing, I quickly like clean the shower stall or I'll quickly spray something and let it sit there.

because it's easier to keep up than it is to catch up. So yeah, I can clean a room in five minutes and it's not done well and you're going to watch this video next week and you're going to be like, actually it comes out tomorrow. This podcast, if you're listening to the audio version, it comes out Monday. This video is coming out. Oh, wait, no, no, the following. I'm filming it next week. So the following Tuesday, you're going to see that video.

You're going to be like, Cass, that's gross. And your house isn't really that clean. you don't spend enough time. And all of those things may be true, but it looks clean, friends. The toilet's clean. Maybe I wouldn't eat off it, but who the heck's eaten off our toilet? You can't see anything gross. The dust isn't building up. The floors aren't sticky. And that is good enough. That is good enough because we have better things to do. This is about simplifying your life, man. So you can watch Bridgeton, which comes soon the second half of the season or whatever it is playing in your garden playing with your kids

reading a book relaxing because you deserve it you deserve it but you also deserve to have a clean home that you're proud of a space that you love a nest that feels worthy of you and your family And you can get that when we work on time management. So I hope you found this podcast helpful. I hope you're feeling inspired. I hope you kicked your house's butt today while listening to this with me and got big stuff done in this short amount of time with me. I'm proud of you. I hope you're proud of yourself.

It doesn't ever have to be finished. It doesn't have to be perfect. There is no end. We will, it's housework is never ending, friend. We just got to keep up. so we don't have to catch up. Thank you so much, and I'll see you guys next time.