5 life-changing productivity tips

It’s amazing how sometimes a very simple change of behaviour can have a large overall life-changing effect. The following tips have greatly increased my productivity and have ultimately improved my life.

1. If it can be done in under 2 minutes, do it now

This of course is a GTD tip – when processing tasks, if it’s a quick one, do it straight away rather than leaving it for later. I started applying this to housework as well. If I see something that needs tidied and it can be done quickly I don’t put it off. An example – say I’ve been shopping and I’ve unpacked a load of stuff that needs to go upstairs to the bathroom (toilet rolls, shampoo, etc.). I used to leave a pile at the bottom of the stairs ready to take with me next time I was going up. Now I just do it straight away. What is the point in delaying? It creates clutter and it’s only going to take 30 seconds to put away anyway. And the exercise running up the stairs is good for me!

2. Reduce the frequency of checking your email and RSS feeds

I used to have my email refreshing every 5 minutes. And every time I heard the “purr” and saw the red circle on the Mail icon I just couldn’t resist having a look. It’s incredibly distracting. It now only checks for email every hour and I don’t let myself manually refresh.

Reading my feeds in NetNewsWire was even worse. I had it set to refresh every half hour. This is even more distracting than email because once I started reading I could be there for ages. Now I have it set to refresh every 4 hours and I find I’m looking at feeds about three times a day. Of course, I’m spending the same amount of time reading than I was before. But I’m doing it in chunks rather than let it repeatedly interrupt what I was already doing.

3. Keep your “hotspots” tidy

This one’s from the FlyLady. A hotspot is an area of your house that tends to get cluttered. We all have them – the place you tend to dump your post once you’ve opened it, your desk, the coffee table. Clutter breeds clutter and before you know it there’s a big pile of stuff needing tidied. Twice a day I clear my hotspots. In other words, I don’t let the clutter build up. You wouldn’t believe what a difference this has made to my house. I only have 5 hotspots that I keep an eye on so it really isn’t time consuming to keep them clear. And it’s worn off on the rest of the family – even the children understand where the hotspots are and that they should try to not mess them up.

My household cleaning routines: Part 7 – summary

Here’s a summary of all my cleaning routines (adapted from the FlyLady).

Morning Routine

1. Get up at 6.15 (6.45 at the weekend)
2. Read emails, check blog stats and read RSS feeds while it is quiet before anyone else is up
3. Unload the dishwasher (and reload with the breakfast stuff)
4. Quickly wipe the toilets and sinks
5. Put a load in the washing machine
6. Wipe the kitchen worktop and table
7. Check the calendar and my to-dos in Things for the day
8. Check my list of meals for the week (to see if I need to take anything out the freezer or buy something later)

On a Friday morning I also bleach the toilets. On a Sunday morning I do my GTD weekly review.

Afternoon Routine

1. Hang out the washing on the line or put it in the tumble dryer, depending on the weather
2. 15 minutes decluttering/tidying in the “deep clean area” of the week
3. Monthly deep-cleaning jobs (Monday to Thursday only)
4. Get the dried washing and do 15 minutes ironing
5. Process my in-basket (GTD style)
6. Make dinner

In addition, I wipe the fridge and do my meal plans and shopping list on a Monday. I do the weekly shop on a Tuesday afternoon.

My household cleaning routines: Part 6 – Friday

The usual morning routine:

1. Read emails, check blog stats and read RSS feeds while it’s quiet before anyone else is up
2. Unload the dishwasher (and reload with the breakfast stuff)
3. Quickly wipe the toilets and sinks (and I also put bleach down the toilets on a Friday)
4. Put a load in the washing machine
5. Wipe the kitchen worktop and table
6. Check the calendar and my to-dos in Things for the day
7. Check my list of meals for the week (to see if I need to take anything out the freezer or buy something later

I don’t work on a Friday so it’s my big housework day. I do this in the morning and I do it as quickly as I can. (The FlyLady does all this on a Monday but I prefer a Friday so the house is all clean for the weekend and I can relax knowing there is nothing needing done. She also says it should take about an hour but I find it takes me close to double that. It obviously depends on the size of your house…and whether you have a dog who is moulting more than you would think is caninely possible!)

1. Hoover everywhere apart from the rooms done yesterday. This is a “maintenance” job so I don’t move furniture. (I only hoover under furniture when part of deep-clean jobs.)
2. Wash the kitchen floor
3. Dust
4. Clean the glass on the internal doors and all the mirrors (using my trusty e-cloth so it takes no time at all)

My household cleaning routines: Part 5 – Thursday

Same old morning routine:

1. Read emails, check blog stats and read RSS feeds while it’s quiet before anyone else is up
2. Unload the dishwasher (and reload with the breakfast stuff)
3. Quickly wipe the toilets and sinks
4. Put a load in the washing machine
5. Wipe the kitchen worktop and table
6. Check the calendar and my to-dos in Things for the day
7. Check my list of meals for the week (to see if I need to take anything out the freezer or buy something later

The Thursday afternoon routine follows the same pattern.

1. Hang out the washing on the line or put it in the tumble dryer, depending on the weather
2. 15 minutes decluttering/tidying in “deep clean area” for the week, i.e. for this week the children’s bedrooms, their bathroom and the downstairs toilet. (Most weeks, by the time I get to Thursday there isn’t really anything left to tidy.)
3. Monthly deep-cleaning jobs: Big one today – wash and hoover the bathroom and downstairs toilet floors. Then hoover the children’s bedrooms, including under the beds.
4. Get the dried washing and do 15 minutes ironing
5. Process my in-basket (GTD style)
6. Make dinner

My household cleaning routines: Part 4 – Wednesday

The morning routine is the same as before.

1. Read emails, check blog stats and read RSS feeds while it’s quiet before anyone else is up
2. Unload the dishwasher (and reload with the breakfast stuff)
3. Quickly wipe the toilets and sinks
4. Put a load in the washing machine
5. Wipe the kitchen worktop and table
6. Check the calendar and my to-dos in Things for the day
7. Check my list of meals for the week (to see if I need to take anything out the freezer or buy something later)

I don’t work on a Wednesday so I usually try and do as much of my afternoon routine in the morning if I can. Then I’ll have the afternoon free.

My household cleaning routines: Part 3 – Tuesday

The morning routine is the same as Monday’s.

1. Read emails, check blog stats and read RSS feeds while it’s quiet before anyone else is up
2. Unload the dishwasher (and reload with the breakfast stuff)
3. Quickly wipe the toilets and sinks
4. Put a load in the washing machine
5. Wipe the kitchen worktop and table
6. Check the calendar and my to-dos in Things for the day
7. Check my list of meals for the week (to see if I need to take anything out the freezer or buy something later)

I do the week’s shopping on the way home from work on a Tuesday. Then, the afternoon is much the same as Monday’s except for the deep-cleaning jobs.

1. Hang out the washing on the line or put it in the tumble dryer, depending on the weather.
2. 15 minutes decluttering/tidying in “deep clean area” for the week, i.e. for this week the children’s bedrooms, their bathroom and the downstairs toilet
3. Monthly deep-cleaning jobs: dusting the children’s bedrooms and bathroom; wiping fingermarks off the walls and doors
4. Get the dried washing and do 15 minutes ironing
5. Process my in-basket (GTD style)
6. Make dinner

My household cleaning routines: Part 2 – Monday

I have the same morning routine for every day.

1. Read emails, check blog stats and read RSS feeds while it’s quiet before anyone else is up. (I get up at quarter past six – my husband and children appear at about seven.)
2. Unload the dishwasher (and reload with the breakfast stuff).
3. Clean the toilets and sinks. (I use antibacterial washable cloths, separate cloths for the toilets and the sinks (obviously!). I don’t use any cleaning products for this daily clean-up – this is just a quick wipe. It takes me no more than 4 minutes to do three bathrooms.)
4. Put a load in the washing machine (including the cloths I just used in the bathrooms).
5. Wipe the kitchen worktop and table.
6. Check the calendar and my to-dos in Things for the day.
7. Check my list of meals for the week (to see if I need to take anything out the freezer or buy something later).

Once I get in from work at lunchtime I have an afternoon routine. This varies depending on the day of the week and which area of the house I intend to “deep clean” for the week.

My household cleaning routines: Part 1

Back in January I wrote a post about how I had implemented the FlyLady routines into my life. In November last year I discovered the FlyLady website and it provided the solution to the chaos my house was in at the time. The housework had completely gotten on top of me and I felt as though I had lost control. The kitchen was a mess, the bathrooms looked horrible, the laundry was either not done or sitting crumpled in a basket, waiting to be ironed. I needed a good two days’ notice before anyone could visit so I could get the house looking presentable! I was totally stressed.

The FlyLady has routines to follow to get your house tidied and to then maintain it that way. Initially I stuck rigidly to the suggested plans but over time I’ve modified them to suit me. I’ve also combined them with a bit of GTD. And it’s worked really well. The house doesn’t look perfect. It still gets untidy (how could it not with three children!) but it takes no time to get it looking nice again. It we have unannounced visitors it doesn’t matter because the house is always presentable. And I feel so much calmer – I don’t have that horrible underlying stress I used to feel. I now really enjoy my home.

I have daily morning, afternoon and before-bed routines. There are also weekly and monthly routines. It keep these all documented in Pages so I don’t forget them. The daily and weekly routines maintain the house in a clean, tidy, presentable state. The monthly (actually five weekly) routines are for deeper cleaning. For a whole week one area of the house is concentrated on, on a rolling five week rota.

Since it is Sunday I did my GTD weekly review earlier this morning. At this time I plan my bigger housework jobs for the upcoming week. This week I’m concentrating on the children’s bathroom, the downstairs toilet and the children’s bedrooms. I have entered what needs to be done into Things and set due dates. I only do these monthly housework tasks on weekdays. I don’t do any housework (other than my quick daily routines) at the weekend.

Each day over the next week I will explain what my specific cleaning routines are for the day.

Also:

• My household cleaning routines: Part 2 – Monday
• My household cleaning routines: Part 3 – Tuesday
• My household cleaning routines: Part 4 – Wednesday
• My household cleaning routines: Part 5 – Thursday
• My household cleaning routines: Part 6 -Friday
• Cleaning my house the FlyLady way

Cleaning my house the FlyLady way

I have a confession to make. I subscribe to the FlyLady mailing list. Here’s how it happened…

Two months ago I started reading about Getting Things Done. I hadn’t intentionally gone in search of methods of increasing my productivity – I just came across it while reading some Mac blogs. At the time I was completely disorganised. The house was a mess, the washing was lying unsorted in various laundry baskets, my “things to read for work” pile was huge and the desk was so covered in who-knows-what that I could barely find the mouse. The task of sorting it all out was so overwhelming that I continually put it off and spent most of my time on the computer instead of being productive. The whole concept of GTD and being able to get myself organised really excited me. So I started looking for more productivity hacks – I discovered 43 Folders, which indirectly led me to the FlyLady website.

Nine years ago Marla Cilley was as disorganised as I was. She decided to do something about it and devised a scheme to get her house sorted out. She gradually developed cleaning and tidying routines and over a period of nine months her house was transformed. She set up a website with how she did it and all the routines she uses. The basic idea is that you gradually build up simple routines that then become habits.

I’ll explain how it works.