Don't Let Tasks Become Projects

Do you ever feel that somehow clutter has taken over your home, office, or life? Many of my clients do. At some point they have thrown up their hands and given in: “Why bother? It’s too much work. I don’t have time to be organized.”
If you have ever felt this way, begin thinking about how the clutter began. Most clutter begins as a small pile that builds and spreads over time, taking on a life of its own until it becomes a mountain. That same thing happened to me years ago.
I have always hated filing (ironic, huh?) and used to place my paperwork to file into a large milk crate. When the papers reached the top of the crate, I would think about filing. By the time I could find the two to three hours needed to file, the crate was spilling its papers all over my closet. I had let a task—filing a few papers each day—become a project that took me hours to complete.
Realizing that I was making too much work (and stress) for myself, I filed the mountain of papers and tossed the crate. I then filed more frequently, breaking up a potential project into smaller, manageable tasks. It had been a struggle to find three hours of time to file a huge pile, but it was much easier to find 20 minutes in a busy week. I also saved time by not having to paw through the contents of the crate to find a needed article (which was always on the bottom!). Today, I file daily, which takes less than five minutes, and I don’t dread the small task.
What tasks in your daily routines have you turned into projects because you regularly put them off?
Here are some common tasks people struggle with:no Opening mailno Shredding paperno Returning calls and /or emailsno Paying billsno Returning items to a storeno Doing laundryno Balancing the checkbookno Getting broken items fixedno Making medical or dental appointmentsno Putting today’s “stuff” away
Which tasks do you put off? Decide today not to let simple tasks become projects. When tempted to procrastinate, take five minutes to get the task done and congratulate yourself. While the mountains of clutter may still need to be addressed, you won’t be making them any larger. Who knows, you may even find an extra ten minutes to get started one of the mountains.
Don’t let a task become a project. Doing the small tasks while they are still small will eventually become a habit, leaving time for activities you want to accomplish.