Just Do It Now!
Just Do It Now. I love this idea of doing things right away. I started practicing this years ago when I had very young kids. If I didn’t do it right away, my pile of “to-do’s” grew to a scary size and my family would spend weekends trying to clean it up, so we could start off the next week with some semblance of order.
To get started, think of your everyday “to-do’s” as five-minute blocks of time. If you do the dishes right after dinner, it only takes five minutes, throwing a load of laundry into the washing machine only takes five minutes. Even running errands can be broken down into five-minute blocks of time. Try putting your dry-cleaning or an item you need to return somewhere in your car. If you have it while you are out and driving by the place, it takes much less time to complete the task at that time, than to make an extra trip for one errand. By doing things now, you can have guilt-free time later. So, just do it now.
I love this idea of doing things right away. Share on X
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Janet Schiesl
Janet has been organizing since 2005. She is a Certified Professional Organizer and the owner of Basic Organization.
She loves using her background as a space planner to challenge her clients to look at their space differently. She leads the team in large projects and works one-on-one with clients to help the process move quickly and comfortably. Call her crazy, but she loves to work with paper, to purge what is not needed and to create filing systems that work for each individual client.
Janet is a Past Board Member of the National Association of Productivity and Organizing Professionals and a Past President of the Washington DC Chapter of NAPO were she has been named Organizer of the Year and Volunteer of the Year.
Janet Schiesl
Janet has been organizing since 2005. She is a Certified Professional Organizer and the owner of Basic Organization.
She loves using her background as a space planner to challenge her clients to look at their space differently. She leads the team in large projects and works one-on-one with clients to help the process move quickly and comfortably. Call her crazy, but she loves to work with paper, to purge what is not needed and to create filing systems that work for each individual client.
Janet is a Past Board Member of the National Association of Productivity and Organizing Professionals and a Past President of the Washington DC Chapter of NAPO were she has been named Organizer of the Year and Volunteer of the Year.
I’ve heard of the Time Timer, but never really understood how it differed from other types of timers. Clever concept! I think it’s especially difficult to picture how much time we have to do something if we rely on a digital clock, rather than one with a dial. I’ve started wearing my wristwatch again after many years for that very reason!
Yes, it is a unique product. Has wearing your watch made a difference for you so far?
Big fan of the Time Timer. It’s great for when you are public speaking because it is easy to glance and keep track of your time. I always wear a wristwatch, like Janet talked about. Keeping track of time is a big part of what I do. It’s my job when I am with a client to know when we need to stop and start resetting, and also to know how much we can tackle in a given period of time.
I love that you use the watch to remember to take time to reset as well. Public speaking is a good use of the time timer!
I LOVE the Time Timer products! I recommend and use them myself. As a visual learner, I do much better with the analog versions of time than digital ones. And the Time Timer reinforces that idea with how it visual represents time elapsing.
It’s such a great resource for visual learners.
Thanks for giving me your knowledge of the Time Timer. I will pass it on to my clients and followers.
You’re welcome. I hope it will help them.
I love the idea of “just do it!” I adopted it when my first child was still a toddler. Now with two teens, I try to get them to “just do it” instead of getting around to cleaning their stuff off our kitchen table after _ (fill in the blank – homework, talking to a friend, playing a game…). I even thought of this blog, after I first read it this morning, when I was about to set something aside to be mailed later – after all, I was going to leave the house in 5 minutes, I could mail it right away if I took 2 minutes to get it ready to mail. Done!
I bet it can be a little difficult with teens, but such a great skill to pass along to them.
Excellent tip about putting things to return in your car so they’re readily available while you’re out! The 5-minute block mentality ties into kind of a Kaizen approach, where incremental progress is the focus instead of the end goal. It makes even large tasks much less daunting to be broken up.
I agree with that about the Kaizen approach. Better to be making small steps than no steps.
Two related concepts that work perfectly together. When I tell myself to “do it now,” it’s often because I know that it’s something I’ll procrastinate on (usually, making a phone call) if I don’t get it done and out of the way. Doing something right away takes all of the mental weight out of the task! Whether it’s an onerous task or just taking the full trash out and replacing it with a fresh bag, doing it now is a gift to your future self.
And I always, always love Time Timers! They do such a good job of making time meaningful!
Great point about it usually being something we will eventually procrastinate for a while about if we don’t ‘do it now’.