Tried the 'five minute rule' for my messy kitchen and it backfired

Everyone says if a task takes less than five minutes, do it right away. I saw my sink full of dishes and thought, sure, I can knock that out. But I got started, and then I saw the stove was dirty, so I wiped that. Then I figured I should sweep the floor since I was already cleaning. An hour later, I was reorganizing a cabinet and my kitchen was a bigger mess than when I started. I learned that for me, the rule just opens a door to a bigger project I didn't plan for. My small win was finally stopping myself and just putting away the dry dishes from the rack. That was it. Sometimes the win is just doing the one small thing you meant to do, not the ten extra things. Has anyone else found that a popular piece of advice just doesn't work for how your brain operates?

3 comments

3 Comments

cameronn621mo ago

Oh man, so what finally made you stop and step back?

the_alice1mo ago

Realized I was just going through the motions every single day, you know? Woke up one morning and felt completely empty, like a robot on autopilot. The constant stress finally gave me a panic attack in the grocery store parking lot. That was my big, ugly sign to change everything.

emery19927d ago

Yeah, I had to totally change how I use that rule. I started setting a literal timer on my phone for five minutes and when it goes off, I have to stop. It feels weird at first, but it stops that snowball effect where cleaning the sink turns into deep cleaning the fridge. The win is in the stopping, not the doing more.