Easy Work Now, or Hard Work Later?

Which is better?

A. Brushing your teeth twice a day, or...
B. Brushing your teeth every Saturday 14 times?

A. Mowing your lawn each week, or...
B. Doing one colossal annual lawn-mowing?

If you said "A" for both questions, you've got the right idea. REGULAR MAINTENANCE is the better way to manage things that require constant attention.

Take some time today to think about the regular maintenance that could be applied to systems in your home:  Dishes, laundry, landscaping, home repairs... what could you improve upon? How could you remind yourself to do the right things at the right times?

I like using my good ol' calendar in Outlook to set up recurring events that remind me to do certain things like make medical appointments and change filters. Clutter Diet members can use our program's reminder system to set recurring e-mail reminders for a desired interval like every week, every 3 months, every other month, etc.

As Bernard Meltzer said, "Hard work is often the easy work you did not do at the proper time."

What are your favorite maintenance methods? How do you remind yourself to do recurring tasks? Share in the comments!

Related previous post: How Baking Cookies Relates to Procrastination

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Comments

[Lola Meyer]

My husband and son work construction so every day when I begin making dinner, I also start the clothes washer filling. When they get home, they put their dirty clothes in the ready to go washer and start the cycle. We never have a 'mountain' of laundry to do with this system.

[Amy]

I use Remember the Milk to remember . . . well everything :)

[Ellen Tipton]

I wrap my car keys in a napkin and place them on my lunch leftovers in the office refrigerator so I don't forget to take them home. I can't go anywhere w/o the keys and I can't forget the lunch. The keys are wrapped in a napkin to prevent germs. This way I don't find something in the fridge two weeks later that I don't recognize.

[Carole]

Isn't that funny! I wrote about the same topic today. Great minds think alike! But I can't guess what baking cookies has to do with procrastination - I'll have to go read that one....

[Taylor at Household Management 101]

I love routines because they help me stay on track without having to think of a new plan all the time. I can just go on auto-pilot and get the housework done.

It is always easier to clean up something right away too, then to let it sit for a while first. Somehow it sitting there brings an inertia that must be overcome before you can begin, and sometimes the first step is the hardest.