7 Ways to Trick Yourself in to Getting Things Done

7 Ways to Trick Yourself in to Getting Things Done: Sometimes when we dread doing chores, or some of the “musts” in life, a little self trickery helps!

7 Ways to Trick Yourself in to Getting Things Done

1. Waiting on the Coffee

Making coffee. It’s the first thing I do every morning. But waiting while it brews, KILLS me. (Doesn’t it seem like it takes forever to brew some mornings?)  I used to walk around like a zombie, killing time while it brewed, looking for any crumb left over from the night before, so I could shove in to my mouth while, waiting for the warm liquid gold to be ready. But instead, now I’ll clean out the dishwasher, throw away trash, or move dirty dishes to the sink during this time.

A bit of kitchen clean up in those few minutes of waiting can make a big difference.

See my chic home office reveal where I snapped the photo of my white coffee maker.

2. Binge Watching

I’m a sucker for the Bachelorette and binge watching Golden Girls. To make the dreaded house chores less torturous, save your DVR and guilty pleasure shows for only when you fold laundry. When I do this, I get to “zone out,” on the tv and not really pay attention to what my hands are doing.

If you enjoy doing laundry, maybe you could save your binge watching for when you balance the checkbook, (but be careful you don’t add too many zeros when the bachelor chooses the “wrong girl.”)

See my laundry room shelving setup! You can also see how I’ve decorated my laundry room.

3. The Shower Negotiator

I’m not going to lie. I do not like taking showers and getting ready. I will wait until the absolute last minute to get ready if I’m able to. It’s one of those things that seems like a waste of time. I know, I know… that sounds crazy. But it HAS to be done. (Or my husband will probably start to sit farther and farther away from me on the couch at night.)

So on the days where I don’t feel like taking a shower, but it must happen… I’ll trick myself and say

“Ok, I won’t wash my hair. That will shave off a good 15 minutes of washing/fixing my hair.”

Then suddenly the dreaded shower seems bearable. But guess what? I usually end up going full blown shower and washing my hair, and doing the whole shebang once I get in there.

See my master bathroom tour HERE!

4. Start Small

With a large project like cleaning out the garage, or even a smaller project like cleaning out the fridge, and telling yourself,

“Oh I’ll just do one small section today, and save the rest for some other time.”

You may just trick yourself in to doing the whole thing. My mom actually told me that when it comes to cleaning out the refrigerator, she’ll say “I’ll just clean the bottom shelf today,” and then she ends up with a spotless refrigerator a little bit later.

When you start with small tasks, sometimes it turns in to you wanting to actually do more and more and before you know it, you have a clean garage/kitchen/home.

See our garage design ideas.

5. Laundry Basket

While hanging out with my sister the other day, she was telling me about her friend and her house cleaning strategy. She said that her friend struggled with getting distracted while cleaning a room. She’d start in her kid’s room and find something that belonged in the kitchen, and walk to the kitchen, and then see that the dishes needed washed, and then realized that she didn’t have dish rag, so she’d go to the laundry room, and realize that the load in the washer was ready to switch to the…

Yeah. Like that. Do you ever find yourself running all over the house when you’re cleaning, and you find that an hour has went by and you didn’t even get one thing done? I get that. I totally do. So what my sister’s friend did to avoid this “squirrel-like” behavior, was start carrying a laundry basket to the room she wanted to clean. Then, when she found something that belonged in another room, she’d put it in the basket, and would go about cleaning the same room… without leaving until it was done. Then, when it was done, she’d carry the laundry basket around and start putting things where it belonged. Less distractions, more focus, results in a clean room.

I SOOOO love this idea. I’ll be doing this from now on when cleaning my kid’s playroom… where 10 rooms tend to collect in this one over the course of a few days.

See our playroom ideas.

6. Reward Yourself

Well it’s no secret around here with how I feel about food. Food = Love. So when I’ve been putting off a chore around the house, I’ll tell myself:

When I get this done, I’m going to go get that Twinkie I’ve been eyeing in the pantry.

I’m not kidding. I love Twinkies. You’d be surprised what I’d do for a Hostess cake. But this may be ice cream for you, a bubble bath at night, or even a trip to Sephora.

Reward yourself when you finally get that pantry organized, or when you’ve cleaned out the car. It sure makes the task a lot easier for me!

7. Learn & Go

Oh my, how I LOVE a good podcast. While in the car, on long drives to meetings, you better believe I’m listening to one of my favorite podcasts and totally zoning in on something new and exciting that I can learn. When I started incorporating this habit in to other areas in life, instead of only doing it in the car… changed how I tackled the “not-so-fun” things in life.

Grocery shopping, getting ready/taking a shower, and cleaning house, are my favorite times to listen to a podcast. I’m not only finally getting things done, but I’m pumped up because I’m learning something while doing it. Killing two birds with one stone… right? This could even be audio books for you readers out there too!

If you see me in the grocery store, please don’t think I’m rude… I may just have earbuds in, listening to something that I’m TOTALLY in to.

Anything Here Helpful?

I so hope something I’ve mentioned here helped you in some way, because that’s what it’s all about! Sharing tips and tricks that I’ve learned that work for me… in hopes that it can help in real life, for you too, is my fave. If you love tips like this, you’re also going to love the harsh truth about decluttering.

I’d love it if you let me know in the comments below!