When I was doing my social work internship, I came across
the five-minute principle. One of
my coworkers shared with me that her son had been diagnosed with Attention
Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder or more commonly known as ADHD. She really wanted to avoid putting him
on medication and so one of the techniques she used with him was to set a timer
for five minutes. If he could
complete five minutes of his schoolwork without getting up, then he was
rewarded with five minutes of free time.
Every time he got up before the timer went off, the timer would be reset
for another five minutes with no reward.
This may sound silly to you but no matter what your attention span is
everyone needs to feel the rush of completing a task. Completing one task successfully helps spur you on to be
able to complete the next task ahead of you.
I use this same method for household chores. Sure, after a long day at the office
the last thing that you want to do is come home to dirty dishes, a pile of
laundry, and a bunch of hungry family members asking you what is for
dinner. It would be so much easier
to just crash on the couch for the evening and hope that you had more energy
tomorrow. However, pick one small
task that you can accomplish in five minutes. For example, see if you can unload and reload the dishwasher
in five minutes … you will be amazed at what you can accomplish. The success of completing that task
will give you energy to try another five-minute task and before you know it you
will be looking around amazed at how quickly you brought order to the
chaos. I am not promising that
your home will look perfect or that you will cook a gourmet meal every night
but if you start somewhere you will be amazed at how easily you went from stressed
to success!
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