I’ve been working really hard in the evenings and on weekends for the past year to generate extra income to pay off my debt. It’s worked!
I’m now only two months from having the entire $38,000 eradicated (I had the same amount as Michelle). Now that I’ve pretty much got my debt in the bag, I’ve resolved to make a little more time for myself and spend less time side hustling and writing.
Since I’ve had a bit of extra free time in the evenings and on weekends, I’ve been on a huge minimalizing kick and becoming a minimalist.
I’ve let things pile up around here, and without the time to address it, it has been driving me crazy.
The problem is, once I start cleaning and eradicating clutter, I sometimes get carried away and before I know it, half of my house is torn apart, and I’ve been so busy flitting from one project to the next that I haven’t been able to actually get rid of anything. Maybe it’s the millennial in me, but when I’m at home, sometimes I have a hard time concentrating on just one project, and completing it, before moving on to the next thing that catches my eye.
One Thing a Day helps You Focus
So, I’ve adopted the “One thing a day” rule. With this rule, I still get to indulge in my minimalism kick, but I don’t get overwhelmed by it all. I pick one thing, and tackle that. Once I’m done, I’m done. It could be anything, from a project as small as organizing the medicine cabinet to some more significant.
Yesterday, was the weekend, so I picked a fairly significant project, one that has been nagging at me for over a year. My entertainment unit was where I chucked all of my electronic crap when I first moved in, and it’s remained a snarled tangle of cords and CDs ever since.
Even though the door was closed and I couldn’t see it, I knew it was there, that mess. It mocked me, and I longed to do something about it, but never had the time. Last night, I picked it as my one project. I removed everything, eliminated about 50% of the contents, and put it all back in an orderly fashion. I made it function as a storage space that actually served a day-to-day purpose.
One Thing a Day Keeps You from Being Overwhelmed
Tackling one thing per day helps keep things in perspective, and you move towards your goals without getting burned out or losing interest.
You won’t avoid it, because it’s not a huge project, it’s just one thing – it’s easy, and depending on the size of the project, could take as little a five minutes.
The “one thing per day” doesn’t just pertain to minimalism. This strategy can be applied to all sorts of ongoing projects or interests you want to take on. Whether it’s exercising, learning a language, paying off debt, or just plain getting stuff done that you’ve been putting off, resolving to tackle one project – any project – per day can be a great way to get a ton of stuff accomplished, while never feeling overwhelmed, frustrated or exhausted.
Since I’ve started using this “one thing per day” rule, I’ve been able to accomplish all sorts of stuff. I’ve started running regularly again, I’ve managed to keep my house clean without letting the dishes or laundry pile up, and I’ve organized and gotten rid of bags upon bags of stuff that had been cluttering up my life.
Honestly, it’s felt great, and I’m really happy that I’ve had the time to be able to do it.
If you could pick one thing per day to accomplish, what would you do?
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