Secrets of Chores

Being an engineer, I have been trained to analyze everything thoroughly. Or maybe because I am, by nature, driven to analyze everything thoroughly, I ended up in engineering. Anyway, today on I.J. Theater, we present "My Hastily Well Thought Out Theory on Doing Chores and Other Nastiness." I've also used these ideas for homework and projects at work, not just household chores.

(1) I keep it in my head that I could be called away from the chore at any moment. This adds dramatic tension, of course, keeping me focused and interested. "What will I actually get done?" It also makes me break a bigger task into little pieces. It's easier to be motivated to do a little thing like clean the top of a dresser than it is to clean an entire room. (By analogy, if I were climbing a mountain, I'd make a series of short walks to nearby landmarks rather than setting out to reach the top.) And for the nastiest chores, I can entertain myself with pleasant thoughts like "hopefully I'll be hit by a stray meteor before I have reach under that sofa." Added bonuses: (a) if I am called away, nearly no work is lost (especially important these days, since distracting children roam my environment) and (b) I get a constant stream of "task complete!" euphoric moments as I finish each teensie little piece.

(2) I can't always manage this, but if I can decide that the chore doesn't need to be done now, I can get right onto doing it. Once my little mental demon is happy that he defeated my mental angel and I don't have to do the task, he can go celebrate his victory in whatever intoxicating way he chooses and I can get to work. I kinda doubt this works if you need a deadline or other external motivator to get started.

(3) For chores that get boring because I have to do them every day or week, I try to do find a different way to do the work. When mowing, for instance, I create new patterns. I'll mow diagonally to change it up, or try a different way to mow around a tree. My aim is never to make something take longer for the sake of variety; I search for new ways to trim time and effort off the task. It keeps my novelty-seeking brain satisfied and (sometimes) gets me better ways to get the chore done.

(4) I like to make clean up part of the task. In fact, it's probably the most important part to me. I don't quite believe the statement I once made ("If you're gonna cure cancer but leave a mess, then I'd rather you just leave the cancer alone"), but I do believe you should consider cleaning as part of the deal. The most logical options are to clean up at the end of a creative task, or to clean up when you need to use the materials or space not cleaned up from before. The other option -- cleaning at some unspecified other time -- simpy leaves you another task for later. I also like to clean up when I'm tired from the work itself and don't need to be creative anymore.

(5) One of my best tricks is to do two bad chores at once. As long as I stick with task A, I'm happy that "at least I'm not doing task B." As soon as B looks better, I switch to that one. The chores really do have to be about equally bad or I'll get done with the better task, never having started the worse one.

(6) I like to figure out how to do the next chore while I'm working on the current one. It keeps my mind off what I'm doing now (I already made a plan while doing the previous chore, so my brain will have idle cycles) and gives me a plan for the next task. Once I have a plan, I feel like I've already started the next thing, so I might as well do it. I'd hate to waste the time I've already invested with all that thinking. Sometimes I'll even go start the next task before I finish the current one… but then I have to give myself a mnemonic so I remember to return to the first task (like leaving the dishwasher door open so that when I get back to the kitchen, I can return to loading it before I have even thought about what I'm doing).

(7) I usually try to start with the worst chore, that way doing the others feel like resting.

Example case: I know I'd like to clean the play area of the basement soon. I decide it doesn't have to be done today, but I might as well get started anyway. Whatever I get done will be great, but I don't have to finish. I work by sorting into everything three piles: (a) trash, (b) things I can quickly put away, and (c) things that I need to think about. Every three to five minutes I'm done with some little sorting goal (Hooray!). I handle pile (a) or (b), completing another task (Double hooray!). If I'm off putting things away, I might stop to clean a fish tank as I pass by. Or if I'm taking paper to the recycling can anyway, I might grab the newspaper pile for recycling. Whenever I quit cleaning, I'm happy because the play area looks better than when I started (nearly no "making it worse before making it better"), because I didn't need to do any of this today anyway (I'm ahead of the game), and because I got other extra chores done without even really noticing. I end my work feeling very productive, making it easier to work on the task again later.

Of course, I've left out the best way to get things done: cut all the corners! No, actually it's "delegate to others." (When it's allowed. You probably shouldn't do that with homework.)

I'd love to hear other people's ideas on this. I'm always looking for ways to improve what I'm doing.