I’ve always enjoyed washing the dishes and cleaning the kitchen. There’s a certain satisfaction with putting things away in just the right locations. It occurred to me that the kitchen is the most organized room in my house. It may be for you as well.
Lately, I’ve found that part of the satisfaction of doing the dishes comes when the work is done regularly. To wrangle the daily mess. But when the dishes are left for too long, even just another day or two, the task of kitchen cleanup shifts from this satisfying ritual to a true chore.
Once I noticed this, I saw the same phenomena everywhere. Whether it’s chores I traditionally hate (laundry), or tasks at work. If you leave any cleanup task to pile up so that it can be dealt with it one big job, you tend to rob yourself of the satisfaction of organization and tidying up. That’s not to say that a big closet spring cleaning can’t have appeal, but when regularly tidied instead, you free up a ton of bandwidth that task was occupying in your head. Instead of a big project, it becomes habit. Almost involuntary.
And once you have those areas in order, you suddenly have more mind-share for the work that can’t be habituated. The important work that needs doing.
So whether it’s clearing your inbox after each day or week. Or filing expenses when they come in, or doing the dishes as they’re used, treat the little tasks like they’re daily routines instead of for some future “chore day”.