One Minute Rule

At times we suddenly find ourselves in a state of overwhelm; we go from calm to chaos in the blink of an eye. The realization of having too much to do, too little time, too many people counting on us, too much clutter on our desk; it is overwhelming. At times like these, call upon the “One Minute Rule.”

This brilliant piece of advice comes to us via Gretchen Rubin, author and creator of The Happiness Project. Rather than look at the “mess” before you and allow chaos to take hold, choose to instead do just one thing for one minute.

Open up a piece of mail, clean one corner of your desk, make that one phone call, answer one email, put the clean dishes in the dishwasher away, throw one load of clothes in the laundry – do just one thing for one minute.  That’s it. Now you have one thing done. Yay! Happy dance!

I am an entrepreneur, which means that I am not only a naturopath, author and mom, but an accountant, administrative assistant and marketer as well. I too find myself in chaotic states. Now, rather than have a meltdown, I just sit for a moment, look around and decide what I am going to spend the next minute doing and then I do it.

It gives me an opportunity to just be with one project at that one moment, and allows me to build up the strength to get to that next minute. Life goes by one minute at a time, do not allow those precious minutes to find you in a state of overwhelm (or you may end up with less of them in the end.) Go from chaos to calm with the One Minute Rule.