Hooray for Timers!

I was talking to a friend this morning, and she uses timers for everything—laundry, playtime (to keep the kids from fighting over toys), of course cooking, etc. So today I tried it—I used the timer for cleaning, doing dishes, naptime, bath time, school with Sarah. I found that the key was that it kept me on track—I kept at a certain task for the allotted time without going off to something else. So, I spent an entire 10 minutes cleaning the kids’ room, and didn’t get distracted emptying all the trash in the house, or doing laundry, or whatever, during that 10 minutes. And the kids’ room? What do you know? It’s actually clean—down to changed sheets, beds made, and floor vacuumed, all in just over 10 minutes. Of course, you can’t avoid crying babies and normal kid distractions, but the point is that you stick at a task until it’s done, and don’t do anything else until that one thing is done. Thanks Ruth!