I Tried the “2-Minute Rule” to Declutter, and Now I’ll Keep Using It
Nothing gets my morning off on the right foot quite as quickly as walking into a messy kitchen as soon as I wake up. Since I know this morning mess bothers me so much, I’ve included “closing the kitchen” — a process that involves cleaning everything up after dinner, clearing the counters, and leaving my kitchen sink empty and freshly scrubbed each night before I head to bed — to my evening routine. But, since I’m often one of the first people in my family of five to go to bed, things aren’t always as I leave them when I wake up.
And it’s not just that, either. Running the dishwasher and emptying the sink each night means every morning there’s a mountain of clean dishes to be put away, something that I find overwhelming first thing in the morning when my main focus is to use these quiet hours to get a jump start on my workday before everything else on my to-do list threatens to pull my attention away.
So, as you can imagine, when I heard about the “2-Minute Rule,” coined by David Allen in Getting Things Done, which essentially means that if an action takes less than 120 seconds (2 minutes), then it should be done now, I knew I had to try it. Take a look at how I squeezed this new practice into my morning routine, using it to knock out a task that bothers me almost every day.
How I Tried the “2-Minute Rule”
When I first heard this idea my initial thought was, “When am I going to find the time to do this?!” I know some people will laugh at that because it’s just 2 minutes, but working parents everywhere likely know my struggle, and even coming up with an extra two minutes can seem like a daunting task. That’s why I decided to tackle this challenge during the two minutes I use for another task every morning: making coffee.
Typically I use this time to doomscroll, but since I’m trying to cut down on nonessential screen time I decided to use those 2 minutes to jump-start my day. So, this morning I loaded up my coffee grounds and set my trusty Ninja to brew while I ticked off the seconds in my head, decluttering the area around my kitchen sink as it went.
During that time, I returned my daughter’s collection of books from her backpack to the bookshelf, I took the stack of mail and paperwork that was meant for my office to the steps so I could carry it up with me when I went up to work with my coffee, and I emptied the bag of newly purchased cuties into the fruit bowl where they belonged. With those tasks done (which took me all of 60 seconds), I was able to put away the majority of the dishes, leaving out the cups I knew my kids would reach for in a few hours when they came down to pack their schoolbags.
Did I get everything done and leave my kitchen in the pristine state I wish I could’ve woken up to that morning? No. But, did I make the most out of 120 seconds I would’ve otherwise wasted (and then felt guilty about)? Yes!
After I fixed my coffee on the (clean!) countertop and headed up to my office to start the day, I thought about the 2-minute rule and how it embodies the concept of “progress over perfection,” helping me get a little further into that daily to-do list without getting completely overwhelmed.
Sure, I’ll never be able to get my house sparkling clean or fold an entire load of laundry in just 120 seconds, but I can tackle a small task in those 2 minutes. And what are the messes around our home if not a bunch of small tasks just waiting for us to find the time to get to them?