The 5 Minute Rule is a tool I have implemented to promote the Virtue of Order and the Virtue of Industry. Life can get hectic for all of us, and when it does, we usually find ourselves overwhelmed with clutter and messes. After a busy week, our houses can be a train wreck, and the worse it gets, the more overwhelmed we feel from the chaos. The stress is only amplified when we think of how long it will take to clean up.

Maybe its not household chores, but small tasks that pile up at work. We have big things to do and small things to do, and sometimes when we put our focus on the big things and put small task on the back-burner, they pull up until it feels like a big task to get the small things done.

Don’t let small things pile up into catastrophe; use the Five Minute Rule to win the small battles.

If it takes less then 5 minutes, do it. Unless you have the immediate need to be engaged in other activities, and it takes less then 5 minutes, do it then and there. Enforce this small habit, and getting the small things in order never becomes a big undertaking.

Every time you notice a small chore that takes less than 5 minutes and you have the 5 minutes to spare, do it. All the little things like this add up to the majority of necessary maintenance. Pick them out and pick them off, like a sniper in the jungle.

Spot a weed in your yard? Pull it out when you see it. It takes 10 seconds. But if you put it off and the weeds spread, it turns into a chore that takes half your day on the weekend when you could be relaxing.

Notice that spot on the mirror? Clean it off. Notice your bathroom counter is a mess? Clean it up. Doing the little things when you see them means not having to take an hour to power-clean your bathroom.

You have 15 minutes until a meeting at work? See how many less than 5 minute long tasks you can knock out before you have to go. The more small things you can knock out, the less lingering stress you’ll have and the more mental bandwidth you will have to focus on more important things.

Flossing takes less than 5 minutes, but many people would rather spend hours of agony in a chair at the dentist and thousands of dollars than to take less than 5 minutes everyday to have good dental hygiene.

Doing the dishes takes less than 5 minutes if you do them as you make them, but most of us would rather wait until we have a heaping pile of dirty dishes that take forever to clean because we would rather do something else.

When you see it, do it. Some things take only a few seconds to do, so don’t be lazy. Don’t procrastinate and make what could’ve been a small thing a big pain in the ass. Taking care of the little maintenance makes the larger tasks easier and less time consuming. Remember that the time you waste now is time you have to pay back later.

The rule is: if it takes less than 5 minutes and you have the time, do it now. Clean up after yourself and don’t put things off for later. Take care of that small problem now and don’t allow it time to grow. That ”later” has a sneaky way of never happening, and you allow little chores the opportunity to become larger problems. Don’t be lazy or procrastinate.

Live by the Virtues of Order and Industry and use the 5 minute rule to be efficient and productive every day.

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