If you work from home, have you heard this advice: Never ever do housework during your business hours? I have. And usually, anything that tells me it’s okay not to do housework is great in my book! However, I break this rule regularly and usually on Mondays.
The title of this article gives it away. I do laundry during my work day. Why? Because it works out really well for me.
Rules like “Never ever do housework during your business hours” are guidelines. The purpose is to encourage you to treat your business seriously, make time for it and don’t get sidetracked doing other things (things that won’t help you pay bills). So, it makes some sense.
But why do I do laundry on Mondays? Well, my Mondays are usually a day for writing and getting some items checked off my to-do list. And it takes about 45 minutes or so for a load of laundry to finish, which is a nice block of time to get something done. It becomes a game for me – how far can I get on this task or how many of these items can I complete before the buzzer goes off?
Now, I do have a few of my own rules around doing laundry.
- It does not get put away during work hours unless it can’t go in the drier.
- Work comes before laundry. So, if I’m in the zone working on something, I won’t get up when the buzzer goes off. I’ll finish what I’m working on first.
- It does not run when I have calls scheduled (especially if I’m doing calls from the first floor). The buzzer is quite loud.
So, when I’m doing laundry I’m usually very productive, a lot gets done! And it surprised me at first – given that I was breaking a “rule” about working from home. But, like most “rules” they are just guidelines for you to use while determining what works best for you.
What business or productivity “rules” do you regularly break with great success? Let me know in the comments!