Is your To Do list overwhelming? Does it seem like there aren’t enough hours in the day to get everything done, let alone have time for you and your family? Do I sound like a bad infomercial? The answer is yes, yes I do. But I had a bit of trouble figuring out how to start this post. You see, I fully believe To Do lists are wonderful and can help you get so much done but at the same time I can be easily overwhelmed by the shear amount of chores that have to be done to keep my house running every week. I’ve written about how to organize and prioritize your daily To Do list here, but there are always tasks that feel like they will take the whole day. In reality, very few actually do. Welcome to active and passive tasks.
What are Active and Passive Tasks?
If you start to think about chores in terms of how they are done you can start to find ways to make your house do your chores for you. Don’t believe me? Read on, dear friend.
Active Tasks are things you have to do yourself (or convince someone else to do them for you!)
There’s no way to say it nicely, a lot of chores are active tasks: folding laundry, taking out the trash, planning the baby’s birthday party, etc. Most of the time the only way to get out of doing these is to teach your kids how to do it so they can help and learn on their path to independence. (I am assuming here that your spouse already takes on their fair share of the housework and childcare.) Sometimes you can hire chores out. The other option is to figure out if it can become a passive task.
Passive Tasks are things that are being done without continued direct involvement from you.
We have come a long way from the manual labor expected from housewives. In most houses, machines to do our laundry and dishes for us. There are somewhat affordable robots to do our vacuuming and moping. Automated bill-paying! Even selecting the right HVAC system air filters is a form of passive tasking because the high quality the filter, the less dusting is needed! We have freed up so much of our time by creating ways to not have to do our chores.
So, what’s the big deal?
Why do we care about what “type” of task a chore is? Because by understanding the nature of the work, you can plan tasks in order to maximize free time. It also works to overcome the overwhelming daily To Do list. The laundry as a whole may take two hours, but you only have to touch it for a few minutes at the beginning, middle, and end. Fill that passive time with the rest of the active tasks and you’re done with everything in just over two hours. The rest of the day is for play!
Don’t give me that incredulous look; I know families never just have one load of laundry to do. But the concept stays the same. By recognizing that the four loads of laundry actually only takes 12 minutes each, you’ve mentally cleared all that other time to get other things done or relax with relaxing fun.
I’m In! How Do I Do It?
Tomorrow, take your To Do list and estimate the active time and passive time for each item. Don’t take too long. Then fill the passive time with active tasks. Or think about passive tasks that can be done while you’re out of the house.
We have a weekly ritual that is a wonderful example of this. On Sunday mornings, we get up and start our day as normal. On my way downstairs after getting dressed, I change the sheets on all the beds. Right before leaving for church I put the first of three loads of laundry in. After service we drop the oldest at Sunday School and go home (we’re literally 5 minutes away). I immediately put the wash in the dryer and start the second wash. We spend the hour playing with the little two boys. After picking up Dand, I switch the laundry again and folder the first load. Every week it makes me feel so accomplished by have clean beds and folded laundry already done by 11am even though we have already been out and about.
What ritual can you create by stacking chores and making your house work while you’re doing other things? What is your favorite new order for housework that maximizes you-time? Let me know in the comments!