Nudged: Relish a chore
Carolyn Weeks Carpenter, who led us to “Take a cold shower” with her guest post last year, inspired this Nudge. The idea is to pick a chore that’s typically drudgery and turn it into something mindful–or even fun!
Merriam-Webster defines the verb relish as “to be pleased or gratified by: ENJOY” and “to appreciate with taste and discernment.”
Lots of possibilities for this: Turn up the music and dance while vacuuming comes to mind. I might talk to the plants while I water them. If I can figure out a way to enjoy doing laundry, that will be a huge win! š
I hope you’ll share in Comments which chore you’re turning on its ear this week.
What Happened: This Nudge was ridiculously FUN! After brainstorming a few options, I chose to turn bed-making into a 1-player competition. Making the bed is something I used to do every morning, but I’ve mostly fallen out of the habit. I know it is a good ritual for starting my day feeling calm and organized, so I want to get back to it.
Here’s what I did: I used the stopwatch on my iPhone and set a base time of 1 minute and 22 seconds (the featured image is my Before photo), then every day I challenged myself to be faster. One day was a bust because I had “help” from my two four-legged roommates, who made of mess of everything in the first place, then refused to budge from the pile of blankets on the floor when I tried to get them up. That day I clocked in at a dismal 3:17.
But I kept at it and am happy to report a personal best of 1:07. Woohoo!
The Ah-Hahs: I noticed that I was smiling all the way through each time I raced the clock. I succeeded in turning this chore into something I relish, AND I reminded myself that this really only takes 1 minute out of my day, so I can totally keep this up.
