Batch your weekend chores

Take back your weekends from have-to-dos

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of I Heart Radio.
Good Morning, This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.
Today's tip is to batch your weekend chores so you
can enjoy your days off guilt free. After years of
writing and talking about time management, I've realized that I

(00:26):
hear some of the same complaints over and over again.
At work, people lament that they spend so much time
dealing with their inboxes that they never have time for
deep work or strategic thinking. At home, people feel like
they spend their entire weekends trying to get caught up
with chores, and so they never have time for fun.
While these complaints seem different, I eventually realized that they

(00:50):
were getting at the exact same issue. Some activities expand
to fill all available space, and just as you will
never get and stay at inbox zero, you will never
arrive at a perfectly clean house that won't then fall
prey to toys, junk mail, and dirty dishes. Email and

(01:13):
housework will both take any amount of time you give them.
That means that any hacks designed to less an impact
are going to be of limited use. And yes, you
can write shorter emails. He probably should you could even
write k instead of okay in your emails. And yes,
you can develop a system for emptying the dishwasher that

(01:34):
makes it take five minutes instead of seven minutes. Awesome,
But fundamentally, the only way to make these activities take
less time is to choose to give them less time.
The good news, though, is that this approach does work.
When I've managed to convince people to limit themselves to
three to four email checks per day done at certain times,

(01:57):
they do, in fact spend less time on email. And
I think chores are best approached the same way. Batch
them and designate certain times when chores aren't always options.
Then you can enjoy the rest of your time without
feeling guilty. Here's how this can work. Spend some time

(02:18):
to day thinking about the chores and errands you normally
do over the weekend. Be judicious what truly needs to
happen and what's not critical. Well, you might need clean
clothes for the week, you probably don't need to wax
your floors, while you might need to go grocery shopping.
You don't need to cook all your meals for the
week ahead of time. Choose to make simpler meals that

(02:39):
you can whip up in fifteen to twenty minutes on
weeknights instead, Now estimate how long these tasks will take
and what can overlap if all household members participate, how
much time would it take to get through these things.
Perhaps one party could switch clothes from the washings of
the dryer and run the vacuum, while someone else goes

(03:00):
to the grocery store and drops off the dry cleaning.
Once you've figured out a rough window, designate a block
of time in which you will do almost all of
these things. For instance, maybe you decide that from ten
to twelve on Saturday morning you will do the bulk
of these weekend activities. Make sure this is a time
everyone can participate. Make a game plan, then assess what

(03:26):
things will need to happen outside the window. Ideally not
too much. If you've got a reasonably sized family, You'll
still need to do some dishes and empty the dishwasher
on Sunday, even if Saturday from ten to twelve is
the official chores and Errand's time, And perhaps the laundry
that was washed Saturday during this window is still in
the dryer outside the window and might need to be

(03:48):
put away. But make sure to prevent scope creep. If
one party is assigned to pick up and vacuum the
basement playroom from ten to twelve on Saturday, and this
is in fact done, then do not go redo it
on Sunday just because there are toys out. Of course,
there are toys out. It's a playroom. That's what happens.

(04:11):
But so what. No one is going to come around
at eleven p m. Sunday night to give you demerits
for having toys on the floor, So just let it
be and relax and have a glass of wine instead.
There was a time for picking up the playroom, and
now is not that time. If you start thinking this way,

(04:31):
I promise your weekends will start feeling much better. Do
you designate a time for weekend chores? If so, I'd
love to hear about it. You can email me at
Before Breakfast Podcast at iHeart media dot com. In the meantime,
this is Laura. Thanks for listening, and here's to making

(04:52):
the most of our time. Hey, everybody, I'd love to
hear from you. You can send me your tips, your questions,
or anything else. Just connect with me on Twitter, Facebook
and Instagram at Before Breakfast Pod. That's b E. The

(05:12):
number four then Breakfast p o D. You can also
shoot me an email at before Breakfast podcast at i
heeart media dot com that before Breakfast is spelled out
with all the letters. Thanks so much, I look forward
to staying in touch. Before Breakfast is a production of

(05:34):
I heart Radio. For more podcasts from my heart Radio,
visit the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever
you listen to your favorite shows.