The Life-Changing Magic of the One-Minute Rule

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Last updated on March 29th, 2023 at 03:58 am

Want to know the one habit that can completely transform your life? It’s called the One-Minute Rule.

What is the One-Minute Rule? If it takes you less than 60 seconds to complete, do it right now.

It’s that simple.

I didn’t realize that I’ve been using the One-Minute Rule for a long time when it comes to keeping things clean and organized. I hardly give a second thought to so many habits I’ve developed over the years. After listening to this podcast, it dawned on me that doing things right away is the key to keeping my house tidy.

Think about all the things you do on a daily basis in this thing called life: eating meals, running errands, playing, checking the mail, doing homework, and so on and so on. 

If you do nothing, these things will leave your home disorganized.

When you start using the One-Minute Rule as you go through your day, you will find that it saves you a lot of time and grumbling by the time you get to bedtime.

Here’s how making the One-Minute Rule into a habit can transform your home overnight.

How the One-Minute Rule will keep your house clean and organized.

Using the One-Minute Rule can really transform your home overnight. Once you’ve mastered the basics of giving your stuff a home, you can really start knocking things into shape.

Think about it: instead of spending hours cleaning up a mess that took you and your family seconds to make, you can clean things up as you go in 60 seconds or less.

Here are 10 daily tasks it takes me less than a minute to do each day:

1. Make the bed.
2.  Wipe the kitchen table.
3.  Put away keys, purse, and shoes when coming home.
4.  Hang up a jacket or sweater.
5.  Wipe kitchen and bathroom counters.
6.  Put food back in the pantry or fridge.
7.  Load dishes in the dishwasher.
8.  Put dirty clothes in the hamper.
9.  File papers as they arrive.
10.  Opening mail and putting it in its home.

The One-Minute Rule reduces the to-do list

In Gretchen Rubin’s book The Happiness Project, one of her secrets of adulthood is, “Something that can be done at any time is often done at no time.”

For something that can be done in less than one minute, why put it off? You just keep tacking on tasks to your to-do list. No wonder that list looks so overwhelming and it’s not getting done!

I do this often in my “real” job. There are quick emails to answer or small tasks that take seconds to do that I put off until there is just too much going on. Lately, I’ve been using the One-Minute Rule to do those undesirable tasks. It’s so much nicer to go through the day without having that one little task hanging over my head!

Why do I put myself through so much agony? It makes absolutely no sense.

It’s like that old analogy of ripping off a band-aid …do it quickly and it won’t hurt as bad as slowly peeling it off. Yikes!

How to start using the One-Minute Rule

Want to start putting this awesome new rule into practice? There are a couple of ways to do it.

Have reminders EVERYWHERE.

You can use sticky notes on your bathroom mirror to remind you to put away your makeup when you’re done. Add a sticky note to your computer if it’s digital tasks you procrastinate on.

Make it a game.

Set a timer for 60 seconds as you find undesirable homemaking tasks throughout your day. See just how long it takes to actually do these things. This is also a great game for getting your kids trained for life on the One-Minute Rule. Set them up for success while they’re young.

Think happy thoughts.

Think about all the good things that will happen when you rip off that band-aid instead of drawing out the pain and agony of a task. Putting the breakfast dishes in the dishwasher now means I won’t have a pile of dishes in the sink to do at lunchtime. Setting up an automatic bill payment now means I won’t have to stress out that I forgot to pay a bill!

Use a habit tracker

Checking off a list is often a good marker for a habit. What better way to feel accomplished than with tasks that take less than a minute!

Summing up the One-Minute Rule

• The key to the One-Minute Rule is to do small tasks that take less than a minute to do right away.
• Practicing the One-Minute Rule can transform your home into a clean and tidy space overnight.
• Doing little tasks will instantly reduce that long to-do list in your planner (or your head).
• Make the One-Minute Rule a habit by using physical reminders, making it a game, changing your mindset, or using a habit tracker.

Use this 10-Minute Tidy Checklist with tasks that can take you less than one minute to do!