The 1 minute rule ☝️

Decluttering your life only takes 1 minute.

Tidying has a guru and her name is Marie Kondo. The Japanese ‘organising consultant’ is well-known for two things:

• her ritual for throwing things out, and;
• giving every-thing an assigned place.

The latter idea is simple and extremely effective for decluttering your life. Many of the things you own already have a specific spot where you return them after use. But does every-thing?

A few weeks after hearing this, and slowly starting to practice it, I heard another piece of advice (I’m not sure who to attribute it to). It goes:

“If something needs to be done and it only takes one minute, do it right away.”

A dirty cup in the sink? Cleaning and putting it back in its place takes less than 1 minute: do it right away. Notice your desk is unorganised? Tidying takes less than 1 minute, so do it now. You can apply the rule to digital spaces too.

These 2 simple guidelines reduce clutter, which is a tax on focus, immensely. The smallest ideas are often the most effective ones.

Bonus small idea from Matt Mullenweg, who started Wordpress: commit to doing one push-up before you go to bed. Just one. No excuse if you don’t feel like it, but you will often end up doing more.

My desk at the IDAGIO office in Berlin.