Some of us (including me) get caught up in an “all or none” mentality at times. This past week, a student shared with me this quote by Edmund Hale that has really helped her in writing her dissertation. - “I am only one, but I am one. I cannot do everything, but I can do something. And because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do the something that I can do.” I once saw a lesson on time management that was called the Swiss Cheese method. With this, you take on large tasks by puncturing them with small, manageable actions, akin to holes in Swiss Cheese. This approach helps to get everything done on a project by doing the something that one can do each day along the way.
An example of being stuck on the everything is with a clean house. We may desire for our house to be white glove inspection clean when the relatives come for Thanksgiving dinner. However, are they all really going to check for dust particles on all the furniture? The one aunt who does – just shrug that off as her peculiarity.
An example of having a clean house with the Swiss Cheese method would be to designate certain days to do certain rooms and certain weeks or months to do the deep cleaning. This method might also include Swiss Cheese punctures throughout the day – wash dishes after each meal, trash out before supper, clothes put up before bed.
The all or none mentality sets us up for procrastination and for failure to accomplish things. If we can’t do it all right now, we just don’t do – forever and forever. If we allow ourselves to use the Swiss Cheese method to do the something that we can do in that moment of time, we can avoid the harm from procrastination and can achieve what we wish.
