Progress: 15 minutes at a time

Look what happened.

 

This, just in case your brain can't make sense of what your eyes are telling you, is my desk.  Without the legion papers, dishes, Legos and other random items that tend to congregate here.

How did this happen, you ask?  Well, my good friend (whom I haven't met yet), Beth Woolsey, has undertaken a Lenten Project.  She calls it:

 

Here's what Beth said about Lent: At its best, Lent isn’t about deprivation. At its best, Lent allows us to work in concert with Love to refill our souls.

 

During Lent, Beth has invited her community to undertake 15 minute projects each day, taking an area, like a desk, a bathroom drawer, or a toy basket, and purging.  Getting rid of all the stuff that weighs us down, freeing up space in our souls to be refilled by Love. 

 

Beth is a strong advocate for "Something is Better than Nothing" and "Half-A**ed is Good Enough", for which her family has developed a helpful acronym: HAGE.

 

I, like Beth, tend to be an all or nothing kind of girl.  If I won't be able to get it all done, I tend to not even start.  I stay stuck, stagnant.  I need to remember to apply the wisdom of Something is Better than Nothing and HAGE.

 

So, it's taken a while for me to get on the 15 minute projects train, because 15 minutes.  That's not enough time for all, so I tend to choose nothing.  But yesterday, inspired by this post, in which Beth explains how to declutter in 5 simple steps (check out #3--it's brilliant), I set my timer for 15 minutes.  And you can see what happened.  There's no before picture, because I really didn't believe 15 minutes would be enough.  Guess I was wrong.

 

There is something so freeing about setting that timer.  I can do just about anything for 15 minutes.  Even clean the bathtubs ... *shudder*.  Fifteen minutes is doable, and the timer gives me permission to walk away, even if the project isn't done.

 

Let me say that again: the timer gives me permission to walk away, even if the project isn't done.  Because I can give it another 15 minutes later.  And then another, and another, until it is done.  And in the meantime, I am doing something.  My progress is measurable.  And even if I am unable to do it all right now, I know that I will eventually.

 

Today, Bubby and I are working on this,

 

 

which isn't so bad, and this,

 

 

which is so bad.  And you can't even see into the jumble that is the toy box.

 

Lord, have mercy on us!

 

But look where 15 minutes got us to yesterday:

 

 

I suspect that this project will take us several more fifteen-minuteses to complete, and that's OK.  The enormity of the task is what's prevented me from taking it on until now.  Now, at least, there will be progress. And that's all that is really needed.  Movement.

 

Blessings, friends.