I work from home most of the time. Any Stay-at-home Mom or Work-at-Home mom can tell you–sometimes being in your own home all the time can be distracting. Mind you, I love that I can work from home, but it does require discipline and balance. Some days I get overwhelmed because I have so much work to do, and at the same time, my house is dirty and cluttered and it’s distracting. But the fact is, I could clean all day, every day and still never be caught up. When I have work to get done, I can’t be distracted by household chores–I have to learn how to make those things wait, no different than if I was working outside of my home and wouldn’t be able to get to it. But for those of you that work at home, you know how it goes–Oh let me get a glass of iced tea and while I’m here I’ll just empty the dishwasher, and then oh, why not, wipe down the counters and oh my look at those fingerprints on the fridge and is it just me or is my stove filthy? And then I’ve wasted 30 minutes of my time and I have work deadlines to meet.

Several years ago, I got this tip from a parenting board that I used to participate on. Sometimes I do this practice quite diligently, and then there are months that go by and I forget about it and have to get back into it. But it’s so simple-

Use a timer.

Yeah, that’s it.

I just set a timer, anywhere from 15-90 minutes. And once it’s set, all I do is clean and tidy up for that time. No TV, no phone, no Facebook. Just cleaning and tidying. I have a small house, but I’m always surprised at how much I can do in 20 minutes, when that’s all I’m doing and don’t let anything distract me. Today in 20 minutes I got the kitchen and living room and boys’ room tidied, and the entire house vacuumed. Once I’ve done that, for my 15 minutes or even an hour, I feel like I can work without being distracted, or if we want to do something fun, I can do so guilt-free.  My 3-year-old actually thinks it’s a lot of fun, and he likes to see how many toys he can pick up before the buzzer goes off.

When I do this regularly, almost daily, my house is so much cleaner overall. It’s a great way to keep family members engaged in the process and help, especially if they know it will only be 15 minutes or so.

Try it, it works!