When I was in elementary school, we had a golf unit in gym class. Really, it was an impromptu driving range on the soccer field. I don't recall any instruction, just mindless swinging -- but the aftermath has stayed with me for twenty years. We, the children, were responsible for picking up all the golf balls on the field during the last ten minutes of class. To make the task more palatable, we decided amongst ourselves to compete for the most neon-colored balls. Consequently, we all ignored the plain white balls that took up the majority of the field as we scrambled to pick up the colorful ones. The teacher, Mr. Krieg, was frustrated by our little game. After our frantic ten minutes, all of the white balls were still on the field. He was angry, and yet day after day, he was unable to stop us.
I can still hear him shouting, "Every ball you see, pick! Every ball you see, pick!" over and over and over.
I'm relating this story in order to illustrate how I manage to clean my house so quickly. I walk into a room and say to myself, "Every ball you see, pick." If I see something out of place, I put it back where it belongs. I don't mess around. I don't ever look at a stray sneaker in the kitchen and go, "There's a sneaker in here. I'll deal with it after I load the dishwasher." I just take the five seconds to put the sneaker in the closet. This is similar to the O.H.I.O. system (Only Handle It Once) touted by Ned Hallowell. It's not right for everyone -- some people may benefit from dividing a room into sections (floor, sink, table) or into tasks (load dishwasher, sweep floor, take out garbage) -- but Every Ball You See, Pick works great for me, and I wanted to pass it along.
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