books

The "hour of power" trick Rebecca Sparrow swears by.

“I’m so busy” has become the catch cry of women.

Our email inboxes are overflowing, meeting are planned months in advance, and lunch invitations? HAHAHA. Oh wait, you’re serious?

This week on The Well, Rebecca Sparrow and Robin Bailey are on a mission to tackle those lingering jobs on their to-do lists. We’ve all got them…

Like the mail from three years ago that is still being redirected. Your car rego, that you keep forgetting to renew. The family photos that are framed and ready, but yet to be hung. The mountainous pile of odd and holey socks. I could go on.

When your to-do list is jam packed with these non-urgent life admin tasks, it can be hard to muster the motivation to switch off Netflix and start ticking them off.

So Bec turned to the “single most helpful non-fiction book [she] has ever read” for some sage advice and guidance.

This book is love. This book is life. Source: gretchenrubin.com
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"This book was freaking life saving!" she says.

"I have never read a non fiction book that has equipped me so well with skills."

Within the hallowed pages of Gretchen Rubin's book Better Than Before: Mastering the Habits of Our Everyday Lives, Bec discovered the "hour of power".

You set one hour aside in your week, where you can only do those things. The ones without an expiry date that have been hanging over your head for the last six months. No procrastinating, you've got the whole rest of the week for that.

Every time you think of something, just pop it on your list. And revel in the fact that you no longer have to feel guilty about not doing it straight away! Even if you're not a list maker. Maybe you're a pile maker. Tackle that pile.

Just don't get depressed if you never get to the end of that list, if you never get to strike a big line through the last item.

Because "if you get to the end of the list, you're dead!" laughs Bec.

For more life admin hacks, listen to the full episode of The Well below, and subscribe in iTunes