One Minute

Perendinate: to put off until the day after tomorrow.

Ahhh, someone out there speaks my language! I am NO procrastinator. I am a perendinator!

This posting was inspired by my perendinating tendencies and recent realization that some of the tasks I put off repeatedly really don't take that long at all. Somehow in my peahen brain I just manage to make the tiniest of molehills into giant mountains when it comes to getting things done. It all started with coffee. I love to drink coffee morning, noon, and night, although I usually sip it rather slowly so I'm heating it up repeatedly throughout the day. As anyone who knows me can attest to, I do not like to wait for anything. Standing around in my kitchen waiting for my coffee to re-heat for one minute in the microwave was becoming a loathsome burden. So I would run off and try to do something and make it back before the bell would ding. Thus, began my silly little experiment; seeing all the different little things I could accomplish during that one minute. Here are the findings of my highly official research. Disclaimer: These findings are based on the household of a single woman. Dirty bachelors and families with children may disagree.


Things You Can Do in One Minute or Less

Empty one shelf of the dishwasher
Load all dinner dishes, including pans, etc., into the dishwasher after cooking and eating.
Return to the fridge and pantry various fixings for whatever meal you're cooking
Make a sandwich
Make a burrito (minus actual cooking time)
Close all the windows in a small-medium sized house (unless they're crotchety old things) or all the windows on one floor of a large house
Wash your face
Make the bed
Wipe down kitchen counters
Clean the bathtub (unless you haven't done so in ages)
Take out a bag of trash and recyclables
Collect trash from bathrooms and bedrooms
Put your phone on the charger (8 seconds!)
Start a pot of coffee
Clean out your coffee pot when it's grimy
Start a load of laundry
Fold half a load of laundry
Put clean laundry away
Check on something in the oven or on the stove that may be burning or spilling over
Check your voicemail (again--unless you haven't done so in days)
Open and sort mail (if you already have an organized filing system)
Send one loved one an email just to keep in contact and say "I Love You!"
Pay a bill online
Water plants (unless you have an arboretum)

Feel free to conduct your own experiment and add to my list!