This Popular Productivity Trick Can Also Motivate You to Clean Up
For some, the motivation to clean comes easily, but for others, not so much. If you fall into the second category, you can try to conjure up some energy, perhaps by using a simple reward system for yourself , but the truth is that we all need a little pressure sometimes to really succeed.
I say this for a reason. This is a well-known productivity law called the Yerkes-Dodson law. I ‘ve written about this before , usually talking about its usefulness when working with a to-do list or a work project, but you can design it for cleaning as well.
What is the Yerkes-Dodson Law?
The Yerkes-Dodson Law, conceptualized by psychologists Robert Yerkes and John Dillingham Dodson, states that you are most productive when you have just the right amount of stress to motivate you to perform. You can’t have too much or you’ll spiral. You can’t have too little or you’ll have no sense of urgency and will just keep putting things off.
For our purposes, it comes down to timing. If you have too much or not enough time for something, you will find that your productivity decreases. You need a fairly busy schedule, but enough time to clean. You need an approaching deadline.
How to use Yerkes-Dodson for cleaning
Now about this deadline. When you’re cleaning, do you ever stop and think about why you’re doing it? I live alone, so for me it’s not for my family, and since I don’t mind my folded laundry sitting on a chair for a week instead of in the closet where it belongs, it’s not even for me. What motivates me to clean is the thought that someone will come and see the laundry.
You have to come up with your own stressors and put them into action. Here are some ideas:
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Invite friends over for dinner in a week
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Make a commitment to film your next Zoom meeting so your home is visible behind you.
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Tell yourself that you can do something special during the week—like watch a movie or buy something you’ve been meaning to splurge on—as long as you finish cleaning by then.
Having a deadline (that includes the consequences of failure) will motivate you and give you some urgency, placing you squarely in the Yerkes-Dodson sweet spot. The trick is to make sure that the deadline and possible consequences are in the near future, so that you have enough time to clean up, but not enough time to put it off. It works: I never clean more thoroughly than before leaving on a big trip and asking friends to come and feed my pets. Personally, I don’t want to clean before I leave for a week because damn I won’t be around to see the mess the whole time and I’m already stressed enough packing and planning, but my friends idea is that it’s too much.
One of the friends who regularly helps me with this task shared her own Yerkes-Dodson cleaning revelation a few weeks ago. She had been feeling overwhelmed for a while and wasn’t doing much cleaning up when she found out she was going to have a Zoom interview with someone important to her career development. She couldn’t let them see the background of the mess, so she finally tidied up – and it also improved her mood, bringing her out of her panic a little.
Unfortunately, sometimes we have to threaten ourselves or put ourselves in a position to face negative consequences in order to see results. If showing grace or working at your own pace doesn’t help, it’s time to try a new approach. Just make sure you do it diligently and wisely. Create a cleaning schedule that allows you to tackle this area a little each day rather than all at once to ensure you finish on time and don’t become overwhelmed.