So, is it completely tacky to reference yourself in a blog post? I’m going to go ahead and risk it. Several months ago I wrote a post for my Something Good blog where I introduce an idea for breaking down tasks into manageable pieces. I call it “Do Three Things.”

Right now, I am still very much struggling with how to get work done with the new baby in the house. She takes up so much of my time and focus, as you can imagine; and it’s having a real effect on my productivity. My goal for the week was to do at least two hours worth of work each day. Let’s just say that some days went better than others. Thank goodness my husband has the weekends off, as I was able to get more than caught up on Saturday night.

As I sit on the couch nursing my baby, I try to think of ways to be as productive as possible during the brief moments I have when she doesn’t need my full attention. The idea of “Do Three Things” came to me, and it’s been a bit of a lifesaver.

In short, “Do Three Things” is a method I use for doing chores that I either find incredibly boring or terrifyingly overwhelming. Mostly, I use it for cleaning the house. When things are just completely out of control, I focus on the smallest things that need to be done, and I just pick three of them to do at a time.

If I need to clean the house but it seems like an insurmountable task, for example, then I just pick three small tasks and follow through on them. Maybe I’ll put yesterday’s newspaper in the recycling bin, straighten the books on the bookcase, and wash the coffee table. When these three tasks are done, I can either take a break or find three more small things to do. Oftentimes, I’ll head into another room and just do three small things in there.

The amazing thing about this process is that the three tasks often take less than five minutes. In just a short time, I find that I’m so much further ahead of the game than I was when I started. It also has the benefit of being so much less overwhelming this way.

What I’d like to do is figure out how to apply “Do Three Things” to freelancing. It seems a little trickier to break a freelance project down into such tiny pieces, but I think it can be done. For example:

• read and answer one email
• write an introductory paragraph for a blog post
• find and bookmark three resources to be thoroughly read later
• create an outline for a client’s short article
• make a to-do list for your day

I’m pretty sure there are plenty more small tasks like this that we freelance parents can use to get things accomplished. It’s a matter of truly breaking jobs down into their smallest components. Obviously, there are times when a freelancer just has to sit down for several hours to get things done; but most days seem to call for a few stolen minutes here and there. I guess this is one way to make them as productive as possible.

So, what other tasks do you folks feel could be accomplished in ten minutes or less? I’d love it if we cold come up with a list of ideas that we could all draw from. Please leave yours in the comments section.

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