Here is where you will thank me the next time you find your sink filled to the brim with dirty dishes, when your lawn is full of dead leaves or when your laundry basket is full of clothes that needs ironing.
I know we live in an efficient world where we have managed to outsource a-lot of our mundane chores to either someone else or to a machine, or just to ignore it completely. Because Time is Precious. What we do with our time determines how we value ourselves.
I get it, it’s a competitive world. If you are not thinking ahead, you might get FOMO (fear of missing out). The drive to succeed has us left little to no time with mundane chores. In fact doing mundane work leaves us frustrated and held back from spending your time doing more important things. And because of that we put so much importance on our down time to make sure that time is used most efficiently as well! Pass me that wine bottle please! Are we seeing the irony…
Efficient vs Effective
Let’s be clear, efficiency is often confused with effectiveness. They are not the same. Efficiency is often calculated; the ratio of input vs outcome. It’s something you would compare against a machine in terms of function for maximum output. Effectiveness is simpler in concept and could also be expressed quantitively in achieving a more impactful result.
Are we not being conditioned to act like machines in a corporate environment to maximise profit- $$$ for our time for at little cost as possible – rendering efficiency as a high priority? And have we then been so conditioned that it has now our way of thinking? So the question I am asking is – what have we lost in the process of become more efficient that we forgot in the process to being more effective?
Be Awake to Life
As much as I like to encourage working out, going to yoga classes or sitting down to read or meditate as all good activities to help bring us to the present moment, often we are overlooking our greatest activity based lessons that we can practice at any time! It is in the from just doing your everyday mundane chores. Life consists of the small things. To be present with our thoughts while folding laundry, sweeping dead leaves in the lawn, washing dishes – when done with love it becomes creative! In neurology, when we work with our fine motor skills; your hand eye coordination. It stimulates the brain and actively engages it. Much different stimulation as compared to watching tv. In fact try folding laundry while watching tv, you become much more aware of the subtle conditioning used in advertising when your brain is actually active. Hobbies like painting or crocheting are good too but one thing it does not challenge is our ego. Our ego’s tell us that we need to have something to show for our efforts, the abilities of our skills. Washing dishes just doesn’t have anything to show for except just having clean dishes… where is the fun in that?!
Time To Do Some Chores
Sometimes a name can be very off-putting. Calling something a Chore makes it feel like a burden. When in fact it is we should look at it more like a necessity.
Just like some people find cooking pleasurable, we have to look at the positives in the little mundane things. Putting your whole attention into something that is not deemed efficient of your time does not make it ineffective of all the many things that you could learn from teaching your mind to be present. When you are present, you are opening your mind up the realm of possibilities.
I used to wonder why would people choose to go spend time in ashrams and monasteries, where when they are not sitting down in meditation or in study, they are doing chores like cooking, cleaning, scrubbing the floors of the monastery or stacking chairs in auditoriums. It’s a discipline of the mind (and the ego) which is so important to train. Mundane also helps you to take control of your energy output. When you are working at a computer, so much energy is being given away unconsciously to what you are doing. To the emotions you feel on a zoom or conference call or when writing an important email. Bringing yourself back to awareness of your thoughts through a quiet form of action means you start to take back control of your energy starting with your thoughts.
The Mundane is No Longer Ordinary
If we re-arrange the word mundane to unnamed; we can get to choose our perception of the ordinary. Finding Joy in the mundane is a skill. It’s a skill of the mind – and when you can find joy above all, in even the most mundane tasks it is a sign of gratitude. And gratitude is the ultimate state of receivership.
“He who conquers himself is the mightiest warrior.” ~ Confucius