Getting more done - the power of five

I recently attended a conference where Anne-Marie Faiola, the owner of Brambleberry.com spoke on a panel. Ms. Faiola was quite interesting and her story of starting her soapmaking supply company out of her living room gives hope to this newbie entrepreneur.

But something she said caught my attention. She mentioned that each day she does five things to move her business forward. Now, I thought about that and a little lightbulb sparked above my head. If this idea is good for business, it would be good for the business of homemaking too.

If each day, you did five things to tackle a tough area of your home - say a really unorganized closet, a kitchen in need of deep cleaning, or a child's bedroom mess - how much progress would you make in getting that under control? Taking it to a lesser level, what about just doing five things around your house each day to help maintain it?

The point of this exercise is to keep your goals in the front of your mind and to keep acting on them. The goal really could be anything; its the action that counts. For me, I'm using this idea on a number of fronts - my new business, my daily chores around the house, finding five new blogs each day that I enjoy reading, and on and on.

There must be something to the number 5. When NR was a toddler, he used to carry around a blue plastic magnetic five where ever he went. Oh woe is me if we lost "Blue Five" (we even had to keep some emergency spares in a drawer). Sooner or later he gave up on blue five. Well, blue or not, I'm going to be adding fives to my day. Wonder if I can find that magnet for a little refrigerator reminder...