6 Principles of Getting Shit Done: You’re Not Done Until You’re Ready To Do It Again

Chapter 19

This post is a chapter of the book It Ain’t Gonna Lick Itself: Creating and Maintaining Living Spaces That Make Your Life Better (In Spite Of Everything) by Hanne Blank Boyd.

Click here for the full table of contents.

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You’re not actually done brushing your teeth the instant the toothbrush bristles are no longer in direct contact with your pearly whites. I mean, you might at least want to spit and rinse, even if for some reason you don’t rinse off your toothbrush before you put it back (ew).

You aren’t done getting to work just because you’ve driven there and parked your car in the parking lot or walked from the transit stop to the front door of the building. You still have to actually, y’know, go in.

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There’s often more to the task at hand than just the activity that gives the task its name. Actually finishing the task means doing whatever that is. When it comes to your household, it means making sure that whatever objects you’re working on and whatever tools and supplies you’ve been working with are ready to be used again.

I agree that in theory, it seems like “doing the dishes” should end when the soapy water has been rinsed from the last dish and the dish has been set in the drying rack. In truth, it’s not done until the soapy water has been drained out of the sink, the dish sponge or cloth has been rinsed out and wrung out and set somewhere that it will dry, the sink’s been rinsed out, and, yes, the dishes are dry and put away. The dishes are clean before then, yes. But they aren’t finished. They aren’t done. And thus they’re still in the process of “doing.”

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Look, I know that there are a lot of people who firmly believe that if the laundry is clean and in a basket, it’s done.