About Steven AitchisonDid you ever have to wash dishes when you were younger as part of your chores? I did and I hated it until I found a quick way to do it. At this point you might think I’ve lost it and am actually going to write a post on how to wash dishes, well I am and I’m not, keep reading you’ll see what I mean.
When I had to wash the dishes I done it haphazardly, wash a knife here, wash a dish there and consequently it took me ages to do them and they weren’t done properly. I was then shown a way to do them which seemed to make the chore less of a chore and I would zip through doing the dishes. Now I have shown my children how to do the dishes properly they see it as less of a chore as well (no we don’t have a dishwasher thank goodness). My son said he done his homework the same way I showed him how to do the dishes, when I asked him to explain I thought the intelligence required to link dishes with doing homework was amazing and I told him so. Having expanded on it a little more you could apply washing dishes system to anything in life.
How to wash dishes
Pre-preparation
About 10 minutes after dinner, in my house, you’ll always hear me shouting through ‘who’s not rinsed their plate off?’ and one of the boys will come trundling through and rinsing their dinner plate off under the tap. Rinsing the plate will obviously make washing the dishes a lot easier, especially if they sit for half an hour before they are washed and dried.
So it is with any chore or task, pre-preparation is a good habit to get into. Imagine you’ve been given a report to write for next week, you have a thousand other things to do so can’t do it right away. What you can do right away is a little pre-preparation. You quickly skim the task and find out what it is about and in your mind what you will have to do to prepare it, you write this down and put it in with the folder for the next time you pick it up. What this does is sets unconscious triggers in your mind and your mind starts to work on the report without you doing anything. It keeps it fresh in your mind and when you sit down to do the report a lot of the work has already been done, without you even knowing it all because you’ve done a little pre-preparation.
Preparation
So the dishes have been rinsed half an hour before they are due to be washed. The next stage is preparation. This involves making sure all the cups are emptied before washing, any bowls have been rinsed, the sink is cleaned before washing , all the dishes are grouped together and the right amount of hot water and washing up liquid is put in before starting.
This preparation is applied to any task. It is a vital component of reducing any stress when starting a task. You get everything ready before starting any task. I work as a homeless tenancy support worker and I see about 30 clients week who are at various stages of homelessness. My week is prioritised and I see the ones who need a lot of work done on a Monday and Tuesday and I prepare any paperwork that they might need done or any information they might need before going to see them. This could involve filling out a benefits form, getting more information on an education course, or helping them with an application for funding for furniture. Then I group the clients together in order of area as I have to cover an area of possibly 100 square miles in a week, grouping them makes it quicker and easier to get through all the work required. Every single task in the world requires preparation, if no preparation is done then time, money and energy is wasted which causes undue stress. I always leave about 90 minutes per day in case of emergencies and for writing notes.
The task
Now it’s time for the dishes to be washed. These are done in groups; cutlery first, plates, cups, glasses and then pots and pans. Grouping makes them easier to stack and quicker to get through. Each dish is washed and then rinsed to make sure there is no dirt, if there’s still a little dirt it is then washed and rinsed again. To make the task a little less of a chore I remember playing games in my head when washing dishes. I used to play cutlery Olympics whereby all the cutlery was put in the sink and I wanted to see if the knifes, forks or spoons would win the gold medal i.e. what one would finish being washed first, there were four possible winners as the spoons had teaspoons in them as well. I always willed for the underdog and hoped the teaspoons would win, I don’t know why but the teaspoons always used to come last and the knifes or forks used to win.
When writing articles I use the same method as above. I group my writing tasks on subject. So if I have 5 articles to write and two of them are on self help, two on property, and one on making money online, I group the and write them in order of groups. I also find photos to go with each. To make the task more interesting I try and finish as quickly as I can without compromising on quality. I then re-read the articles and make sure they are okay and feel okay to publish. This often involves, in fact, always, involve a little re-writing. I then publish them to various blogs, or compile an ebook or send out to a newsletter group.
Post task
The dishes have now all been washed and rinsed and stacked on the rack. It’s time for a cleanup. This involves cleaning any water and soap bubbles off the sink area, cleaning the sink out and rinsing out the sink. Voila dishes are done in record time and the forks have won the gold medal again.
Going back to writing articles, after I have completed checked, and published them I always save the files to somewhere I can find them quickly and easily. I also answer any queries via email on the various articles or any blog responses, although I have become a bit lax with this lately. I then sit back and chill out knowing I have done a good job and done it to the best of my ability.
Now, go and get the dishes done!
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Hah! I love it. My friends thought I was ridiculous for writing out my whole process for reading RSS feeds (which I have a post about on my blog, but don’t want to link spam), but just like you I relate it to other tasks in life. You and me are on the same wave length =)
You’re mad, but right. I wash dishes very quickly, and don’t see it as a chore. 5 mins max and it’s done.
Wow! A description on how to wash the dishes. Thanks for reminding me to do mine.
Thanks sid, a lot of people have read the first few paragraphs and thought I really was writing about how to wash dishes
Thanks Clangnuts, nice to see you back here.
Jerry I am presuming that was sarcasm?
Great analogy — loved it!
Another important lesson from washing dishes is to leave the steak knives pointing down when you place them in the drying rack. Nothing worse than a nicked arm when you put the following dinner plate in.
From that, you learn to do each step the right way, rather than the quickest. Doing it whichever way is quickest often leaves things that will come back to bite you later.
- Beecher Bowers
This is a great analogy about how to get tasks accomplished. I always found it so much easier to write papers in college, and now articles, if I do the prep part right away.
As for the actual task of washing dishes, while I certainly didn’t enjoy it when I was a kid, now it’s sometimes just the task I use to take a break from the computer. Funny how life changes your outlook, isn’t it?
I find that washing each dish right after use is the easiest way to keep my kitchen sink empty. I can’t stand to wash a sink full of dishes, so to keep my work to a minimum, I wash each dish directly after use, including pots and pans when cooking.
I particularly liked the “pre-preparation” step. In dishes, this is a huge time saver, especially if the dishes get left overnight (ugh), but in life it’s a stress-saver, particularly for me. If I can let my mind work on a project for a while before I actually have to do any real work on it, I feel like the job’s half done! With writing in particular. The post, letter, scene, whatever, flows better and comes out with my real voice if I let it “stew” for a while.
Steve,
Wonderful life lessons wrapped up in my childhood chore! Please welcome another voice to this type of learning Susan Hanshaw’s post on how to maintain your commitment : http://innerarchitect.com/2008/04/15/second-characteristic-that-shapes-our-reality-how-to-maintain-your-commitment/
Wonderful analogy and fresh approach Steve!
dean and susan
Great article. So glad that I found your site. I’ve learned so many things especially the Pre-preparation. Good job.
Washing dishes was never a favorite chore of mine — I hated it as a child & I still do!
Great post, creative and original. Speaking of that have to go and do some dishes now.
I love this way of thinking and I really do wash my dishing in exactly the same way,how nuts is that? I like you also play games like this,weird or are we just sad?
Hilarious that you wrote a post on how to wash dishes. You forgot the most important step…pour a big glass of whiskey and turn on some music. Either that or get the wife to do the dishes
Nice post! That makes me excited to wash our dishes.
oh my god! even in washing our dishes there are tips, we commonly do this everyday, but what can I say, you delivered it so good, a brilliant work!
haha , too complex
this is really user friendly given by you mate to wash dish.
Wow, this is great post very informative.
i like what you wrote but whan i am in a good mood and listining to my fav. music that makes me wash the dishes fast but rember people think different
just found out yesterday that I dont wash dishes right, you dont want your dishes to “marinate” in the soapy water. Oh my god ,,,please kill me now. 20 plus yrs and i have been doing it all wrong. Have you ever watched MONK, well my lovely sister needs to hook up with him. I bet he has a special way ,,also, or too,whatever
Oh ya; I forgot the best part about this, is, there’s a perfectly good automatic dishwasher, but its probably unplugged somehow, like all the other appliances. Energy conservation gone OCD to the max, but theres these highly volatile mercury containing light bulbs in the house, which are terrible for the environment and should be banned , but all the “sheeple ” want ‘em . and they will go toWALMART “the scourge of the planet, and support sweat shop chinese labor . Sorry, I need you all to wake up and learn how to wash your dishes!! Thanks!!!
This is a great blog! I, too, fret over washing the dishes, even though I use your method of preperation. The task is daunting but I know with preparation and a little elbow grease the dishes practically do themselves.