Use an Alarm Clock to Keep Organising Tasks on Track

You’ve cleared out some time, you’re itching to tackle that cluttered and messy closet, and … 20 minutes later, you’re reminiscing over some old photos you found. Staying on track while tackling organisation projects can be tough, as your ideas and findings pull you in many directions at once. Real Simple’s suggestion: Put an alarm clock in the room where you’re working and set the buzzer to go off 10 minutes after you start.

When it beeps, assess what you’ve done and then hit the snooze button. When it goes off again, see if you’ve accomplished more in the next chunk of time. Keep hitting the snooze button until you’re finished with your project. People who can hyper-focus will find this method really annoying and won’t want to use it. But, if your mind frequently wanders, this could be a great tool for you.

An elegant mind hack, since many of us are psychologically conditioned to bolt to attention whenever that oh-so-familiar buzz sounds. Whether you can handle it every 10 minutes is up to you.