It took a year to realize it worked and that it was the only way that worked for me
It started off with a daily task, “Do Some Laundry.” The words were carefully chosen for this task. “Some” could mean 1 thing related to laundry, or 100 things related to laundry. “Laundry” could mean collecting, batching, washing, drying, folding, hanging, moving, or preparing it for the next day. It didn’t matter what I did with laundry as long as I did it in any amount or form. I keep track of this in an app. The minimum effort of the task and the flexibility of it made it easy to comply with, as long as I did it every day. Even when I travel, I’ll do something related to what I wear the next day or deal with what I’ve worn in some constructive way. Every day I’ll “Do Some Laundry,” and it has improved my life more than it really should have.
My bedroom used to have a massive pile of laundry in the corner, but it wouldn’t take long for it to sprawl out so that you had to walk around it. For video collabs with guests on YouTube, we’ll often shoot 2-3 videos a day. As dumb as it sounds, we change clothes between videos that are filmed back to back only to fool the audience into thinking it’s a different day.
My record is probably like 5 outfits in one day.
That’s a lot of changing of clothes, and if I’m not careful, a lot of laundry added to any massive pile that might be sitting in the corner. But what happens when I need something in that pile? Is it in that pile? Is it in my car? In the gym or a bag somewhere? Compression shorts, knee sleeves, elbow sleeves, singlets, lifting socks, shoes! As an athlete that does so many different things, and as a visual entertainer, I need a lot of clothes, and I need something for everything.
When I started “Do Some Laundry” I noticed that once you get going, you usually don’t just do one piece of anything, you’ll do a couple minutes of work at least. I mean, 3 minutes of your time directed towards doing some laundry does a lot. Do it, and it might be 21 minutes in a week. On a day where I have nothing to do, because I’ve been on top of it, I might take a quick glance at my wardrobe and toss something I haven’t worn in a long time. That takes 30 seconds. Let’s keep doing this math.
My record for finishing a mess of laundry that’s piled up over a long time is something like 1 hour of work. I knew it was going to take awhile that’s why I timed it, I wanted to know how much work it really was. What I found is that you save a lot of time and save yourself from strange forms of anxiety and annoyance when your laundry is always done. Living with piles of laundry has psychic costs you cannot calculate, worth more than the 1 hour you lose if you batch process huge loads a few times a month.
The results I’ve gotten from this approach to doing laundry have spilled over into other regular things. When I started doing shorter meal preps, I noticed I was unconsciously choosing to cook better recipes (and having less food rot in the fridge). When I started doing this for dishes in the sink, my relationship with Sam (my wife) improved! If you keep adding things to this “do some” roster of tasks it might seem like it would take over your whole day, but how much time do you spend on your phone 2-3 minutes here and there swiping around like a lunatic? Probably. 2 hours a day. More than you think you are.
Does this "Do Some" approach work for training? Maybe. It depends on what you do, how you do it, and exactly how long you have to do it. What can you do with thirty seconds for grip training that is safe and effective? Perhaps close a warm-up gripper a few times, get the blood flowing. What if you had 3 minutes? You could do a full gripper workout. How? You’re only closing the gripper for a maximum of 3 minutes out of the 20-30 minutes you’re training it, the rest of that time is spent resting. What can you do with your rest period? Laundry, meal prep, messaging, changing the cat litter box or playing Frisbee with your dog (your dog would be cool with you taking a break for a second to close some grippers in between Frisbee throws, I promise). This doesn’t work for everything. Olympic lifts take a lot of focus and coaching, and the recovery between sets would be interrupted if you did pretty much anything else other than breathing and staring off into the distance.
Most forms of training can work with the “Do Some” approach in some capacity. “Do Some Grip Work” is an easy one with a lot of ways to accomplish it successfully, it works. You don't even have to wear special workout clothes to train grip! Let’s go back to the laundry thing. If you’re caught up on it, and your meals, and other domestic and professional duties because you “Do Some” every day and stay on top of it, then what happens when that tough squat workout rolls around once a week?
Would you be better off training it when you’ve got all your other stuff done and can focus 100%, or would you be better off using it as an escape from the underlying frustration of those other things not getting done?
It’s pretty clear which one I would choose.