Be a Team Player

I made an early posting called Play a Game With Time (http://angelastrom.blogspot.com/2013/03/play-game-with-time.html) that talks about having fun with managing your time. I have a lot of fun with this game and encourage everyone around me to play. I'm even playing it right now! Well, long story short.. My fiance came into town to visit me (he lives in Italy, this is a story for another day) and we played the "time game" all the time. We would team up to tackle things together like daily chores, grocery shopping ect.

The first time we played we desperately needed to clean the house. My mother and baby brother were coming to visit the next day and of course I wanted it perfect! We declared we would clean the whole house in 20 min. This seemed like a challenging yet doable task so we set the timer. He started in the kitchen as I worked my way around the living room. As I was running frantically picking things up and straitening the living room I noticed him washing the dishes by hand. We have a dish washer so the fastest way to do the dishes would be to use it. "Just load the washer!", I yelled from the next room. The time was ticking and I noticed myself getting frustrated as he continued to wash them all by hand. "It will only be a couple more minutes", he declared calmly. He seemed to think we had plenty of time and I couldnt help but freak out that we were going to lose this game. We had 12 minutes on the clock by the time he joined me. He started making the bed as I organized the mess of laundry in our closet. I wasn't slowing down and it seemed to me he wasn't speeding up. By the time the buzzer went off I was frustrated and out of breath and he was confused as to why. All I could think is we lost because he wasn't playing on my team. Through conversation we realized we just werent playing the same game.

Let me explain...
By washing the dishes by hand he was trying to save energy, "notable but that's a different game" I said. We were going for speed. When he looked around the house when the buzzer went off the house looked clean so he didn't understand. He was right, it was straightened up but to me it wasn't clean. "We have to dust, sweep, vacuum, wipe down the bathrooms and take out the trash still", I exclaimed. He looked at me with shock. "I didn't know all that", he said.. By this time we were laughing out loud at my neurotic "must win" attitude and the realization we didn't set the game properly before we started to play. All we said was clean the whole house in 20 min. We should have made a list of what to do and probably given ourselves a bit more time, then we would have been playing the same game. I guess we were just eager :)

After our realization we chose to start a new game. After all, it's just a game. We evaluated our "to do" list and set a new time as we designated who does what. This time we both ran frantically laughing  and doing our chores. I'm proud to say we won!

We do this often and always have fun (even when we lose) You should have seen us at the grocery store! :)

The moral of the story.. Working as a team is fun! Not only does it double your time management but it can enrich your relationship...(Ti amo amore mio!)