Word crawl/Clean House Crawl

Get Started: You're a brave one, deciding to write and clean at the same time. Begin with a 10-minute word sprint to get yourself motivated.

Start Your Laundry: Is it sorted? Put it in the washer and write for the entire wash cycle. (Mine's 30 minutes, if you want a guideline for not doing your laundry.)

If it's not sorted, sort it, do a 5-minute sprint, then put it in and write for the wash cycle. You should have been prepared!

Timer's Gone Off!: Put your laundry in the dryer. Give yourself a minute to stretch, too. Then come back and write for the dryer cycle. (Mine's a whole hour...yours may be less.)

Now That Timer's Gone Off Too!: Get the laundry out and fold it. Make sure you put it all away! Then write 300 words.

Tackle the Dishes: Got a dishwasher? Is it still full from the last run? Unload it, then do a 5-minute sprint as penalty.

If it's empty, load it up and write for the entire wash cycle. Then put those dishes away!

Don't have a dishwasher? Get that sink full of nice sudsy water and wash all the dishes you can that don't need soaking. Then soak some. Sprint for 10 minutes, then go back and scrub the soaked dishes. Repeat as necessary until all the dishes are done. How many sprints you do depends entirely on how far behind you are.

How Clean is Your Kitchen?: Figure out what needs cleaning the most, then follow the instructions for that item. (Do as many of these as you want/need to.)

Oven: Grab your oven cleaner, spray it down, then do a ten-minute sprint. Since most oven cleaners need to sit for a few hours before you scrub, keep going down the list while it does its thing, and come back to it when it's time to finish.

Sink: Scrub, then do a 25-minute sprint.

Stovetop: Scrub, then do a 20-minute sprint.

Countertops: Scrub, then do a 15-minute sprint.

Refrigerator: Pitch anything spoiled, wipe down the inside, then do a 10-minute sprint.

Floor: Sweep, and mop too if necessary, then do a 5-minute sprint.

How Clean is Your Bathroom?: Figure out what needs cleaning the most, then follow the instructions for that item. (Do as many of these as you want/need to.)

Shower/Bathtub: Grab your cleaner, spray it down, then sprint for the amount of time the instructions say to let the cleaner sit. (Typically in the 10 to 25 minute range, depending on the cleaner.) Scrub that tile down!

Mirror: When was the last time you cleaned that spotty mirror? Do it, then write 300 words.

Sink: Wipe down the sink and the countertop around it, and yes, that means moving all your bottles of stuff and your comb and your toothbrush. Then write 250 words.

Toilet: Break out the brush and really get that sucker clean. Wipe down the outside, too, and under the seat. Then write 200 words

Floor: Sweep, and mop too if necessary, then write 150 words.

Vacuum: Yes, you do need to vacuum. I'm sure you do. (If you actually don't, well, cheers, I never vacuum as often as I feel like I should. Also, if you have wood floor instead of carpet, break out the broom, because you're sweeping instead.) Vacuum a room, then do a five-minute sprint. Repeat until you've run out of rooms.

Still Looking for Things to Clean?: Here are some more miscellaneous ideas.

Your desk: Get it sparkly-shiny, whether than means taking two minutes to move your single houseplant and pen cup out of the way to wipe down your spotless workspace, or spending twenty minutes organizing your eight million scraps of paper and post-it notes. Then write 500 words.

Your windows: They could probably stand a wipe-down. Then write 300 words.

Your bookshelves: Are they a mess? Put one back in order, then do a ten-minute sprint. Repeat for your other shelves if necessary.

Still Here?: Pat yourself on the back and take a much-deserved break. Or, you know, eat something, go outside, call it a day, because now your living space is clean and you've written waaaaaay more than you probably set yourself as a goal for the day. Congratulations!