Two minutes is a lot of time

I can do a lot of things in two minutes. I know this because when I have something heating up in the microwave oven I always try to use that time wisely. I can load or unload the dishwasher (as long as there aren’t TOO many dishes), clean the kitchen countertops, or fold part of a load of laundry (the whole load if it’s towels!). I can go through the day’s snail mail (let’s face it, it’s mostly junk) or clean out hours’ worth of spam messages from my email (also junk). I can shoot off a text message to a friend, straighten up the living room, even read a few pages of my current novel. I’m often surprised by how much I can do during two minutes.

But the two minutes that feel the longest are the ones I spend brushing my teeth. I swear that time creeps by more slowly than treadmill time (and goodness knows how slow THAT is). I’ve always taken good care of my teeth, or so I thought. I brush twice daily (at least), I floss, I visit the dentist regularly. But as I age (is she writing about aging AGAIN?!?), apparently my teeth are growing weaker (along with the rest of me). So it’s not enough just to floss, for instance. I have to use a Waterpik. But then that wasn’t enough either, so now I have to floss AND use a Waterpik. And even though I regularly brush for what feels like eons, it’s not long enough.

Now I have a fancy new electric toothbrush that automatically turns off after two minutes, after prompting me to change which quadrant of my mouth I’m sanitizing every thirty seconds. After using that just once, I realized that I wasn’t brushing for anywhere close to two minutes. Apparently the American Dental Association has been recommending the two-minute rule since the 1970s, but I guarantee that my mother didn’t worry about the length of time the toothbrush was active when she was trying to instill the habit. A got a star on my chores and hygiene chart if I brushed, with no reference to how long I brushed. Nowadays, I spend more time on oral hygiene than anyone else in my house, but prior to the new toothbrush I wasn’t even close to the gold standard.

Now that my toothbrush is telling me how long to work at it, I can’t believe how long brushing takes. I just stand there, in front of the sink, doing nothing except holding a spinning implement in my mouth. Anyone who knows me knows that I’m not good at being still. I am a fidgeter. I don’t just wait for the microwave to heat my tea, I clean something at the same time. I don’t just sit and watch television, I read a book too. I don’t just have a phone conversation, I’m also sweeping the floor. I know, you shouldn’t try to multi-task, yadda yadda yadda. Whoever believes that wasn’t gifted with the same amount of “antsy” that I have. I can’t just stand there for two entire minutes, even for the good of my gums. It feels like forever.

So I tried doing things like making my bed one-handed, or getting out my clothes for the day, or checking the weather on my phone before getting my clothes out for the day, each at the same time as conducting my oral hygiene regimen. Those tasks all proved to be less than ideal, as brushing for so long can cause, well, mishaps involving toothpaste (which can bleach fabrics, did you know?). But I recently hit upon a solution…standing leg lifts! These are the embarrassing momercises that I do when I’m standing around waiting for things, like board a plane or someone to help me at the DMV. Bonus…they are good for building balance, another one of those things that erodes with age.

This doing-two-things-at-once mentality may seem inconsistent with my posts about slowing down, but it’s really not. By getting two relatively mundane tasks accomplished at the same time, I clear up more of my day to do things that matter–things that bring joy to myself and hopefully to others. These routine tasks themselves don’t bring joy, but making the most of my time does.

Besides, leg lifts themselves also are pretty boring. They are the perfect thing to combine with another chore. And it’s way easier to do them while brushing my teeth than while baking cookies.