A 20/10 is 20 minutes of unfucking (cleaning, studying, what have you) followed by a 10-minute break. 45/15s are the same, only, you know, 45 and 15. The UfYH system is based on 20/10s because breaks are important. We’re looking to avoid marathons here.

Why are marathons bad?

• It’s all or nothing. So, “all” is great, but the vast majority of the time, it’s “nothing.”
• It’s not sustainable. The good thing about cleaning in short, manageable chunks of time is that you can do it every day without it cutting into your life. You can’t do that with marathons.
• A lot of members of Team UfYH have physical disabilities, chronic pain, or mental illness that make marathons impossible. With many mental illnesses, manic or anxious episodes often manifest as cleaning sprees. It’s a switch of mindset to realize that cleaning can be just a little at a time.
• Marathons don’t build habits. Things get really bad and dirty, you marathon, then you wait for things to get really bad again. The time in between, you’re not sustaining a clean environment.
• The whole point of UfYH is that doing something is better than doing nothing, and every little bit you do helps. Marathons sort of spit in the face of that logic.

``