How can you prevent yourself from cleaning for hours at a time?

I would try to get into the routine of doing a little at a time over a day . And have a chart for days of the week on what to clean (bigger things). Like on one day I get the bathroom and then another for laundry

That’s a great question. I typically clean until everything is clean, which does tend to take at least an hour. I suppose I maybe need to set a time limit and then prioritize and perhaps have the kids pitch in as well to duplicate efforts.

I tell myself that I can only clean for 10 minutes and set a timer, then I can get other stuff done and come back to cleaning tomorrow.

I work on things in stages. Like loading the dishwasher and cleaning the counters.
Latter in the afternoon I unload the dishwasher. Start a load of laundry.

Pre pandemic I only cleaned the house when people were coming over for a party, and that usually meant that I was stashing stuff in closets and under beds, and in the attic. So, during this whole year of being at home with no parties to prepare for, all those stash zones had to be cleared out and organized. There’s systems in place now for where stuff we actually want needs to go. Anything in the way of that gets donated, recycled or tossed. Now that things are organized and they all have their place it actually doesn’t take long to clean up a room or two. 20 minutes is plenty of time.

I clean a little bit every day. Vacuum all the house is just 10 minutes per days and bathrooms takes 5 minutes each. Plus the important is tidying up every evening while I listen to music