Whether you are trying to accomplish a goal or tackle a nagging project, making small consistent amounts of progress can get you there faster than you think, and might be the difference between getting it done and not doing it at all. Many times, we wait and wait and wait until conditions are perfect – we’ve done everything else around the house, we have a chunk of uninterrupted time, and we have the energy to dive into our project or work toward our goal. And of course, those perfect conditions never happen, so we never make any progress.
Time to try a new strategy. 15 minutes a day might not sound like much, but that’s 105 minutes (1.75 hours) a week, 450 minutes (7.5 hours) a month, and a whopping 5,475 minutes (91.25 hours) a year. That’s a lot of time to make progress on your projects and goals. Start by figuring out your best time of day to carve out 15 minutes of uninterrupted time – before your kids get up or your work day has started, at lunch time, or perhaps in the evening before you wind down for bed. I recommend earlier in the day to be sure it doesn’t get pushed off, but you know what’s best for you.
If you don’t know where to start, make a list of things you want to accomplish. If it’s a straightforward project, add it to the list, if it’s a larger goal, break it down into smaller steps and add those to the list. Next, pick your top 3 priorities and then the one project you want to start with. Start today – set a timer and make 15 minutes of progress on that task. Stick with the same task/project each day until it’s done, so you minimize the start-up time – you’ll be able to quickly dive back in where you left off the next day. If there are days you have more time and you want to keep going, go for it, but make your goal just 15 minutes a day and you’ll be on your way in no time!
