Posted by larry on Sep 20, 2013 in Motivation |

Hack Your Day In 15 Minutes

Lots of people have problems with productivity. I know I used to suffer from this problem, and it sucks. I constantly hear stories from friends or acquaintances that they just don’t have enough time for something; they want to start a project, but they just can’t find the time! Time is a precious commodity, and there only a finite number of hours in the day. You have a busy life: a job, a kid, a family, a lawn to mow, etc. It is very easy to get caught up in the stress of everything and become overwhelmed.

Stop it.

Let’s refocus and change our scope. Sure, you are busy. Everyone is busy. Every single person on this planet has the same amount of time in the day as you do. Beggars or Billionaires, this is true for everyone. It’s what you decide to do with your time that is precious, not the time itself. You may complain about not having enough time to do things… Think about all of the time you wasted just this week. Time spent reading Reddit, checking Facebook, watching TV… I’m not saying you can’t have leisure time, but you have to take the reins and realize that no-one will just hand you greatness, you have to take it. It is your responsibility to make the time and finish projects, not anyone else’s. It is very easy to get overwhelmed with all of this and just say “ehh, ill do it tomorrow”.

STOP IT!

You don’t need a lot of time to accomplish things. Even the largest building was built one brick at a time. You just need to change your scope! Lets say you are working on a project… a painting or a piece of writing. It will take you hours and hours to finish this project, and who has 5 hours to just sit there and paint or write?! Unless you are a professional painter or writer, odds are it isn’t you. So, what can you do about this? Sure, you can sit around and cry about how you don’t have time to do anything. ooooorrrr You could spend 15 minutes a day working on that project until it is complete.

15 minutes isn’t long enough to do anything, you say?

You would be surprised at how much you can accomplish in 15 minutes. How long does it take you to get ready in the morning? an hour? 30 minutes? Now think about how long it takes you to get ready when you are late for work, or an interview, or a hot date. I don’t know about you, but when I am late for something, I get ready fast. The same thing can be true for any project: Focus on the project at hand and get as much done as you can in that truncated time frame.

Don’t mess around. Don’t watch Youtube videos. Don’t read Facebook. Get shit done! If you are writing, get your resources open and ready to reference. If you are working on a painting, sit down and get your palette out and start putting down some color. Even if you only write a paragraph or two; even if you only paint a couple of inches, it’s ok. It’s still progress. You know what happens when you write 2 paragraphs a day for a week? When you paint 2 inches a day for a week? You are making progress.

I use this technique all the time. A matter of fact, I think if I didn’t use this technique, I would have driven myself mad long ago. I realized that I was constantly using the “I don’t have enough time for this” trap and you know what happened? Nothing got done. I had 5 projects that ALL had to be completed, and because I was stressing out and worrying about time and not having enough of it, I neglected all of them. Stop stressing out, stop worrying. That’s what is so great about the 15 minute method. Once you finish your 15 minutes you are done for the day. Don’t think about the project again until the next day. Save your doc, clean your brushes, whatever. The freedom this gives you is amazing. You get the psychological benefit of accomplishing something. You did something, you did your 15 minutes. Gold star. Now, you can let it go until tomorrow. Now you don’t have the threat of some project looming over you like a bad omen. In that 15 minutes you spent writing down squiggly lines for people to read, you freed your mind from a ton of stress and worry.

So, now what’s your excuse? Give the 15 minute method a try and see how much more you get done.