The 15 minute rule

Its called the “15-minute rule.” It’s no fuss. It’s not fancy.

You just set the timer and you start.

Fifteen minutes to go for a walk outside.

Fifteen minutes to clear your mind and journal.

Fifteen minutes to contact or call a friend just to hear their voice and check-in.

Fifteen minutes to Rozs lift and tone exercise sessions.

Most of us have 15 minutes. We say we don’t, but we could find the space.

We could put down the phone.

We could watch less of that show.

We could wake up a few minutes earlier.

I think we buy the lie that we need to have the whole day or a whole hour to invest in something we care about that would make us feel like we are moving forward. But I’m afraid we’ll keep waiting on that miraculous free 3-hour time block or that day off only to find it never shows up.

We’ll never find the time. We have to make it and we have to decide that even the smallest actions are going to matter, they’re going to stack up and contribute to much bigger victories ahead.

On days where I feel overwhelmed by the tasks ahead of me, I set a timer and get to it. I remind myself: you can do anything for 15 minutes.

The tasks range from big to small:

Clean the cupboard beneath the bathroom sink. Go through my inbox. Call and make that doctor’s appointment.

With just 15 minutes, I make progress in a direction that matters to me. I change the landscape around me and get closer to the goals that really matter to me.

It’s really all about looking for that tiny thread within a larger task and beginning to pull. Over the years, I’ve found it doesn’t just work for the tasks you are dreading or tasks that need to get done, but it works even more masterfully for things you’ve always said you wanted to do. Those things you’ve quickly pushed to the side with the excuse of, “I just don’t have enough time.”

It doesn’t need to happen every single day. It’s not about getting the 15-minutes down perfectly. It’s about deciding to show up and put something that matters at the forefront for just a moment in your day.

It might take 15 minutes to research some new recipes but that’s an arsenal of family meals that didn’t exist this morning.

It might take 15 minutes to start cleaning out the closet in your office. You might not finish that big task today but you’re a little bit closer than you where you were before you set the timer.

If you’re feeling like life has been knocked out of you, or you don’t know how to start this new year, it may be time to look around the readjust.

You don’t need to add more to your already full life. You don’t need to make big investments or buy fancy gadgets to make progress. You just need to clear the space, maybe just for 15 minutes. You just need to start right where you are with what you already have.