The 15 Minute Method

“Alexa, start a timer for 15 minutes” is how I’ve started writing this blog post. I’ve been struggling to figure out what to write about for this month’s update and haven’t really been able to come up with anything, but conversely, I’m not sure if I’ve really sat down and tried either.

It’s hard to get myself to start writing when I don’t really know what it should be about.

A friend of mine told me about a technique she uses to get herself to start doing something, which is to set a timer for fifteen minutes and just start with the objective to get as much done in those 15 minutes as possible.

It’s easy to get overwhelmed with a list of to-dos and it’s hard to feel like you have the time to properly dedicate to those things. But the beauty of this method is that it gets you going and you realize just how much you can accomplish in fifteen minutes.

It’s a good way to tackle a few things everyday instead of everything all at once too. At the end of the fifteen minutes you can just stop and call it for the day and you have already made progress towards your goal or your list.

It’s definitely a lot further than where you started. For me, with six minutes to go on my timer I’m at least 231 words in so far which is 231 words more than I had about nine minutes ago.

It’s pretty simple but let me lay out the steps to using this method:

1. Choose a task, a list item, anything you need or want to get done without any regard for how long you think it will actually take

                -even if you think something will take more than 15 minutes, for example, writing a blog post, choose it anyway. You don’t have to do the whole thing all at once and usually the bigger tasks that feel more overwhelming are the ones we don’t choose and keep putting off which is why it helps to make a dent in it through this method

                -you can also break something big down too, say your goal is only to declutter or organize one drawer instead of your whole kitchen

2. Set a timer for fifteen (or twenty if you’re feeling spicy) minutes and only do that task for the whole amount of time until the timer goes off

3. At the end of the fifteen minutes you can just stop without any pressure to keep going as you’ve done your part. If you do want to keep going then set another 15 minute timer to keep you on track without burning out

“Alexa, set another timer for 15 minutes” is how I’m ending this blog post, to go back through and edit or add to it, create the visuals, move this online and cross-post on tumblr.

This one task that has been eating at me from my to-do list is actually complete, and it really took fifteen minutes once I sat down and dedicated that time for it.

I think you’ll be surprised at how much you get done too once you try this out and I’d love to hear how it goes for you if you do!

I hope this helped and I’ll see you next month!