Wednesday, November 19, 2014

Five Minute Dividends


I am convinced that doing anything for five minutes a day will garner great results. I’ve managed a thesis, a novel, a series of short stories and countless blogs using this very manageable commitment.

That being said, I’ve been off my game for the better part of a year, pretty much ever since the job hunt began in earnest and then the move got underway and the settling in began. No, we haven’t entirely settled yet, but I’ve decided that I’ve delayed long enough. After all, who can’t commit to five minutes a day? Heck, I can do that in my sleep!

So, here I sit, my children beside me, sipping Swiss Miss watered-down hot chocolate instead of the yummy concoction my own Mommy used to make from scratch because I am, after all, a working mother. No, I am not fully engrossed in my writing because an eight and a ten-year-old girl, both on the chatty side who love to stir and stir and then spill their hot chocolate, does not lend itself to inspired writing. That being said, I am writing, and that’s all I am trying to do write now. I’m not churning diamonds out of my ass, just getting something down on the screen.

The question is, in five minutes a day how am I going to write my educational blog, my lifestyle blog and carry on with my puberty memoir? Oh, and there’s that damn novel I started during my surgery recovery nearly two years ago. As I recall, it’s pretty damn good, but I can barely remember what it’s about anymore.

For now, I’m just going to say five minutes of writing. Any writing. Anything could happen, though.  If it turned into 20 minutes, I might become a prolific publisher. What really matters is that writing makes me feel connected with myself; publishing helps me connect with others. I yearn for both of those things in my life.

I’ve not been timing myself, but I know I’m well past my five minute deadline. That’s the great news.  I almost always end up going overtime, and that pays off big dividends. Just getting started and saying you’ll do five minutes of anything will get you a lot of results. The fact is, whatever you have started, you’ll usually end up doing a whole lot more than five minutes. It’s a little bit like stock dividends: you don’t realize how much you’re gaining with those extra chunks of time. 

Set a small goal. Stay committed. See what happens.