The Power of 15 Minutes

Welcome to Simple Productivity Blog! You may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. This will allow you to receive updates in your RSS reader every time new content is posted here. If you want to receive updates in your email, click on the envelope in the upper right corner, or use the "Subscribe" link below the blog title.

Please take some time to check out the content on the site. You may comment on any article by scrolling down and using the form at the bottom of all articles. Thanks for visiting!

I am a great believer in doing things in concentrated bits. A few years ago, right after I found Flylady, I tried her timer method. Her mantra of “You can do anything for 15 minutes” hit a sore spot one day and I decided to prove her wrong — that cleaning the dining room would take way longer than 15 minutes, and it would definitely kill me to do it. I was wrong. I set a timer, and managed to knock out all the cleaning tasks in the dining room with 2 minutes to spare. Since then I have been a great believer in timers and timed bursts of activity, where I focus on one thing.

I ran across The Power of 10 Minutes over at LifeDev, and I decided to come clean with my secret methodology. Glen believes in 10, I still like 15. But I also think the length of the time depends on the person. Some may work best at 20, others at 5. And there have been days when I have done 5 minute sessions because I just could not stay on track.

Here is the basis for my method: I set the timer for 15 minutes and I tell myself I will stop after 15 minutes. The catch is I have to work at the task at hand for the time, and not get distracted. When the timer goes off, I assess what I have accomplished. Usually, I will either have completed the whole of the task with time to spare, or in the case of larger things, I will have completed a lot more than I expected.

The key is using a timer, and stopping for a break when it goes off. Just looking at a clock won’t work. The timer doesn’t lie. I have timers everywhere: three or four portable beeping ones around the house (yes, there is one next to my computer, to limit surfing), one on my PC that I programmed myself, and a couple on my PDA. So I always have one with me.

If you are having trouble getting something started or think something is too big to tackle, set a timer and try out the method. I will guess you will be very pleasantly surprised with the results.