Week #284 – What difference does 15 minutes make? (Check out this math!)

Greetings Tribe — and Happy Friday!!!

Earlier this week, I was reminded of the “cumulative effect” of time. It was something I first heard Jess Itzler (Marquis Jet, Coconut Water, Living with a Seal) talk about last year.

And I feel like it’s worth mentioning again…because time is our greatest non-renewable asset. It is, simply put, life itself. And we can use it — or lose it — fifteen minutes at a time.

What difference does 15 minutes make? Keep reading…and find out!

In Jess’s instance, he was talking about how getting up a few hours earlier for over a decade has added a few extra “years” of effort overall to his life.

I know, I know…another uber-successful entrepreneur talking about how early he gets up! But then I started to do the math using only 15 minute increments:

• 15 minutes a day, times six days a week, is an hour and a half.
• In one month, that’s a total of six hours (roughly…please don’t muss my math!).
• In three months, that’s 18 hours.
• In six months, that 36 hours (or three 12-hour days).
• In a year — that’s SIX (very long and very full) DAYS.

SIX DAYS!!!

The math blew me away! Imagine what we could accomplish in 12 hours straight for six days in a row. Now imagine there’s no rest breaks. No reprieve. How much would we really get accomplished?! And how exhausted might we be?! And, maybe more important, what could we do with that six days each year instead?!

What if we doubled it to a half hour (two full weeks a year)? Or an hour (four full weeks a year)?

Many of us (myself included) long to take a full week (or month) off to devote purely to a project, to ourselves, or to someone or something outside ourselves. If that seems a little out of reach right now, think about how you might achieve the same result in smaller, daily bites of time. It really does add up!

After all…you’re spending it anyway!

Your Happyness Challenge for the Week Ahead: What difference does fifteen minutes make? You do the math! Think about a project, person, or purpose that you wish you could devote an entire week of your year to…then consider where you could find just fifteen minutes (within your day as it exists right now) to chip away at that dream!

PS: This also means that every fifteen minutes we waste on a daily basis (oversleeping, scrolling, arguing, complaining, engaging in the unwin-able, or otherwise beating my head against a wall) adds up to one full week of my year…of doing NOTHING productive or in particular. If we wouldn’t spend a week doing it, why spend even fifteen minutes? 🙂

SpreadHappyness — spread it out (fifteen minutes at a time)!

2/21/20 by Grace Church
© Grace Church
grace@spreadhappyness.com