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Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio.
Good morning.
This is Laura.
Welcome to the Before Breakfast Podcast.
Today's tip is that small things done repeatedly truly do add up.
Even just a few minutes per day over the long haul can add up to a significant amount of time.
This means that over the long haul, even big projects can become doable if you just keep going.
So when people decide they need to tackle some huge project, let's say organizing their homes, they often get into the mindset that they need big concentrated amounts of time.
Honestly, I just need to take three weeks off work and get caught up.
If only I could take three weeks off work.
Of course, you can immediately see the problem with this line of thought.
You are unlikely to get three weeks off of work.
And if you do, you are not going to want to spend that time organizing your home or doing any other big life administration project.
You are going to want to go on vacation.
Europe sounds nice, right?
So setting that out as a requirement means you stay stuck.
But let's say that a project really does require the equivalent of three weeks off of work.
Presuming that the rest of your life doesn't disappear, three weeks of work is about 120 hours.
That is, 40 hours a week for three weeks.
So a different question is whether you can find 120 hours in your life to do something.
If you stretch out your time horizon long enough, I'm guessing that you can.
Here's something to think about.
There are 365 days in a year.
That adds up to 8,760 hours.
If you spend 20 minutes each day on a project, that is the equivalent of 120 hours over the course of a year.
Now that is a much more reasonable ask.
Most of us can find 20 minutes a day if we tried.
We spend 20 minutes on random things all the time.
Doing something consistently for 20 minutes a day would be the exact equivalent of taking three weeks off work without actually having to do that.
Now, I understand that the equation isn't quite that simple.
Getting in and out of things takes time, so there might be some efficiencies to concentrating one's time on a project.
An eight-hour day is not the exact same thing as 24 20-minute chunks.
Sometimes things take more than 20 minutes, and even if you could break an individual component of a project into 20 minutes, you might have to leave things out in the middle, which could be discouraging.
Many a would-be organizer has started taking things out of a cupboard only to have something come up.
Now your kitchen looks even worse than it did before.
But I think these logistical issues are solvable.
One could do a lot while still following a personal rule not to do anything that will look worse after 20 minutes.
You can spend 20 minutes throwing away trash and a room looks better.
You can spend 20 minutes putting stuff in a donation box or then moving the box to where it's supposed to go, out the door, and the room will look better.
And let's be honest here.
If you did take 40 hours a week for three weeks to organize your house, my guess is that you would take breaks during that time.
You'd still need to eat.
There would be periods of more or less intensity.
By only aiming to do 20 minutes a day, you might be able to achieve an intensity that you wouldn't otherwise.
You simply have to stick with it.
So it goes for many things in life.
You could read War and Peace and Anna Karenina and Middlemarch and Moby Dick in a year by reading 20 minutes a day, as those books are mostly readable in 30 hours each.
A lot of creative things can be done in 20 minutes a day sewing a quilt block by block, for instance.
Maybe other things like oil painting require longer stretches of time.
But if you scratch that creative itch by sketching for 20 minutes a day, you just might be motivated to find longer stretches of time.
I know I've written some fiction and bits here and there, and then when I've got something more substantial, I feel motivated to make a writing retreat fit into my life.
Even big things can be done in small steps.
Doing something for 20 minutes a day for a year is the equivalent of taking three weeks off of work.
If you are telling yourself that you need that for something, maybe reconsider how you could configure that time.
You might be surprised at what is possible.
In the meantime...
This is Laura.
Thanks for listening.
And here's to making the most of our time.
Thanks for listening to Before Breakfast.
If you've got questions, ideas, or feedback, you can reach me at laura at lauravandercam.com.
Before Breakfast is a production of iHeart Media.
For more podcasts from iHeart Media, please visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
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Listen to No Grip on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.
I'm Bailey Taylor, and this is It Girl.
This podcast is all about going deeper with the women shaping culture right now.
Yes, we will talk about the style and the success, but we are also talking about the pressure, the expectations and the real work behind it all.
As a woman in the industry, you're always underestimated.
So you have to work extra hard in a way that doesn't compromise who you are and your integrity.
You know, I like to say I was kind of like a silent ninja.
Listen to It Girl with Bailey Taylor on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.
This is an iHeart Podcast.
Guaranteed human.
