I got this idea from Shannon . Ever since I read her post I have been thinking about it. What can you do in 15 minutes?
I consider myself a busy person and yet when I thought about it, I realized I waste a lot of time during the day. Often I will have small increments of time I think isn’t enough to do a large project, and so I fill up those few minutes with fairly meaningless activities instead.
Then I read Shannon’s post about all the things she could do in just fifteen minutes and decided I needed to rethink my day. Instead of saying, “Oh, I just have 10/15/20 minutes, I can’t do anything in that time so I will sit at the computer and catch up on Facebook, (or something similar) I decided to put my spare minutes to good use.
And this is what I discovered I could do in 15 minutes:
1. Fold laundry. I detest laundry but doing it in 15 minute increments is much more enjoyable for me—and it is better than ignoring it all week because I don’t want to do it.
2. Iron a few shirts or a couple pair of pants.
3. Pay bills
4. Clean the kitchen/do dishes
5. Touch up cleaning in a bathroom
6. Write a couple thank you notes
7. Take a power nap. (Not a waste of time when you never get more than six hours of sleep a night:-)
8. Prepare dinner menus for the week
9. Vacuum the upstairs. (I love vacuuming; I feel it covers a multitude of sins:-)
10. Walk a mile. (This is usually more helpful in the afternoon than taking the nap)
11. Read a couple Ensign articles
12. Write a few lines in my journal. I find it hard to keep a journal on top of everything else because I always think I need to write long entries, but I have started writing less, which has helped me to write more often.
13. Make a telephone call to check on a ward member. (You know the ones who aren’t at church on Sunday or you haven’t seen in a while.)
14. Catch up on emails. I need more time if I am going to respond to them all, but in 15 minutes I can usually read everything I have been sent and then prioritize my responses.
Thank you Shannon for the advice to use my time more wisely!! Now to the rest of you out there . . . what can you do in 15 minutes??
And just a side note . . . I am in party planning mode again. (Definitely NOT a 15 minute activity!:-) On December 1 we are having a Christmas dinner party at our house for about 36 people. Thankfully for this one I have two of my favorite party planners helping me—Jenny and Suzy!! I love those women!!
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5 comments:
Yay I get to be the first commenter. Good advice. many sets of 15 min adds up to a lot of time. I'll have to give that some thought :)
Funny, I found myself just today saying something to the effect of "I only have a few minutes, I can't get anything done." Why is that such an easy response? Definitely something that takes conscious effort on my part. Thanks for the reminder. I'm off to check the kitchen counters and laundry baskets!
I only have 15 min to do anything! I long for hours to focus on one task, but I learned a few years ago that if I wait for a chunk of time I never get anything done.
Thanks for the list, some of those I don't do on a regular basis. I need to fit them in too.
Vacuuming is not my fav. But I don't mind laundry.
I waste far too much time as well. But then there are times when cooking and waiting for the timer to go off I can unload the dishwasher or fold some laundry in such short increments of time that I surprise myself.
You can walk a mile in 15 minutes? You must be taller than I am; at 5'3.5" it is a huge challenge for me to clock a mile that fast. Not impossible, but hard.
PS: Good luck with your party planning.
PPS: look me up on Facebook when you are wasting a few minutes.
Okay, okay!! I will stop wasting time.:-)
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