Editor’s Note: This is a guest post from Hannah Brencher, founder of More Love Letters.
The start of a new year overwhelms me.
I love the idea of shifting gears and walking into a new year. I love the possibility of a fresh calendar. But I am overwhelmed by all the things I want to do, and all the things I think I can magically begin, just because January 1 arrives at the front of the calendar.
I’m one of those people who believes I can start running, eat all the kale, magically organize my entire life, and become that friend who sends birthday cards in the mail overnight.
I guess you could say I am a recovering resolutions addict.
The new year is tricky because we formulate these big, life-shifting goals and then we wonder why nothing changes. Why we quickly shelf those goals and go back to old habits.
I’ve learned it’s because building discipline takes time. It is a muscle we need to train little by little. Progress is usually made out of small things done on repeat.
At the start of 2019, I was feeling worn out before the new year even arrived on the calendar. I had things I wanted to do but I was drained by the idea of setting another set of lofty resolutions that looked like failures by the middle of January.
So I refocused my thinking. I decided to zoom in small. I picked one primary goal:
Read more, scroll less.
Instead of assuming I had to go out to the bookstore to fill my shelves with new reads that might entice me to create this new habit of mine, I decided to start with what I had. I pulled a book off the shelf and I set a timer on my phone for 15 minutes. Just 15 minutes to read a few pages of a book I already had.
A few years removed from that “read more, scroll less” goal, this is how most of my life operates: in 15-minute increments.
I call it the “15-minute rule.” It’s no fuss. It’s not fancy. You just set the timer and you start.
Fifteen minutes to go for a walk outside. Fifteen minutes to clear your mind and journal. Fifteen minutes to write some good sentences or call a friend just to hear their voice and check-in.
Most of us have 15 minutes. We say we don’t, but we could find the space.
We could put down the phone. We could watch less of that show. We could wake up a few minutes earlier. I think we buy the lie that we need to have the whole day or a whole hour to invest in something we care about that would make us feel like we are moving forward. But I’m afraid we’ll keep waiting on that miraculous free 3-hour time block or that day off only to find it never shows up.
We’ll never find the time. We have to make it and we have to decide that even the smallest actions are going to matter, they’re going to stack up and contribute to much bigger victories ahead.
On days where I feel overwhelmed by the tasks ahead of me, I set a timer and get to it. I remind myself: you can do anything for 15 minutes.
The tasks range from big to small:
Clean the cupboard beneath the bathroom sink. Go through my inbox. Call and make that doctor’s appointment. Scribble out a few cards and put them in the mailbox. With just 15 minutes, I make progress in a direction that matters to me. I change the landscape around me and get closer to the goals that really matter to me.
It’s really all about looking for that tiny thread within a larger task and beginning to pull. Over the years, I’ve found it doesn’t just work for the tasks you are dreading or tasks that need to get done, but it works even more masterfully for things you’ve always said you wanted to do. Those things you’ve quickly pushed to the side with the excuse of, “I just don’t have enough time.”
I’ve wanted to write a novel for years. This idea sat in my brain for so long and haunted me with each passing day. I’m a believer in not letting inspiration and ideas sit dormant for too long so I pulled out a notebook I already had one day and I set my timer. Over the next 15 minutes, I began to do research for the novel. It wasn’t earth-shattering. I was simply using 15 minutes of time to watch a TED talk and scan through some articles. But there was something about carving out that time that lit a fire in me.
It was a small step in the right direction. I was surprised to see it felt like coming back to myself. I decided I was going to keep stoking the fire, fifteen minutes at a time. The number of minutes seems small, but any larger and I’d convince myself there just wasn’t enough time.
It doesn’t need to happen every single day. It’s not about getting the 15-minutes down perfectly. It’s about deciding to show up and put something that matters at the forefront for just a moment in your day.
It might take 15 minutes to write 250 words. That’s 250 more words than you had yesterday.
It might take 15 minutes to research some new recipes but that’s an arsenal of family meals that didn’t exist this morning.
It might take 15 minutes to start cleaning out the closet in your office. You might not finish that big task today but you’re a little bit closer than you where you were before you set the timer.
If you’re feeling like life has been knocked out of you, or you don’t know how to start this new year, it may be time to look around the readjust.
You don’t need to add more to your already full life. You don’t need to make big investments or buy fancy gadgets to make progress. You just need to clear the space, maybe just for 15 minutes. You just need to start right where you are with what you already have.
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Hannah Brencher is a blogger, TED speaker and entrepreneur. Her book, Fighting Forward: Your Nitty-Gritty Guide to Beating the Lies that Hold You Back is available now.
About Joshua Becker
I finally found 15 minutes to read this article. I’m very glad I did!
This is just right, i made decision years ago to only put 3 things on my to do list, it never overwhelmes me and i only do the important things , helped me so much lv Jacqueline
This is encouraging and inspirational. Sometimes we’re so overwhelmed it takes baby steps to get started. Breaking it up in 15 minutes…as shared here will help moving forward. the 15 minutes increment…thank you for sharing this article.
Brilliant article. It’s something you don’t really think about doing. I love it. I will be getting my timer out and get to work on those activities I have been meaning to do!
I love this so much! Makes a whole lot of sense because I hold myself back from doing things I want and that are valuable to me because I think the tasks will take too long. But breaking it down into 15 mins each time makes it doable! So practical. Thanks so much for this article!
Thank you Josh for this article and for introducing us to Hannah, my daughter’s name is Yana (same as Hannah). It’s great to start the new year with inspiration from Becoming Minimalist.
Love to you all from Egypt and to the dear readers too.
I used my fifteen minutes today to fill a garbage can with clutter from my garage. Out to the road ready to go 😀
I like this!
This article really spoke to me…I think I can do this!
I’ve often done the 15 minute time. It works for me.
Lately I’ve been doing 17 minutes a day as well. Why 17 minutes?
It’s just shy of two hours a week. It gives me the discipline I am often short of.
This is taken from Flylady- even her catch phase- you can do anything for 15 minutes.
Exactly. FlyLady circa 1999. “You can do anything for 15 minutes.” and “set a timer.” Giving credit where credit is due.
Struggling with anxiety because of pandemic isolation from social contacts in person AND a fractured wrist on my dominant hand, even I can benefit from a 15 min rule. Thank you for this encouragement.
Hi Wanda,
In early November I fell and got two minimal fractures in my dominant wrist! Really interfered in life! Dr had me use a long brace rather than cast but I’m still waiting to begin PT (Wed).
I’ve discovered forced staying put is a blessing as I have finally begun decluttering and as Hannah said 15 min you can accomplish something, and starting new habits takes repetition.
I hope your fracture heals quickly and no future issues with it!
First I’ll apologize for being critical. My input is this…I’m just starting the course tomorrow, so I’m making sure to read everything carefully. This post arrived via email, so I read it. But it’s too long! The idea about 15 minute intervals is a good one, and I would have been more receptive if I hadn’t had to read through 12 paragraphs before I got to the idea. While I like the idea, the presentation is just the opposite of minimalism and even against the very idea presented of “scroll less.” Please keep these things shorter, or I’m afraid I’m not going to stay engaged and benefit from the good ideas. Thanks.
This post reminds me of the year I first discovered minimalism. I ran across flylady.com who believes in the “take small steps” to help me get my house decluttered and that led to becomingminimalist.com as I moved from decluttering my house to decluttering my life. I’m grateful to both sites because they changed my life.
The biggest thing I appreciate today is the joy of having negative space in a room. It is calming. Thanks for reminding me of how much can be accomplished in 15 minutes at a time.
This was a life-changing habit for me – I make my bed every morning.
I use a timer also. A few years ago, frustrated by unfinished tasks and rebelling against 15 minutes timer, I spun the dial. Landing on 11 minutes I set to work on a task I had been putting off for 2 years. It was done in 11 minutes. I decided I liked that number and have been using it since. I call it my elevensies. Years ago I gave up on resolutions as I never really accomplished them. I really like the goal of “Read more, scroll less” and plan to add that to my elevensies. My rebellious and procrastinating mind needs simplicity and a little bit of oddity to get things done.
Great advice, which I fully support. Until one needs to call their Internet Service Provider. In that case, it’s Verizon. I set aside one hour. But the 15-minute rule is still good 90 percent of the time.
This is so true! I quit social media almost completely, so the reading instead of scrolling goes easily for me, but with two tiny humans at home I wondered how to get some yoga practise done.
Turns out, that with minimal time, just sessions of 5-15 minutes, the threshold to make time becomes so much lower, and because of it, it’s much more appealing to make a little time. So yes, this is so true.
A little does go a long way!
This works great for my teenagers. They are often overwhelmed by writing a paper or cleaning their rooms. I tell them to set a timer for15 min and see what you can get done. Works wonders…. it gives them the momentum and it also gives them an ending.
I love this idea, I am going to incorporate it into my overwhelmingly overbooked days and see if I can finally stop spinning my wheels!!
I like this too. I use my time clock a lot when I am at home too. It is such a helpful reminder. I have never made so called “New Years Resolutions” I think they are a waste of time & you can set yourself up for disappointments. I hear it from other people that “I am so busy I just don’t have the time”, well it is called making priorities, because even if you get a good 8 hours of sleep every night, that still leaves 16 hours of the day to get things done.
Love this idea! How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time!
Love this article and what a great approach! This really resonated with me as I always want to take on a million things at once and therefore can end up doing none. Thank you for this great article. I am going to start this today and see where it takes me!!!
I can relate to this post on so many levels. I absolutely LOVE this idea and will definitely start putting it into practice today.