Making Progress When You Have No Time

When time feels impossibly scarce, I've found that the "15-minute solution" can be transformative. The concept is simple: commit to just 15 minutes of focused work on a daunting task. No matter how overwhelming your project seems, anyone can endure 15 minutes. What makes this approach powerful isn't just the time management aspect—it's the psychological shift that occurs once you begin.

The magic happens because starting is almost always harder than continuing. Once you've worked for even just a few minutes of your 15-minute block, you'll feel more energetic and you'll pick up momentum. You might even decide to keep going beyond those 15 minutes.

Even if you don't, those 15-minute blocks accumulate meaningfully over time. The overwhelmed overachiever in us often dismisses small pockets of time as insignificant, but I've written entire book chapters in 15-minute increments, proving that consistent tiny efforts create substantial progress. Next time you're paralyzed by a mammoth task, don't wait for the mythical "perfect time"—just set your timer for 15 minutes and begin.

Image by Raphael Silva from Pixabay