The First Five Minutes
The First Five Minutes
This website took ten years to create. Not actually ten years of work, but ten years to make a decision. The decision was to start the first five minutes of effort toward it. There is a chasm of conjecture between talking about doing something and actually starting it for me, but in the past year I have been altering this pattern. I always thought there was no time for writing or art, but that was another excuse to put off the first five minutes.
Identifying the bridges across the chasm has been key. First, I don’t promote to others any endeavor that hasn’t been at least to the five-minutes-in mark. It’s wishful thinking and empty chatter. Instead of running on to others about an idea, I interview; I spend five minutes learning through listening. Everyone has a story. You have to ask a question and set the conversation in motion. I call it the ‘Have you ever…’ game. Finding out at least one thing about another person may lead nowhere other than increasing the file of experiences in the back of your brain, but you have to have that file.
Second, attach the five minutes to an activity you must participate in every day. If you are a morning person, you can get up five minutes earlier. If you’re not a morning person, you could add it to part of your going to bed ritual. Or, you could add it to something you do in the middle of the day. On a good day, I take advantage of all three opportunities.
For example, I have to write something for five minutes before I have my coffee. Yes, it might be a list for the day, but it is writing nonetheless. By the time I reach the bottom of the list, I’ve written something creative or given intention toward something creative. In addition, I write my sister letters, so I keep paper and pen upstairs where I get dressed so I can write one or two sentences. Snail mail may not always be with us, but the flow between thought, hand, and paper usually shakes the cobwebs out of the corners of my psyche. I don’t let myself get fully dressed without jotting a few words down, no matter how short or simple.
During the day, the five minutes is camouflaged in the myriad of obligations life provides. It may be a note I write on my phone or a cartoon in Sharpie on the back of a receipt, but an expression of some random observation may prove helpful. You never know. If I have the presence of mind and am not too exhausted by the time I pull the covers back at night, I write down a question or a bit of gratitude before I go off to sleep. Maybe I’ll dream about it, maybe not. The bedside journal is invaluable.
And now my five minutes is up, so I’ll challenge you to go start the first five minutes of something for yourself. It need not be writing. You may apply this method to anything you want to accomplish by chipping away at it a little every day.