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Productivity Hack: 15 Minutes is Plenty of Time
With “found time” you can add more “me time” to your day
Perspective is Everything
When hanging off a cliff or trying to explain our complex universe while eating hot wings like Neil deGrasse Tyson, 15 minutes can feel like an eternity. No one wants to spend an entire quarter of an hour under a dentist’s drill or 900 seconds in Negative Nelly’s salon chair. Depending on what’s happening, 15 minutes can be a long period of time.
We are busy. Juggling family, work, side hustles, and personal duties can often cause us to postpone or overlook seemingly minor yet important tasks on our to-do lists. Even if we’re not consciously aware of it, the existence of a list of unfinished tasks adds to our stress.
There has to be a way to ‘find more time” to get things done.
The Gift of “Found Time”
In his article “The 15-Minute Strategy to Get More Done Every Day,” Jason W. Womack, founder of The Womack Company, explains the concept of “found time:”
I can hear you asking: “What is ‘found time?” Have you ever been to a meeting that didn’t start when planned? Far too many meetings start several minutes late. When you are ready to use those “found” 15 minutes, you can effectively make a dent in all you need to get done each day. Source.
So if you are prepared, you can use this time to make progress on your writing projects, trim your to-do list, and have more time to relax later in the day.
How to Utilize Your “Found Time”
Maintain a portable list of 10–20, 15-minute tasks on your phone or in a notepad. The next time an appointment is canceled, your coffee date is running late or the conference ends early, be ready to take advantage of this time “gift” by knocking out a task or two on your list. Here are some things you can do in 900 seconds:
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