In the Aesop fable, The Lion and the Mouse, a lion is sleeping in the forest when a small mouse startles him. Scared, the mouse runs across the lion’s nose in her haste to get away. But the lion is quick and grabs the mouse with his huge paw. The mouse begs the lion to spare her and let her go instead of eating her. She says, “Please let me go and, one day, I will surely repay you.”
The lion is amused at the very thought that a tiny creature could save him, the king of the jungle, but decides to let the mouse escape unharmed. Several days later, the lion is stalking prey in the forest when he gets caught in a hunter's net. Unable to free himself, he roars and roars in anger. The Mouse hears the lion and runs over to find him struggling in the net. Running around the ropes that bind the lion, she gnaws and gnaws until the ropes break enough to free the lion.
The mouse says, “You laughed when I said I would repay you. But even a small mouse can help a big lion.”
The moral of the story is two-fold; kindness is never wasted and little things can make a big difference. When your day feels like a lion, your mouse can show up in the form of little 15 minute increments. Those little things can make a big difference.
You don’t need a ton of time to be successful or to get everything done. What you need is a little time, several times over.
It’s easy to get sucked into the idea that things take longer to do, simply because every calendar we have ever used is broken down into one-hour increments. We’ve gotten in the habit of scheduling everything we do by the hour. Our meetings are one hour, our workout class is one hour, and our television shows are one hour.
We grow into the time we schedule. But here is a mindset shift that will change your life forever...very few things in life need a full hour to be effective. Yes, some things warrant that time, however, using it as a default for scheduling everything in your life is where we end up wasting time and not accomplishing as much as we would like.
Think about your own experiences; how often are you braindead by the end of that hour-long meeting? How many times did things go off on tangents and, because we ‘had the time,’ were allowed to be discussed instead of being put on the next agenda? What if that meeting was streamlined and got finished in a half-hour? If everyone showed up and got focused, you would be in and out quickly with clarity on what needed to be done next.
If I need to work on a project, it’s going to be difficult, maybe even unrealistic, to find two hours of time to work on it. But 15 minutes is manageable, magical, and you can always find it in your day. Spread it out and, bit by bit, it’s done.
Whether it’s divvying up a work project, cleaning your home, organizing a high school reunion or learning something new, taking it 15 minutes at a time can get more accomplished with less stress.
What are some things you can do 15 minutes at a time?
- Grow your business
- Generate revenue
- Keep your house/office/environment clean and clutter-free
- Make one important phone call
- Clear out your inbox (15 minutes every couple of hours = end of day, you kept up with it)
- Have a conversation (accomplish something, find closure, generate a new idea, connect/build a relationship…)
- Improve your health
- Learn new things (nun study)
- Replace stress with calm
- Write (comments, blog post, article, responses = participate, communicate and voice your thoughts = forces you to think things through)
- Make 10 sales calls
- Start your day on the right foot with a 15 minute routine
- Have a business meeting
- Have a family meeting
- Get an update and make sure your team is on the same page
- Go over the family schedule for the week
- Meal plan (to save time and money)
- Prep a healthy meal (Slow cooker/Instant Pot type appliances…)
- Clean a room
- Empty the sink/dishwasher
- Toss in a load of laundry/fold things out of the dryer/put away clean clothes
- Prep for tomorrow (the night before)
- Workout (walk, run, yoga, cardio, pilates, zumba, dance around the house…)
- Meditate/practicing calm
- Make a to-do list
- Check something off of your to-do list
- Grocery shop
Begin to break down and explore how you can use your 15-minute blocks every day to change both your personal and professional lives in positive ways. You’ll learn how little things done consistently, and with focus, can help you accomplish everything you want to get done.