I had an epiphany on my morning walk today.
Like all great epiphanies it derives from the ‘compost heap’ of my brain.
I forget which of my colleagues used that term, ‘composting’, to refer to the organic combining of ideas, thoughts, stimuli, data, and information that goes on in the brain — but I love it.
Anyway, lest I diverge too far … here’s the notion.
What can I/you do in 10 minutes, or less, to move a tangible, concrete step closer to my/our vision?
My application of this idea today, is to write this blog post in 10 minutes or less.
Can it be done?
Of course it can. If for example I refrain from my usual efforts to find link urls for references in the the blog. Or, even, god forbid, try to use any references. Pish tosh!
The idea is simple.
Pick a task that takes 10 minutes or less.
Then do it!
Voila!
You’ve made freaking progress. Maybe only nano-progress but progress nonetheless.
Only 3 minutes left. Great, maybe time enough to share the source of my inspiration.
It comes from ‘baby sitting’ my grandson.
I knew from countless conversations with “Writing Mothers” that they often get articles, even whole books, written in 10 minute chunks.
This really hit home for me when I recently cared for my grandson. I couldn’t get a bloody thing done! I’d barely sit down when he wanted my attention about something.
I’ve been mulling, i.e. idea composting, the experience for weeks. How the hell do mom writers do it? Well, what they told me was they ‘chunk it’. They just grit their teeth, plug their ears, and bloody do it!
Then today it hit me!
Why don’t I give it a try. Why don’t I see if I can create something useful. A complete piece of writing … in 10 minutes.
THIS is the result.
What do you think?
(Spell checked and edited version posted 1 hour later 😉
