Commercial
on TV just asked what I could do with ten minutes.
Perhaps
unfortunately, it’s lunch time and I’m hungry, so my immediate
thoughts went to the steak sandwiches Terry and I have planned.
That would take about ten minutes. (And I’ll get a great lunch
out of it.)
But
that’s not what the commercial had in mind, and not what I had
in mind by starting this journey.
The
real reason I decided to write it is because ten minutes is more
time than you think.
On
some mornings I might need to heat up a cup of tea, hot cocoa
or coffee. Wanting it to really be hot, I’ll often set the microwave
for two minutes for a final blast to the beverage. And then I
get to wait.
I
have completely emptied the dishwasher in less than two minutes.
I’ve also loaded the dishwasher in under two minutes. I’ve started
a load of laundry… walked out to get the mail… pulled out things
to help prepare for dinner… refilled the ice trays. Many times
in under two minutes.
And
now the commercial is giving me ten?
I
don’t know if people have a really good grasp of time. Kind of
a combination of awareness and reality. For instance…
Let’s
say you and I are thinking about heading out to a movie. Maybe
grab a pizza before it. Theater is a fifteen-minute drive from
the house, movie is two hours long. If it’s 2pm, there is no way
we are going to leave, drive to the theater with a stop for pizza,
see the movie, then drive home and be back by 4.
There
is no way to shoehorn thirty minutes of driving and a two-hour
movie into a two-hour window, and even with that you’re forgetting
the pizza.
But
that’s the thinking some people apply. Movie is two hours long.
Never mind anything you need to do at the theater, they wrap the
drive and pizza into that two hours. Literally stunned when you
are dropping them off after 5.
(“Movie
must have started late. Must be those darn previews.”)
But
that just absent-minded stuff, if we’re being honest. Ten minutes
is more a matter of focus. (And I like the previews.)
If
I sat down and just wrote for ten minutes without stopping, I
could put together seven hundred to one thousand words without
much difficulty. Spelling and punctuation might be atrocious.
I can’t say it would have a good rhythm or flow to it. Might not
even be remotely coherent. (Yeah, yeah—“How long did you spend
writing this one?”—Funny. You guys are funny.) Still… ten minutes…
I could get a really solid word count in place.
Same
thing for anything, really. In a ten-minute burst, I think you’d
be stunned with what you could accomplish if you tried. But most
don’t move for top efficiency and production at all times. We
pace ourselves. And suddenly, ten minutes seems like too little
time for anything.
I
used to pick my wife up at work on occasion. Often, I’d call her
before getting ready to leave. Reason was simple enough… if she
was going to be a few minutes early or on time, I didn’t want
to start another project. I wanted to be there for her. But she
could run late. Didn’t bother me, but it happened two or three
times out of every five I picked her up. And there was a lot I
could get done around the house with an extra half-hour two or
three times a week.
Years
ago, Bobby Riggs was a guest on a television show called The
Odd Couple. All you need to know about Riggs for this idea
was that he likely was best known for his hustling and gambling.
On the show he challenged one of the lead characters to correctly
type his name in ten seconds or less.
It’s
a bet I’ve jokingly repeated against a lot of people over the
years. To date, I’ve never lost. Now, that should end at some
point. It’s not that hard to do and really isn’t a big deal. I
should lose every time. But it’s the psychology involved that
becomes the game. A person believes it has to be a trick, gets
worked up over wondering what the trick is, and then generates
internal pressure that throws off how long they have.
Ten
minutes is a lot of time. Not enough to watch twenty minutes of
television. But long enough to do more than you’re thinking. Do
yourself a favor, and stop hanging around waiting for the pot
of water to boil. Get something done and come back in five.