If you are one of those people who do not get overwhelmed at the idea of tackling an entire project all at once, then you are free to leave. If you look at a pile of paperwork or dishes and think: Good Times! you should probably go find a disease to eradicate.
But for most mortals, taking on big projects requires a little bit of toe-dipping, of chunking things down. It doesn't matter if that project is domestic or commercial, personal or with a group, there will always be small steps you can employ that get you closer to your eventual goal. We will discuss the specific how-tos of breaking down big goals later, but for now, I just want to point out that five minutes can be a magical and rewarding sliver of your day.
Since I work mostly from home, I have had to assign my own "work hours". Otherwise every day would turn into an 18-hour workday. At the top of every hour during those work hours, my phone gives me a jaunty little ping (sometimes I wish I lived closer to an old stone church that still rang in the hours) and if I'm not right in the middle of crafting the Great American Sentence, I get up for five minutes and hack away at things with a nail-file of time.
You may not think you could accomplish much in five minutes, but that's where I come in to
Here's what I've been able to do in five minutes
Unload and reload the dishwasher
Throw in a load of laundry
Fold a load of laundry
Vacuum one room (turned into three)
Prep ingredients for dinner (I call it sous-chef-ing)
Call my mom for a quick check-in
Call an old friend who is long overdue for check-in
Do a Tabata workout
Write a pretty impressive journal entry
Send out three important emails
Delete a bunch of emails
Delete a bunch of pictures from my phone
Put special pictures in a folder so they are ready to turn into an album with my next 5 minutes
Clean out my purse
Set up automatic payment on a bunch of bills
Write a note for my husband/children to find when they come home from work/school
Plan a week's menu
Plan out a month of homeschooling (one subject per 5 minutes)
Make a grocery list and send it out on Wunderlist
Get my Pinterest habit out of the way for the day
Go for a quick walk
Play with my son's remote-controlled Quadcopter
Review/Fill-in my planner
Close my eyes and summon gratitude
Read one hizb
Make some dhikr
...and that's just this week!
I try to make my five minute, top-of-the-hour break one that is physical and will get me away from the computer, but that doesn't always happen. If you've been using your planner efficiently, you can always try to knock a mini-step towards your long-term goals/projects out the way during this time.
Five minutes is so unintimidating, so unassuming. It's your friend. And even if I don't get to it every hour, my at-least-once-daily five minute power time means I have accomplished something useful with very little pain or investment.
