DISQUS

raincoaster · 2 years ago

It certainly works as a motivator during exercise: more and more trainers are telling their clients to just commit to ten minutes and then see how they feel. Of course, they know damn well that the clients will feel better after ten minutes and want to continue.

But it would definitely depend on the activity. If I'm doing an involved writing project, I wouldn't break it down into anything less than hour units, because it would interrupt the flow. Fact is, though, that most of our tasks nowadays are designed to be highly interruptable and episodic, so this tip would work for most work-related activities.

Pamela · 2 years ago

I don't necessaryly do it in 10 minutes, but the idea of breaking it into small pieces is what makes the task easier to do compare to doing it as a whole.

Fran · 2 years ago

I agree with your idea. It's better to do our task in small alloted time rather than in one piece and waste most of the time.

Leo · 2 years ago

Great post, Glen. This is definitely a powerful idea. It's something that works for me when I have a lot to do and not much time to do it -- like right now! Back to work.

Selene · 2 years ago

Doesn't work for me: 10 minutes is the time it takes to get my attention focused on something.

Selene · 2 years ago

I take back what I said: actually, there are things I can do in 10 minutes or even less.

Alex · 2 years ago

Projects that I planning a lot of time are very unsuccessful. But that things which appearing in 10-20 minutes always became very profit.

Thank you for this article.

Alan · 2 years ago

I agree. It's better to start something even for a small time rather than do nothing or something unimportant. Time is always wasted by neglecting small amounts of time.

glen · 2 years ago

Alan,

Exactly. It's better to SOMETHING for 10 minutes than just fart the time away :)

Matthew Cornell · 2 years ago

I've heard it called the "tolerable ten." I like 96 minutes as well (80/20 rule applied to 8 hour day), and Drucker talked about 90 minute blocks...

glen · 2 years ago

That's a great concept: 96 minutes.

Sheyha · 2 years ago

I totally agree with the procrastination part =D Thanks a lot!

The.Hanyee · 2 years ago

This is certainly helpful as I probably rank in the top 1000 procrastinators in my region! It definitely gets one doing something about the task (especially initiating it) rather than wondering and whiling away the time. 15 minutes works mad miracles for me. Thanks for the insight!

Gabriel Moldovan · 2 years ago

Yes indeed... I observed that my productivity is growing after a 10 minutes break...

Surekha Tenneti · 1 year ago

This is something I'd evolved for myself too, when feeling distracted and listless. That it is mentioned as a tool for good working, reaffirms the logic-process. Thanks.
Surekha

Jeff Hess · 1 year ago

Shalom Glen,

I'm Jewish so I use the number 18, plus a two-minute transition period, to divide my day into 20-minute blocks.

I keep a vital project in my backpack that I can work on in the 18 (or less) minute chunks so that I can fill what would otherwise be trashed downtime.

B'shalom,

Jeff Hess

john · 1 year ago

hi,,,can give me idea to create circuit timer for 10 minutes,,,the timer on the minute and stop 10minute again,,,and after 10 minutes timer operation again,,,no used the reset button,,,can???
i have no idea about that,,can help me//if u can,,,email me the circuit and component to use...encik_amin@yahoo.com.my...

WGL · 10 months ago

Love it, love it, love it! A little quality time is more productive and moves matters forward better than a whole lot of meandering. For AD folks like me, committing to a short period of time is enough to keep me on track to get it finished.