How to become more productive with 5-minute micro habits
I once rented a property with a large garden and, being a single mum, I wondered how the kids and I would be able to manage the weeding. The owner said she would pour her morning tea and then pull a few weeds while drinking. Then when she had finished her drink, she would continue with her day, having both kept the garden tended and having her morning beverage. This multi-tasking has its benefits for our time-poor society. A part of me wishes we had the time to do both mindfully and with full conscious awareness, but when we have children to drop at school and jobs to go to, it can be a way to be productive and take little steps to achieve big goals.
Little steps. When we have goals and dreams to be more productive and to fit things in, I suspect we need to take little steps towards them. For instance, I am learning a language on DuoLingo, and my daily lessons often take 2-3 minutes to do, I’m now over 300 consecutive days of practice and feeling more confident in the basics, because I know I can commit to 2-3 minutes a day, no matter where I am or what I’m doing.
Elon Musk reportedly breaks his day into five-minute intervals - now, I’m not suggesting that level of commitment, but perhaps aiming for no more than five minutes of a habit you would like to bring into your life, from gardening to self-care routines, journalling, reading, meditation, writing, art, or exercise. We know that all of these things make us feel good, but we put them off because it seems like too big a goal.
There’s an old saying: “How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.” If we look at our big goals and break them down into smaller, achievable pieces, we are more likely to make progress towards our goals. We all have dreams and goals and I’ve found that rather than trying to “eat the whole elephant,” if I take little bites, I feel both a sense of achievement and of progress towards my larger goal. And given how much time of our lives we waste in mindless scrolling through social media, five minutes of something that you want is not a big ask.
So, here’s some suggestions to get you started:
Select one goal (e.g. keep a journal)
What are some tangible things you could do to achieve that goal? (spend 5 minutes writing a day)
When in the day could you fit this in? (While you are eating breakfast/while waiting for kids at sport).
How will you celebrate when you achieve this daily goal? (I’ll reward myself with kind words)
What if you miss a day? (Tomorrow is a new day, I’ll just start again)
Of course, you may be able to carve out more time than five minutes for your new habits but remember to start small, when we overload the body and mind with larger chunks of time, it’s harder to sustain. Maybe after a while you will be able to do 10, 15 or 30 minutes of a habit or goal you want in your life, but for some of us, just the thought of that can be anxiety-inducing. Give yourself the chance to succeed by starting small, after all, rivers begin as a single drop.
