Just fifteen minutes a day
Because little by little, it all adds up…
A client shared something with me last week that cracked open a door in my brain that I’ve been struggling to find a way into for years now.
Side note: this is one of the beautiful gifts my work as a gentle business coach has brought into my life. Because yes I’m walking with my clients and supporting them to bring more ease, spaciousness, financial stability and joy into their business and life but I’m also growing and learning so much from bearing witness to their journey too, something I’m forever grateful for.
My client runs a very successful, and at times demanding, brick and mortar business and our work together is mostly focused on supporting them to build and run the online business they feel so passionate and energised to bring to life.
The roadblock? Her very successful, and at times very demanding, brick and mortar business often eats into all of her energy and time, especially because she’s the one who is currently filling the gaps when staff call in sick or are running late for the day.
Over and over again we come back to the question that I’ve sat through with so many of my clients over the years: how do we make space for the work that we really want to be focusing on when the demands and realities of our life don’t leave us a whole lot of space to pour into it?
Do we just push through and squeeze as much time as we can out of our waking hours each week to pour into our new business?
I have never, ever, seen that approach work for my clients in the long run. Eventually burnout and exhaustion take the wheel and often then steal the energy and joy they felt for this new work too.
So what do we do when we have new projects or ideas that we want to start bringing to life but we don’t have a whole lot of time and capacity to dive into them?
Because if pushing through doesn’t feel good, neither does neglecting that desire within us to move forward with this next chapter that we want to step into, too.
What my wonderful client has been focusing on is two things: simplifying her current business to actually create the space for herself that she needs, and staying in relationship with the business she really wants to be building next even though this is a season where she has to eat the elephant one tiny bite at a time.
And she shared something with me last week that I thought was so beautiful.
Just fifteen minutes a day she told me.
During this season of transition with her current business as the changes she’s making to simplify and create more space for herself are slowly going to become her reality, to stay in relationship with this beautiful new work she’s bringing into the world she’s carving out just fifteen minutes a day.
To write some more of her lead magnet.
To draft a newsletter.
To tweak her website copy.
Some days she will have more than 15 minutes, but for the days that she doesn’t she wants to still be able to carve out a tiny bit of time to stay in flow with this work that means so much to her.
Because she knows exactly what she wants to focus on this season, together we’ve created a gentle, intentional, and sustainable plan for her to move towards her desires and goals for this new business.
It’s having the time, capacity, and headspace to actually move through those tasks that has been the biggest roadblock for her.
I felt so inspired after our call where she shared this with me.
For years now I’ve been telling myself: I want to write a novel.
But have I actually sat down and written anything? Nope.
A few ideas here and there, but nothing concrete.
Why? Imposter syndrome, self doubt, a lack of headspace in these early years of motherhood.
But as my son is starting school full time in September I knew that this would be the year where some more space opens up for me to pour into a creative project of my own.
But I am nowhere close to being ready to actually write a full novel. I haven’t consistently had a creative writing practice since I was a child. No wonder I can’t even see an entry point yet to doing this thing I want to do.
But then I realised, I do have fifteen minutes a day.
Fifteen minutes a day to be in relationship with this muscle I want to build, with this creative goal I’d love to gently devote some of my life minutes too.
So this is my gentle devotion for the next few months before my son starts school full time: just fifteen minutes a day.
I found some creative writing prompts online and my goal is once a day, pick a prompt, set a fifteen minute timer, and just write.
It doesn’t need to be good. I just want to be in relationship with this muscle, to see how my writing voice comes to life, to tip toe my way towards this desire instead of standing on the sidelines just waiting to feel ready to go.
And hopefully in a few months once Augie starts school and a bit more space cracks open in my weeks I will be a little closer to knowing what story I want to bring to life first.
If you don’t have a whole lot of capacity right now but there’s a goal, project, or desire that you want to gently eat the elephant one bite at a time for, perhaps just 15 minutes a day is a good entry point for you too.
Or maybe one hour a week.
Or 20 minutes every other day.
Or one afternoon a weekend.
Whatever feels joyful and accessible to you, this is my encouragement to stay in relationship with the work and desires that matter most to you, even if it has to be at a very slow and gentle pace.
Because just fifteen minutes a day is 7 hours a month.
Little by little, it all adds up.
What’s the business goal or creative project you’d love to carve out a little more time for in this season, one tiny bite at a time? Share in the comments below 💫
Until next time,
Jen
p.s: if you’d love me to walk with you as you move towards your desires and goals for your business in this season at a pace that works best for you I’m now booking my last 1:1 spots for Q3 - find out more this way about how we can work together 🌼
Absolutely love this concept, Jen, and love how you've applied it to your creative writing practice! If you're up for sharing, I'd love to hear more about how building that habit is going for you — what the challenges are and what you're learning along the way.
I'm in the midst of trying to build a writing habit myself, so this really hit home. It's so easy to cross it off the priority list when life gets busy, but fifteen minutes a day would feel SO much better than zero.
I love this, Jen! A few weeks ago, we had a lovely conversation on your Substack post about the books you've read. We talked about Abby Jimenez and her writing process. I think so much writing advice out there can be rather inaccessible. You need to write every day, you need to write for at least an hour, you have to write at a desk, etc. I love that Abby makes time for writing when she can when she's on her phone. Little blocks of time do add up! We all spend more time than we'd like on our phones. If we can use some of that time to work on our passion projects, we can be surprised by the results.