I have been learning a language, just five minutes a day, on an app on my phone. Someone in my life was harassing me, saying I wouldn’t learn anything without putting in at least fifteen minutes a day. I argued that I had to choose an amount that I knew I could accomplish. This other person, on the other hand, had started with the same app, at fifteen minutes a day, but had stopped. I am shocked, after 70 days, at how much I have learned.
The writer Martha Beck, who had been frozen in procrastination, finally finished her dissertation on 15 minutes a day. She asked herself how much time she could give without feeling a sense of overwhelm, burden, or resistance. If you have been wanting to do something important to you - write, make art, contact old friends, clean a closet, deal with confusing paperwork, ask yourself the amount of time that does not inspire resistance and commit to that.
Don’t underestimate the value of small, consistent steps.