I have a pet theory, that everyone in life would do better with a routine and structure. I have worked with animals a lot in my life, and I find that animals always respond best when there is clear routine and structure. I know I do better myself, when I have a clearly defined routine and structure to my days. I do this at work with good success and I have started doing this in my morning routine at home; now looking towards my writing and quilting to see what opportunities lie there for improvement.

I set up this blog over a year ago. I had great plans of writing regularly. Then life happened. I rarely wrote anything, and that’s a shame. I process my thoughts when I write. I get my head together when I write. I get so much benefit from this, that it really should be part of my routine. The problem was, I didn’t have a writing routine, and I didn’t understand how to get there.

Also this year I have been learning about the power of Fifteen Minutes. Many of the things I want to do in my life take MUCH longer than 15 minutes to do, and the tasks are so big that I can’t see my way clear to getting any of them done. My mother used to use the phrase “not in a month of Sundays” and that’s how I feel. 30 weekend days in a row, wouldn’t be enough time to accomplish some of this stuff. I’m so overwhelmed by the size of the task, that I never start and I do know that you can’t finish if you don’t start. This year I started working 15 minutes at a time. I literally set a timer and convince myself to work for 15 minutes. When the timer goes off, I stop and go do something I want to do. At first I was very skeptical. What could 15 minutes do? At first, 15 minutes made things look worse because things were more unsettled, but I kept at it. After a week of 15 minute sessions, I started to see a glimmer of hope. After several weeks of 15 minute sessions I completed a major task in the kitchen. WOO HOO!!! On to the next big task, in fifteen minute chunks.

What I’m trying to do now, is make the 15 minutes part of my daily routine, so that I don’t miss a day, make it so that it’s a habit to do my 15 minutes on whatever the task is. I can also keep a list of the big things I want to accomplish so that when I finish something I don’t waste a week trying to figure out what my next project will be. Maximize the productivity and reinforce the habit.

I have an updated routine, and I have a new goal: a post a week on my blog, (mostly centered on quilting, hopefully encouraging and useful to other people but the main focus is to keep processing my thoughts and keep improving myself) and hitting my 15 minutes of task work. Go see what you can do with fifteen minutes!