[eff around] tiny windows are all you need

This morning, I wasn’t feeling well.

I felt exhausted. Unable to focus on both my deep and tactical work. And I had a client meeting in the afternoon, where I’d be be driving them around for five hours.

I loaded myself with Emergen-C and an immunity shot from Trader Joe’s, and took a five-minute power nap.

I snoozed my alarm once, and woke up after fifteen minutes - feeling brand new.

Because I lost some time from the nap, I only had an hour to do work before leaving to that five-hour meeting.

I cut out all distractions, and focused only on tasks that were necessary.

I ended up getting 80% of my work done. Whoa.

By this time, it was 1030a - and my meeting started at 1130a. If I went to the gym, I would’ve only had seven minutes to exercise (if I didn’t change out of my work clothes).

Being tired and starved for time, I normally would’ve skipped the gym.

But something came over me and I took those seven minutes.

I maxed out on bicep curls and chest presses. And I was rewarded with dopamine.

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Today reminded me of some key lessons for success:

If you take care of the minutes, the hours, days, weeks, months, years, and decades take care of themselves.

A bunch of small wins, when stacked, build momentum for big, sustainable wins. I learned from Seth Godin that torrents are made of small drips.

Create tight deadlines for your work. It’s amazing what creativity and productivity happen in constraints.

When you’re tired, it’s your body telling you to nap, take a walk, and overall pull yourself out of whatever you’re doing. Even if for a minute.

No one ever regretted working out. Even if for seven minutes.

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So, the next time you’re given only a few minutes…harness it.