What difference does 5 minutes make?

Five minutes isn't very long. It's only 0.35% of a whole day or 1% of an 8hr working day.

What can you do in 5 minutes? Not much you are probably thinking.

Make a cup of  tea.
Walk quarter of a mile

You can't listen to Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody - it's 5:52

Some people can do more with 5 minutes - some can run a mile.

Interestingly 5 minutes can be a very productive period.  I've been experimenting with "I've got 5 minutes spare, what can I do with it".

The results are surprising.  You can achieve quite a lot in 5 minutes.  I've been experimenting with this technique for less than a week but the interesting thing is if you pick a small task and just do it, it gets done. No internal procrastination.  Just 5 minutes of intense focus. Job done.

I've achieved several things in just 5 minutes that would have been too low priority get done when they are competing against big urgent tasks - they always slipped down the importance pile.

In a typical day I probably have about 3 spare 5 minute periods that normally I would squander.
Over a period of a year, I can potentially deliver 660 things that would have slipped down my priority list and never got done.

I haven't picked the item from a to-do list or anything as structured as that.  I can imagine wasting 5 minutes figuring out which item I wanted to do.  Instead I have literally done the first thing that came into my head. No consideration to whether it would fit into 5 minutes - I just did it.  Most of the time it gets done. If it doesn't I have made progress and when I next get 5 minutes I pick it again.

Take this blog post - just over 5minutes for me to write it and post.

This technique has really surprised me. I'm beginning to think these 5 minutes are the most productive of my day.

Try it. I'd be interested to hear your experiences.