'Thinking in Minutes' Can Move Mountains
Manish Gvalani, CFA
Leading an A-Team of Wealth Advisors and building an Unbreakable Future. I also publish a weekly newsletter covering longevity, investing, and human psychology.
The only thing Elon Musk and we have in common is that both have 24 hours to play with. He chooses all his waking hours to move mountains, build rockets, colonize Mars, and build EVs, while many of us may be letting these hours slip by into the deep valley of nothingness.
Now, let’s turn your attention away from Elon Musk and focus on a task that's been lingering on your to-do list. Perhaps it's cleaning your wardrobe or organizing your workstation. When it comes to completing this task, you have a choice to make.
Choice # 1
Slot out a chunk of time after work or over the weekend, take your time to settle into the task, and don’t get up until it's done and dusted.
We're all too familiar with the scenario: You set aside a chunk of time to tackle a task, but life has other plans. Urgent chores and unexpected events consume your waking hours; before you know it, your wardrobe is a chaotic mess. Clothes you'll never wear are piling up, and your favorite pieces are lost in the chaos.
This happens when cleaning wardrobes or workstations, reading a book, writing a blog, or doing something creative. The chunk of time you are waiting for is rare, as we all have lives to handle that don’t afford that kind of luxury.
The most probable future is a lot of pending tasks gnawing at you and staying in your life as an irritant, sucking away energy 1 kcal at a time.
Choice # 2
Think in minutes instead of chunks of time and spend 5 minutes on your wardrobe while your spouse is getting ready, 10 minutes post work when dinner is getting prepared, 3 minutes while your kid finishes his bath, or 8 minutes before your family members get ready for the Sunday movie time.
We all have minutes between tasks, after tasks, or before tasks. Our days are filled with minutes sprinkled across our routines at home and work, but our handicap of not thinking in minutes nudges us into wasting these on social media or casual banter.
It’s impossible to walk in a social setting and not see more than 2/3rd of the crowd on their phones, staring at something that isn’t actually moving the needle in their lives.
We do not think in minutes, and hence, we become accepting of wasting these minutes on stuff that isn’t important, e.g.,
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Wasting minutes daily on affairs that don’t matter isn’t the problem alone. Accumulating these on a daily basis turns it into a colossal waste of time.
If only you were thinking in minutes, you could get many things done one bit at a time.
If you were to think in minutes, then these minutes could turn into a beautiful mountain of accomplishments. While your peers were wasting time on the dancing cat, you were moving ahead one step at a time.
If done consciously over the years, you would have moved mountains, too. Even you would be amazed at what you achieved, and it wouldn’t have felt like work or a chore.
That’s when the world will approach you and ask, “How did you do all this, mate?”
And just maybe, you will be on a stage answering this question to an audience of 1000+ eagerly waiting to learn from and emulate you.
This isn’t a fantasy story. This story is expressed daily in every city or country in the world. Someone is up on stage right now, sharing his story with an audience willing to learn. This could be you tomorrow; it should be you tomorrow with family in the audience feeling proud about everything you have achieved.
The only input it takes is ‘Thinking in minutes.’
It pays huge dividends. Don’t let these minutes go to waste.
Director-Investments and Advisory,Private Banking,DIFC.
9moVery aptly written highlighting the importance of breaking time targeting small steps .. Addressing salient dangers of procrastination which many of us are guilty of..