15 minutes

I have a theory that often the difference between good and extraordinary is about fifteen minutes. I was working on a solution to a problem with a friend yesterday and again and again the great answers were met with, "yeah, but that'd take too long"

I agree...it probably would. We can get by with just doing this...

But what if we took those extra fifteen minutes and made something great? Two weeks from now, when this project sees the light of day...it'd be worth it.

I'll spend fifteen minutes doing nothing today that could probably be better spent pursuing something extraordinary. I regularly turn in articles that I write in less than ten minutes that would certainly be much better if I ran them by a few people...probably take me about fifteen minutes to forward and then read their thoughts...

I've done this in newspapers, a bunch of magazines, web sites and a couple of books. I do it a couple of times a month with little sketches of skit scripts. I do it because I figure they won't use it if it sucks (part of what can be great about having someone else ultimately responsible for your stuff). I don't have that luxury in blogs...but I still just crank out whatever hits me when I sit down.

I know it would help me.

We took fifteen extra minutes and figured out a way to get a bunch of hats, scarves and socks for folks living on the street....and to fit it in our budget. We took an extra fifteen minutes to stick around after the talk and let the guy know that we really appreciated what he had to say. We took the extra fifteen minutes to clean out the junk drawer and closet - so that we'd save a couple of hours this month not looking for stuff.

I know the warm clothes were huge - I know how great it is to be encouraged about something you've said in a talk by folks who took the time to say thanks - I know how much time I waste and how frustrated I get by not being able to find stuff...

It ends up being worth it...so maybe it's worth a shot?