I'll be the first to admit that I spend way more than 20 minutes per day surfing the net, reading blogs, and watching TV -- that's more than 20 minutes each. Ouch!
Today, while reading Ken Roberts's Mildly Creative updates on Facebook, I stumbled upon Michael Nobb's Take the 20 Minutes A Day Challenge. The object of the challenge, as the name suggests, is to pick something you've been wanting or meaning to do and then commit to doing it for 20 minutes a day (or 20 minutes 3 days a week, or whatever frequency you choose). Ohhhh, I could really get into that! There are so many things I've been wanting and meaning to do -- de-cluttering, blogging, reading.... But there's a catch: when the 20 minutes is up, you have to stop. And therein lies the problem.
Committing to doing something for 20 minutes on a regular basis - that's doable. But committing to doing it for ONLY 20 minutes? That's a real challenge!
My list of possibilities began with the following (in no particular order and without much thought - just what popped into my head):
Blogging
De-cluttering
Walking / Exercise
Journaling
Art Journaling
Reading
Writing
Creating / Being Creative
But when it comes to choosing what I could STOP doing after 20 minutes . . . the list gets a little shorter:
De-cluttering a specific area (or maintaining a specific area)
Walking / Exercise
Art Journaling
Meditating
And then two things dawned on me: (1) What about NOT doing something for 20 minutes? Like turning the TV off for an extra 20 minutes and doing something - anything - else? and (2) I'm all about bunking arbitrary "rules" these days, so who's to say that I MUST stop after 20 minutes? I get the purpose of the "no more than 20 minutes" rule, but getting into the flow is so difficult for me that I hate to set a parameter that would require me to exit my flow if I'm lucky enough to hit it in the first place.
Sigh.
So, what will I commit to doing in the 20 Minutes A Day Challenge? I'm still not completely sure, but I'm leaning toward art journaling or speed de-cluttering or turning off the TV. Or maybe turning off the TV AND art journaling or speed de-cluttering in that space. But one thing is certain: whether or not I will stop after 20 minutes will be determined on a case-by-case, day-by-day basis.
What about you? Are you up for the challenge? I'd love to hear what you're committing 20 minutes of your day to!
journaling
creative work
doing nothing ,just being
phone calls to family
trying a new recipe
Posted by: Mridula | Monday, March 01, 2010 at 10:39 PM
WOW Melony that is a tough one...I really need to exercise for 20 minutes... my problem is having a hard time committing to ANYTHING! How to fix that one??
Posted by: ZoeAnn Yussman | Tuesday, March 02, 2010 at 12:14 AM
Awesome. It is amazing how some people come up with cool ideas.
Posted by: Term Papers | Thursday, March 11, 2010 at 12:54 AM