Mixed metaphors time kiddos.  Keep treading water.  Keep the fire burning.

With three more weeks left of school, the demands on my time have ratcheted up to hyper levels.   Last minute student essays and administrative demands all put an extreme demand on my time.   I want to help.  I want to do a good job.  Does that mean I give up writing, learning Japanese, and practicing guitar?  No.  It means that the little chunks of five minutes are more important than ever.

One of the key tips that I learned from Daniel Coyle’s Little Book of Talent is that five minutes a day is better than two hours on the weekend.  In building a skill, the daily repetition and re-igniting process of five minutes keeps a skill “myelinated.”  Hey, maybe it’s pseudoscience but it works for me!   If I do five minutes of practice, there’s more of a chance that my fingers and my memory will remember what I did the previous day.  If I wait until the weekend, it can almost be like I am starting from zero.

Five minutes is a bookmark, a life-line.  If all you think you have is five minutes use it.    Keep treading water until you can head into deeper water or see your talent ship a comin’.    Keep a little tiny daily fire burning until you have the time and wood to get a decent campfire.  When you are done mixing your metaphors, stop swimming and celebrate with a bonfire on the beach!