A Different Kind of Bucket List

Have you ever found yourself in between tasks, not knowing what to do next? Maybe you finished early with a project and you have fifteen minutes before your next appointment. Or perhaps you had a cancellation and so you have an unexpected opening in your schedule. 

Experience shows that without a plan, it is easy to waste the gift of extra time. We might justify our behavior by something like, “I only have fifteen minutes so I won’t really be able to get anything done. Might as well check my phone until the next appointment on my agenda.” 

But fifteen minute gaps can add up to a lot of time. Even if you only had one such opening per workday, they would add up to over eight full workdays over the course of a year. So how can we ensure that we put this time to good use? 

Dr. Kevin Majeres, the co-founder of Optimal Work, recommends creating a “go-to list.” This list functions as a sort of bucket list on which we capture lots of to-do’s, breaking everything down into manageable chunks that take fifteen minutes or less. Our list might include small tasks like a quick phone call or ordering an item from an online store. Larger projects, like writing a paper, are broken into small subtasks, like writing one paragraph. The key is that each item takes fifteen minutes or less. This way, the next time we have that small unexpected opening in our schedule, we can reach for our bucket list and complete one task. 

This week I invite you to answer the following questions: 

On average, how many fifteen minute openings are found in your day? How satisfied are you with how you spend these openings? Would you like to try using a bucket list this week to find out if this technique might work well for you? 

God Bless,
Dan