Just ten minutes is just enough time for one thing

This is a reframe. For those of you familiar with NLP (neurolinguistic programming), a reframe is the first step towards a shift. If you're new to NLP, a reframe is a new context for information that allows you to see new choices so that you can get different results.

"Just ten minutes" is an excuse about to happen, a reason for not doing anything because you can think of things that would take longer than ten minutes to do well. The reframe is that ten minutes is a unit of time that can hold just one thing. And one thing is about the capacity of the human mind to do well at one time.

If you have ten minutes, you have ten full minutes (not just ten). And in ten minutes, you could play a game on your phone, or grab something from the fridge or browse Facebook. Or you could write an email, make a call to connect with someone, or write a blog post. Ten minutes isn't long; it is long enough.

It's been a long time now (at least ten years) since I first noticed that "busy" had become the new "fine." I mean that when you ask someone "how are you?" the answer is most likely to be "busy." Maybe we are busy because we have too much to do. Maybe we are busy because we keep waiting for bigger units of free time to magically appear. Chris Brogan encourages people to think about using smaller units of time. While it is true that some thoughts take a long walk or several hours of peace and quiet to sort out, many of your thoughts can be tucked into a smaller space.

So step into a moment and notice that it is roomier than you thought. In just a moment, you can stretch your mind and breathe deeply and allow some muscles to relax and others to brace. In just a moment, you can catch a smile or send one. In just a moment, you can forget that you are stressed or tired and be charmed instead.

Imagine how much you could accomplish in ten minutes of moments.

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