About a month ago I was at my kitchen sink doing dishes. I looked out the window and saw the most beautiful, bright sunrise swirling across the sky full of dusty shades of pink, rose, peach, and colors I just can’t really describe. I ran and got my camera and took a quick snapshot of it. 

Still doing dishes a few minutes later, six… six minutes to be exact, I noticed the sky was completely only shades of blue. A rather ordinary sky to say the least, of course, I got my camera once again. 

As I compared the radically different pictures of the sky, it came to me that six minutes is all it took to make that difference. So, of course, I had to explore the possibilities of that concept even further.

Hmmm, on a larger scale what could this mean? To me, the larger scale of course meant life lessons. That’s when The Six-minute Difference came about.

What about a challenge? That dreaded task of (fill in the blank). So how might you break down any larger task into six-minute segments? Often called “chunks” in some goal-setting circles but the point is that it is much easier to reach any goal if there are smaller steps, heading to the big prize.

 Here are a few ways it might be helpful.

I tested this one out not long ago. In my yard, I have trees, so, therefore, I also have leaves. Did I say I have leaves?  Oh my!  What a job of raking and bagging that is. One day I spent about two and a half hours on this chore and the next day I could barely move. My back reminded me why I used to hire someone for this but due to COVID, I didn’t have any takers for it. Yet I still had, even more, leaves to deal with. After a brief recovery time for my back, I then thought the next time I would put The Six-Minute Difference to the test. With a rake and bag in hand, I set the timer on my phone. Sure enough, one large bag was full and in the garage in six minutes! The next day, no backache! Maybe I was onto something.

I began to explore other areas where this newfound technique might be applied. 

• I’ll suggest a closet that needs to be organized. Just how far could you get if you did just six minutes? It might even get you in gear to want to do more. 
•  What about self-care? Never have time for yourself?  I bet six minutes of calming breath work might just do the trick after a long, stressful day.

• Heard of the exercise HIIT routine that is all the rave now? It stands for high-intensity interval training. Ok, I admit I have only watched the videos BUT I guarantee you it’s on my to-do list for ‘22.  
• Work on filing that pile of receipts. Well maybe doing six minutes of filing for my pile is way too big to do all at once anyway.

• What about reading an article on your favorite topic or Pinterest searching?  Oh, how I love Pinterest! I find the best ideas that lead me to develop my ideas. 

• Know someone that could use a pick-me-up? Make a phone call, or better still, write a note to someone just to let them know you are thinking of them. I suppose nowadays most people text rather than write but I am going to tell you it touches me when someone takes the time to go to the store, pick out a card, sit down and write a note on it, put a stamp on it and then go mail it. That tells me they were thinking of me enough to take the time to go through all those steps.  

So, these are just a few ideas I came up with and I bet you can come up with many more of your own. I would love to hear from you about how you applied The Six-minute Difference.