15 minutes a day

Rules to having a productive day as a BYU student:

1. Get at least 8 hours of sleep. No matter what.
2. Read the scriptures! Miracles will happen if time management seems impossible.
3. Exercise at least a couple of times that week. This and numbers 1&2 are prerequisites to feeling your absolute best. Oh, and eating enough as well. A car won't run if it doesn't have any gasoline.
4. For the things that you have to do a HUGE amount of, do a little chunk of it VERY FIRST, whether it be practicing or studying.

This leaves the question: What about the things that I want to do but are not required? Cleaning the house, reading, or other forms of recreation? Well, this won't work in ALL scenarios, but I learned from "fly lady" (the cleaning house genius) that the ONLY way to handle an impossible project (that doesn't have too much overhead of setting things up) is to do it in 15 minute chunks. No more, no less. Just 15 minutes. I'm writing a letter to Nicole, a dear friend of mine who is on a mission. Each day I set the timer for 15 minutes, and I write a little bit each day. That way, she won't go for months without a letter from me like last time because I could never set aside a huge block of time to do it. I'm approaching writing in my journal this way, as well as doing dishes and other things of that sort.

When getting everything done seems impossible, I know that sometimes I have to turn to little habits that might seem a little silly and possibly ridiculous. But it's worth a shot, isn't it?

Little miracles of inspiration come to me every so often. And for them, I am so very grateful. Without them, I would probably have much more periodic emotional breakdowns.  So, to those of you who are conducting the impossible schedule, I won't tell you to stop signing up for too many things. You probably already know that, as I do. To you, I simply tip my hat and bid you good luck!