I was off work last week and spent much of that time decorating. I didn’t cross much else off my to-do list which, as per, is hugely frustrating for me. Yet another instance of grand plans which ultimately fell by the wayside.

One thing I did manage to do though, other than touching up paintwork and caulking, was to finally hook up my bike to the turbo trainer I’ve had for the best part of 12 months (yes – I can still procrastinate with the best of them at times…).

This is something I’ve been meaning to address for a while. I spent just 10 minutes on the bike on the first day, primarily as I didn’t want to overdo it initially, and despite the short amount of time, it felt good. The second session lasted a little longer at 20 minutes. The third session a little longer still at 30 minutes, which will be my preferred duration for the next few weeks. That worked will for me though it was that initial 10-minute period which was all important. Finding the time really wasn’t the issue here – getting my arse into gear and getting started most definitely was. As always when it comes to trying something new, that internal conversation I had with myself beforehand – telling myself it would be difficult to set up and convincing myself that I wouldn’t be able to devote the time to it – was absolute nonsense. It was relatively straightforward to set up and I certainly haven’t struggled finding the time to take to the bike over the past few days.

So, I now intend applying what I am calling ‘The Power of 10’ to other areas of my life to kickstart the tasks I need to address as a priority. Finding blocks of time in each day to address the following really shouldn’t be an issue:

• 10 minutes to read.
• 10 minutes to initially play through another potential new song to add to our Lux Bay setlists.
• 10 minutes to write part of the next YYCDI blog post.
• 10 minutes to map out how my new blog will progress (a real passion project – coming very soon…).
• 10 minutes to set-up a new social media account I have in mind (primarily Instagram-based). Again, coming very soon…
• 10 minutes to listen to a couple of songs from an album I’ve never heard, rather than playing the same old playlists.

All the above amount to 1 hour within the day. Just 1 hour. That’s easily achievable. Just like the indoor bike trainer example, I hope (and expect) those initial 10 minute slots to progress to at least 20 or 30 minutes each day. That sounds more challenging, doesn’t it? Taking 2 or 3 hours out of every day. Though it is certainly achievable if I sacrifice some of the time I spend on things which suck the life out of each and every day. Yes, that means I’m going to start another minor rant about the mostly non-value adding tasks I’ve previously written about here, such as aimlessly surfing the web, browsing social media feeds, and falling down a YouTube rabbit hole and watching old music videos. The list could go on but I’m sure you get the idea. Sacrificing some of the time I embarrassingly spend doing these things will be hugely beneficial for my state of mind as it frustrates the hell out of me if I know I’ve wasted another day / evening rather than concentrating on the things that will make a huge difference for me.

If any of this rings true, and there are things you want to start but have been putting off for some reason, please do consider devoting just 10 minutes to them sometime soon and see how it goes. That Power of 10 could be a real game changer for so many of us.

As always, thanks for reading, stay safe and be kind when you can.

Best wishes.

Mick