This idea is not one I came up with all on my own. I don’t remember where I read it, but it made a big impression on me. We all have small moments. Time while we’re waiting that just seems to take forever. What if we could find something to fill that time with?
At Home: I have a Job Jar. Again, it’s a borrowed idea, this time from a comic strip I read as a child. In that jar are small chores. These have to take from five to fifteen minutes, as they are meant to provide something to do while I’m waiting. I have been amazed at how much housework can be done in these small moments. It makes it easier to have big moments, like spending time with my husband instead of a broom.
As a writer, I often have to spend time researching things. This is another thing I can do in small moments. I don’t have to take notes, just bookmark the sites that explain what I need to know. It makes my next writing session go a lot faster and smoother.
In Public: There are a couple of ways to use these small moments, such as waiting at the dentist’s office. I bring a notebook along and write down article ideas, story plot lines and sometimes character development if I’m working on a piece of fiction. This has the added benefit of relieving stress. When I’m involved in that, I don’t spend the time becoming more and more anxious.
In grocery lines, I’ve found that time goes faster if I talk to the person either in front of or behind me. Most folks are cooperative…they’re bored too. The people I’ve talked to are amazing, and I would never have had the opportunity to know anything about them if I’d wasted that moment.
I also use these times to observe. Article ideas can come from the oddest places, and the grocery store is a good example. I see how tenderly a daughter helps her aging mother do her shopping and it reminds me that about caregivers and all they do for their family. I may see a young mother talking to her child about why he or she can’t have a candy bar right now, and I remember how difficult those conversations were when our children were young.
The most important part of this article isn’t all of the things I do to fill small moments. It’s to help you, the reader, find and use them, too. You have a choice. You can wait…or you can live.