10 minutes is longer than you think
In my life, there are two types of people. Those who are early for everything, and those who are annoyed by it. I am the former, and I try my hardest to respect the views of the latter. But to do that, I need to come up with creative ways to occupy the ten minute window.
The ten minute window is the ten minutes early I arrive to, well, everything. I sincerely try not to, but I somehow cannot help it. Even when I really think through when I should leave to get to wherever… it is always ten minutes before I meant to arrive when I actually do. So I park my car a discreet distance away and wait ten minutes before actually showing up wherever.
To counteract this colossal waste of time (ten minutes of waiting around times several times a day times many many days, well… you get the picture) I’ve come up with a bunch of ten minute or less tasks I can keep in my car’s glove box or take with me when I leave the house. Not all are financial, for example this morning’s was to read the alumnae news for my class year in the new college quarterly, but many of them are, including:
- filling out the name and address portion of bank deposit slips (I long ran out of the pre-filled out ones)
- sorting financial/junk mail into “recycle”, “keep” and “shred” piles
- going through grocery circulars and making a list of bargains
- filling out FSA reimbursement forms
And since my spouse is the “never ready on time” type, sometimes I am waiting around in my house for him to be ready instead of in my car at a location. Since I have a computer here, I can do all sorts of things that take less than 10 minutes:
- enter receipts in my budget
- check my bank balance online and check off what’s cleared my account
- pay bills
- update my to-do lists
- actually do several tasks on a to-do list
- list something on craigslist
Once in a while my destination is close to a place I have an errand to run (for example, my son’s preschool is right across the street from a branch of our bank) so I can go do an errand and show up on time instead of early. Bonus! But even when that isn’t the case, those ten minutes I am early to everything have become a tool I use to get things done instead of lots of wasted time. Just taking ten minutes at a time to get tasks done really gets more done than you might think it can. Especially if you are a micromanager type like I am.
~J
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September 25th, 2007 at 7:22 pm
I’m like that too. I often bring a book or grab one if Mr. Micah’s not ready. Perhaps I should set up a few little tasks that’ll make me feel better about waiting!
September 26th, 2007 at 10:20 am
I’m a 15 minutes early type of person. I frequently bring a book. I have enough time to read a chapter…it’s nice to be able to relax and read before I have to do something.
September 28th, 2007 at 9:54 am
Ahhh… reading. I almost remember what that was like. I should take up reading again.
Glad to hear I am not the only “early” person!