Mastering the 10-Minute
Momentum Method

Do you think 10 minutes can change your life? How about your whole day? Yeah, it can do both.

Photo Credit: seier+seier

I was working with a coaching client of mine last week. Let’s call him Tom, because that’s his name.

Daunting Work

Tom and I were discussing how to increase his daily productivity and he told me that he was having trouble motivating himself to work on a 3-hour project.

Three hours is a daunting amount of time to do just about anything – let alone something difficult.

My suggestion, which led to a breakthrough in Tom’s daily goal progress, was to stop thinking about his 3-hour task. Don’t make the job seem bigger than it really is. Think only about 10 minutes.

The 10-Minute Momentum Method

The strategy I outlined to Tom was to focus on working for only 10 minutes on his 3-hour project. No more – no less. Just 10 minutes.

There is only one catch. During that 10 minutes you CANNOT allow a single distraction. No cell phones, email, facebook, or visitors. This requires 100% focus.

The Secret Sauce

Guess what happens when you push past the resistance and the excuses for only 10 minutes? You don’t work for 10 minutes. Nope. You work a whole lot longer.

This is the secret sauce to big projects: Stop making them so BIG!!

Think about the first hurdle, which is always the first 10 minutes. If you can break past that invisible barrier, you can accomplish whatever task you set out to accomplish.

The odds are overwhelmingly in your favor when you focus for the first few minutes because your brain switches modes and you target all of your energy into the one thing in front of you.

The creative juices start flowing, your eyes dilate just a little, and you get your serious face on. This is the zone. This is what happens after 10 focused minutes.

My Experiences With 10 Minutes

This might sound ridiculous, or perfect depending on your perspective, but I used the 10-minute Momentum Method to write this post. Seriously.

I had to turn off my cell phone completely and put on headphones with house music bumping in the background. I needed an environment that screamed focus – and it worked.

Oddly enough, I also experience this same sensation with running. However, my time frame is a little longer than 10 minutes on the trail. It takes me about 20-25 minutes to get my head in the game before I am just running.

There seems to be a lot of swirling ideas, thoughts, fears, and deep emotions that only begin to surface after 3 miles in the forest. Your mileage may vary.

The key is to break through. Work long enough and with enough focus that your activity takes center stage in your mind. That’s when you win.

Try It

You next objective, should you choose to accept it, is to stop reading this post and focus 100% of your energy for just 10 minutes on the #1 most important next step in your day.

I can guarantee you will not get much accomplished in those first few minutes. You may only make a snails progress in that time.

The breakthrough will come. Push through the 10-minute barrier and watch how your creativity and productivity reach new heights.