When faced with large and intimidating tasks, we often delay, waiting for a gap that rarely appears on time. Days, weeks, and months pass with no progress. Looking back, it’s easy to see that one hour per day would have accomplished a great deal over that unexpectedly long span. But even one hour can be hard to find.

No matter how enormous, complex, difficult, terrifying, or screwed up a project is, spending 15 minutes on it today will make a huge difference. It makes contact with the reality of the project. Details are foregrounded in the mind for consideration during the day. Instead of the whole project being a massive lump, the next few tasks become tangible and viable. The project moves from a distant and dusty object into the immediate surroundings, into conversation with  creativity and energy.

It becomes an object of interest, more able to compete for attention with whatever has been keeping us from it.