We have to break our habit of routinely and reflexively turning to one of our “distraction addictions” to while away our free minutes.

As a matter of routine, and without thinking about it, people nowadays check their email, browse the news online, turn to Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram, catch up on one or another of their Internet games, or do something else Web-related so as to “get rid of” their few free minutes.

Until we break that habit, there is little chance that we can make productive use of the fifteen or thirty minutes that become available to us throughout the day. In those fifteen minutes, you could easily write a two-line email to someone who might help your art career along. Typically, people hold this to be a huge task because anxiety wells up in them when they think about putting themselves “out there.” But the reality is that the email itself takes hardly a minute or two to write.

If you learn to calm yourself, center yourself, and not magnify the risk involved, you could make significant headway every time you found a few minutes at your disposal. Don’t give in to your distraction addictions. Our days are choppy and jagged and bits of time suddenly arrive—and just as suddenly vanish. Refuse to be distracted and instead grab those chunks of time! They are too valuable to be wasted.

Share This