Fifteen Minutes a Day

One of the most important differences in men is the difference in what they do when they don’t have to do anything. Of course, much of the time of all of us is taken by things that must be done: We all have to sleep a certain number of hours. We all have to attend school a certain number of years. All of us have some necessities that must be met and some obligations that we cannot well avoid. But all of us-even those of us who are the most breathlessly busy—have some time on our hands. Some of us may not have many minutes a day, but whether it be much or little, we can pretty well appraise ourselves by what we do when we do what we want to do. And this is probably the secret of the success of some successful people—what they do with the time that many of us let waste away. Who doesn’t waste or wait fifteen minutes a day! And yet in fifteen minutes a day perhaps most of us could read the Bible through more than twice a year or read once through the complete plays of Shakespeare. Fifteen minutes a day from the time we are ten years old until we are sixty-five is over five thousand hours—or enough time to acquaint ourselves with much that has come from the great men and the great minds of all time, as well as the eternal truths. If we would hold a stop watch on ourselves during any typical day, it would probably surprise us how much time we let slip away. And even when we aren’t within reach of what we want to do, we are almost always within reach of things that could be done. Most of us have more time than we sometimes suppose. An honest survey will make us see that it is so. And if we’ll put it to a specific purpose, it will surprise us how much ground we cover, how much of the worthwhile things of the world we can come to understand, how much we can accomplish. But we waste so much time in between times, so much time in interludes, in going and coming, in stopping and starting, in getting out and putting away, in wondering and worrying—and in telling ourselves why we don’t have time. Actually we often waste more time dodging work that the time it would take to do the work. Time is the ver essence of our opportunity and existence, and yet we often waste more time explaining what we can’t do than the time it would take to do it.