Grab your coffee and let’s talk about the spare time you have. I think I already know what you are going to say, and I am going to gently disagree with you anyway.
“Are you serious? There is NO WAY I have spare time. Have you SEEN my calendar?” I have, and yes, it’s a lot. But I am still going to say it: You have spare time. Stay with me, because this is really about something bigger than your schedule.
The real stress isn’t time, it’s feeling powerless over it.
Here is what I notice in myself and in so many of the people I walk alongside. The heaviest part of a packed life is not the tasks. It is the feeling that we are always behind, always racing, always one step short of getting caught up. That feeling of having no control over our own days is one of the quiet stressors that wears down our peace.
And our emotional well-being is tied to that sense of control more than we realize. When we feel powerless, we tense up, we snap, we scroll, we shrink. When we feel even a little bit in charge of how our hours go, we breathe easier. So let us go find some of that control together. It is closer than you think.
Uncut diamonds, hiding in plain sight
Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote: “Guard well your spare moments. They are like uncut diamonds. Discard them and their value will never be known. Improve them and they will become the brightest gems in a useful life.”
Uncut diamonds. Not the dazzling kind that arrive already sparkling. The lumpy, easy-to-miss kind you would toss in the trash if you did not know what you were holding. That is your stray five minutes before a meeting. Most of us are throwing diamonds away all day long and calling it being busy.
Here is the truth nobody puts on a motivational mug
You cannot manage time. I know, I know. Every productivity book swears you can. But think about it: you cannot make the day longer. You cannot save an hour in a jar for later. You and I and the busiest person you know all get the exact same 24 hours, and not one of us can negotiate for more. Time does not care how pretty our planner is.
So if we cannot manage time, then what exactly is it that we CAN we manage? It’s our activities – what we actually do with the moments we are given. And honestly, that is a relief. It means the problem was never out of our control. The problem is what we have been doing with the little gaps of time that show up. That, my friend, we can change today.
The power of one minute
I once watched a speaker walk to the center of a stage, open his mouth, and then just stop. Mid-sentence. Silence. He stood there and said nothing for a full sixty seconds.
You could feel the whole room start to squirm. People shifted in their seats. Someone coughed. A woman near me whispered, “is he okay?” It felt like an hour, but it was only ONE minute.
Then he smiled and said, “That is how long a minute really is. Now imagine what you could do with it instead of waiting for it to end.” He had just made a whole room feel exactly how long sixty seconds is, which most of us forget, because we spend our minutes scrolling and they evaporate.
Where the diamonds are hiding (you walk past them daily)
Spare moments do not announce themselves. They are sneaky little pockets, and once you start looking, they are everywhere:
- The waiting room. Ten minutes before they call you back, usually spent on a magazine from three years ago.
- The pickup line. Parked, engine running, fifteen minutes before the bell, mostly donated to the phone.
- The coffee brewing. Four minutes of standing there willing it to drip faster.
- The “I’ll just check my phone” spiral. You sat down to wait for one thing and resurfaced 22 minutes later, now an expert on a celebrity divorce you have no stake in.
None of these are big. That is exactly why we waste them. We think progress requires a clear afternoon and a scented candle. It does not. It needs five minutes and a decision.
The five-minute power move
Here is the practice I want us to steal together. When a small gap of time shows up, instead of reaching for the phone on autopilot, ask one question:
“What is one thing I could do in five minutes that would actually move something forward?”
Not everything. One thing. Five minutes. And then you do it. Watch how much is actually possible:
- Send the email you have been writing in your head for a week.
- Make the call you have been dreading. It is ninety seconds, I promise.
- Book the appointment, reserve the table, sign the form.
- Do the quick search that unsticks the next step.
- Pick the color, choose the date, say yes or no to the thing in your inbox.
- Write down the idea before it floats away for good.
Each one is tiny, and each one is also the exact thing that has quietly been blocking the next ten steps. A five-minute power move does not feel impressive in the moment. It feels enormous three weeks later, when you realize how much progress you’ve made.
Honor the baby steps (they stack faster than you think)
We tend to roll our eyes at baby steps. They feel too small to matter. But a moment here and a moment there start adding up shockingly fast. Five minutes a day is more than thirty hours a year…thirty hours you swore you did not have. Just imagine what you could do with all those hours!
And here is the line I keep on repeat for myself: slow progress toward something that matters beats no progress every single time. We do not have to sprint. We just have to stop tossing out the diamonds.
So let’s actually do this
- Become aware of your spare gaps of time. For one day, just notice them. The line, the wait, the brew. Name them as they happen.
- Keep a tiny list ready. Jot down three to five five-minute moves that would help a goal you care about, so you are never caught empty-handed.
- Pick one item on that list and do it. When a few minutes of time opens, grab a move off the list instead of grabbing your phone.
- Let those small action steps stack up, and don’t measure just one. Instead, wait for a couple of weeks and then take a look at how far those tiny action steps have taken you. That is where the magic shows up.
The truth is, you were never really out of time. You just had “diamonds” you didn’t recognize. The Power breathing through all of us, in whatever name or tradition you hold it, is greater than any circumstance, situation, or condition, and yes, that includes a packed calendar. It only needs five minutes and a yes.
And here is the lovely part: reclaiming our own small moments is also how we find a little extra to give away. That is the heart of Standing Tall, a community of people who keep showing up for one another with whatever they have. Maybe that is five minutes of your attention, an hour of your time, a skill you can share, or the means to support the work in whatever way you are able. However you choose to show up, there is room for you here, and someone who will be glad you came.
