How 30 minutes a day can change your life

I would never pretend this idea, the one that has changed my life, is particularly profound. In fact it’s so simple I’m almost embarrassed to share it. But it’s too good to keep to myself: I call it the power of a half hour.

To be successful, you will need to use your small increments of time wisely—not just the big slices of time devoted to both routine daily activities and major life events. I agree with Harvey Mackay who said, “Time is free, but it’s priceless. You can’t own it, but you can use it. You can’t keep it, but you can spend it. Once you’ve lost it you can never get it back.”

Many people think of a half hour as a minimal or meaningless gap in time. This thirty minutes is just downtime to catch your breath between periods of major effort. But the truth is that your half hours can determine the difference between success and failure.

You are probably asking how should we use these thirty minutes of our lives:

Here’s the best way to make the power of a half hour work for you: 

1. Set aside—yes!—a half hour and write down the major areas of your life that need improvement—major categories like marriage, kids, career, health, personal growth, finances, business. This step should be taken seriously. You don't want to spend precious time on goals that are unimportant to you.

2. Then, for every item listed, in the next week, spend 30 minutes on each one writing out specific goals you want to accomplish in the next three months along with a plan with each goal. The better your plan, you for effective and efficient use of this time will be.

3. Finally, start investing half hours taking action on each goal. You will be amazed at what happens if you stick with it! Without action, Step 1 and 2 are futile.

I’ve been practicing this principle so long that I can now say I am a product of my half hours. I don’t always get it right, but I’m very much aware of the gift of life and the value of time. My half hours—the ones I carefully plan, as well as the unplanned ones I discover—are committed to doing the things I know really matter.

I urge you to give it a try. You can literally change your world — 30 minutes at a time. That’s the power of a half hour.

This technique is similar to "100 push in one days will make you tired, yet 10 push-ups a day will make you strong."