The Wake-Up: 5 Minutes to Accomplish Anything

The title of this piece is pretty much the whole enchilada.

You can do anything with 5 minutes. Meditation, planning your day, working out, learning a language, or writing a book… If you just commit 5 minutes a day (or 5 minutes a week!) to a task, you will move it forward. You could feel calmer, healthier, more focused, more accomplished, all from 5 minutes a day. Who the hell doesn’t have 5 minutes?

I’ve seen myself (still see myself) procrastinate on a number of things I’ve wanted to accomplish because I didn’t feel like I had an hour or more per day to work on it. So I did nothing. Funny how nothing creates more nothing. And everyone knows how amazing you feel when you procrastinate and don’t do the things you want or need to do. It feels shitty, and it brings you down.

But through my coaching practice and understanding more about personal development, I’ve come to realize that all we need is 5 minutes. Start there. And watch it accrue! There’s a reason why billionaire Warren Buffett is obsessed with The Power of Compound Interest – because everything adds up. 5 minutes per day is 35 minutes per week, 2.25 hours per month and over 30 hours per year. Boom.

That’s 30 hours spent on something that you would have spent zero hours on before. But there is one additional requirement – if you just show up to a task for 5 minutes then it is REQUIRED that you give yourself a gold star, i.e. a pat on the back, a “nice job!”. That’s the only way this works. Beating yourself up about how you should have done more will derail everything.

So, what’s one thing you want to accomplish? Write it down and commit to 5 minutes per day. If you go longer great, but start with 5 minutes and then sit back and watch it compound.

Have a beautiful week!


John Kalinowski
John Kalinowski is a Redding native based in New York. He’s an NYU-Certified Life Coach, Mindfulness Expert, Columnist, Speaker, Entrepreneur, Traveler, Art-Lover, and Truth-Teller. You can connect with him on FacebookTwitterGoogle+, or visit his website at

3 Responses

  1. Avatar Beverly Stafford says:

    I like that.  Thank you.

  2. Avatar Tammy Douse says:

    A good reminder.  Thank you.

  3. Avatar Sally says:

    WOW!!!  I needed that!