The Power of the Pocket (of Time)

I’ve been thinking lately about the power of the pocket.  Not pockets of money, but pockets of time.  You see, I’ve gen myself a deadline of March 15 to finish the draft of my upcoming book Legal Rainmaking Myths:  How What You THINK You Know About Business Development Can Kill Your Practice.

With that big deadline looming, here’s what else I’m doing:  preparing for and holding regular client meetings, doing my own marketing, working on content for a program I’ll be releasing soon, engaging on social media, finishing up a real estate transaction, caring for one of my dogs who almost died recently (dog lovers:  bloat and torsion are terrifying; read up on it in case you ever face the symptoms, because minutes matter), caring for other quad- and biped family members, managing a renovation project, planning some upcoming presentations, and so on.  While our specific tasks will be different, my guess is that you have as much or more on your plate.

Maybe the volume of tasks sounds familiar.  Most of us have more to do than we have hours available.  We also have the inevitable waiting time and downtime, some of which go unused.  Free time is important for recharging and getting grounded.  But it’s hard to recharge while waiting in line to renew a driver’s license or finding 10 free minutes when arriving early for an appointment.

That’s why it’s helpful to know what you can accomplish in a pocket of time.  I use Reeder to catch up on blog posts and Pocket to catch up on other reading I’ve clipped from the web.  I often carry notecards, and I maintain a list of non-critical “when I can” tasks (for example, comparing prices and shipping costs for dog food on various sites) in Nozbe.  Give me 10 minutes, and I’ll knock at least a couple of items off my list.

What can you accomplish in a pocket of time?