Life in Five-Minute Fixes

Since she could remember, Nina had ever only experienced mornings as a fracas — an mad dash from the instant her lids separated. Her alarm would ring so loudly and abruptly that it would scare her awake before she slammed shut the noise with an angrily swiped hand. She had all the times hit snooze, just to steal a few more minutes of sleep time — it had never worked. Too late she discovered that her body lay a bit more soundly than she imagined, and by the time she wrenched herself from bed, there was no shaking groggily through the morning routine on auto-pilot. She was rushing every step of the way, counting in her head how many things she must do before heading out the door.

In her haste, Nina frequently forgot the whole lot she wanted—a commonplace occurrence that added to an already growing level of strain. One day he may locate his key, and send him on adventures because the hour draws closer to his departure time. Another day, his tour cup might be a cup of espresso, allowing him to undergo the morning trip with out a caffeine restoration, a small however essential comfort he usually is based on and worse, occasionally turned into he loses something much less tangible: his peace of thoughts. His thoughts could be scattered, jumbled, and crushed earlier than the day even nicely started.

Every day felt like a race he was destined to run. The weight of her aggression and time management overshadowed everything, and her mind always seemed to struggle to catch up No matter how early she tried to get up or how many times she promised herself that tomorrow would be different the cycle repeated itself. He couldn’t stop. And that was, until her friend Karen said something that would subtly change everything: "Five minute life hacks."

"Give it a go," Karen told Nina while she was saying. "You'll be amazed what five minutes can do."

At first, Nina was hesitant but as she was in desperation for some control, she was willing to try anything. She chose to start with the first and easiest guideline: she set her alarm clock five minutes earlier. That may have only been a few minutes, but that extra time allowed her to "wake up slowly", breathe in a deep breath, and most importantly, she could then select what sort of day she wanted to have. She set her bed, a thing that she didn't care to do before. It was all done, and she felt she had done something before she even started the morning.

Then, Nina moved on the concept of the 5-minute rule to her closet. Each Sunday night, she took five minutes to pick out her clothing for the week. No longer was she in such a hairy mess, half-dressed, and standing in front of the closet looking for clean clothes. Everything was there, right where she had left it and the same was she.

The home training never stopped at the mornings they also had their five-minute hacks. Also she learned little shortcuts for parts of her life, as well. She dedicated only five minutes to starting work instead of procrastinating over more daunting tasks. It would start her getting into the flow state, and she'd find that before too long had passed, it was all done.

She would use a timer to keep herself organized in the evenings, doing 5-minute cleanups of her apartment. She did not allow messes to grow and consume her; she attacked them in tiny chunks. Not to be flippant, but last night she stretched for five minutes before lights-out and found herself sleeping in a way that surprise her.

But the real magic happened with the shift in her mindset these tiny changes resulted in. Five minutes did not sound overwhelming. So siya, palay muboableng komitibo. But the impact added up. She was more composed, more orderly, and now had a semblance of control.

Nina sipped her morning coffee, looked around at the clean apartment and smiled in the third-person, one month into a five-minute life experiment. Her life was far from perfect but those tiny hacks gave her something in addition to efficiency, time and peace. All in just five minutes.