Do You Have Five Minutes?

michelleraeconway
Jan 14
4 min read

It doesn’t take much to feel good.

Let me repeat.

It doesn’t take much to feel good.

Last week, I was yapping about my notes on manifestation. In that article, I mentioned that I recently listened to Atomic Habits to kick off the New Year. If you haven’t read (or listened to) Atomic Habits yet (and you have the time), this is your sign to DO IT.

But if you don’t have the time and want the spark notes on why it doesn’t take much to feel good, hang here with me.

James Clear, the author of Atomic Habits, has been making his way around the podcast scene. New year, habit-forming season... it makes sense that he’s our guy. Most recently, he was a guest on the Mel Robbins Podcast, the Huberman Lab Podcast, and the Aspire with Emma Grede Podcast (three of my favorites). On the Mel Robbins Podcast, James talked about the power of starting small (a concept woven throughout the book), but what made my notes app was this:

“You’d be surprised what you can do with five good minutes.”

He shared that just five good minutes can reset your momentum and said:

"Five minutes of conversation can restore a relationship."

"Five minutes of movement can shift your energy and mood for the entire day."

"Five minutes of writing can make you feel like your manuscript is finally moving forward again.”

Do you have five minutes?

You do.

When you’re thinking about making a change (or starting a new habit) to feel good, James recommends starting by asking yourself:

“What can I stick to even on the bad days?”

Think about the busiest, most chaotic day you’ve had recently. What could you have done, even if it was just for five minutes?

New Year’s resolutions often fail because we slip up one day. After the slip-up, for many of us, it’s over. We feel like we’ve failed. Has that already happened to you this year? Or last year?

This conversation frees us from the all-or-nothing mentality.

James talks about how progress requires motion, not perfection. He says:

“Reduce the scope, but stick to the schedule.”

What can you do even when motivation is low?

How can you keep the habit alive?

Five good minutes is often all it takes to stay in motion.

Five minutes means progress.

Feeling like you’ve made progress = motivation.

(I LOVE THIS).

He goes on to say that this is the difference between hope and evidence. When you make progress, you give yourself evidence... a reason to believe that you’re moving forward and that this thing you’re doing (even if it's just for five minutes) is becoming part of your identity. Now you’re the type of person who does x, y, or z.

And that starts to feel really good.

Which brings me back to the main point of this article:

It doesn’t take much to feel good.

In the middle of working full-time and writing my dissertation, I had a laundry list of things I had to do every single day (rain or shine):

20 minutes of cardio and 10k steps.

Strength training three times per week.

No alcohol on weekdays.

Walk Lily (our dog).

Practice gratitude every morning.

Eat at least 100 grams of protein.

Drink 16 ounces of electrolytes.

Write one page.

There were more… but for the sake of mystery (and my sanity), I’ll stop there.

After a full day, I’d only be at 8,000 steps and feel like I failed, with zero energy left to go walk it out before falling asleep. My husband and I would go to dinner on a Tuesday night (we love trivia), and I’d have a glass of wine. "Well, I guess I don’t care about my health and wellness," I'd think to myself afterwards. Only 80 grams of protein? Blah Blah Blah. Why can’t I get any of this right?

Some days went exactly as planned, with everything perfectly checked off my list. But breaking my streak on other days left me drowning in guilt.

It was exhausting. And honestly, it started to feel like being someone who was “half-assing it” was becoming my identity.

Why?

Because perfection had become my frame of reference. I forgot that on some days it’s okay to 'reduce the scope but stick to the schedule.'

Thankfully, James reminded me.

And I hope this is a reminder for you, too.

And how freeing is it to realize that we can tell that voice to f*** off every single time because even on our worst days, we can reduce the scope and stick to the schedule.

We can find five minutes.

This article is a result of having five minutes.

Now I’ve been typing much longer because I caught a flow, but when I started writing this, it was simply me committing to writing something (even if it was just one word) every day in 2026. I can always find time to write one word, even on my worst day. I committed to that. I want to be the type of person who writes every day. I want that to be a part of my identity.

I didn’t intend to write this article tonight. I planned on doing it tomorrow afternoon with a crispy Zevia. But the first thing I wrote was, “Well, I’m on my practice-for-life soapbox again…” and then that one sentence (for better or worse) led to all of this.