If you were suddenly given 15 minutes of free time, what would you do with them? Do you take advantage of the additional time or waste it?

Taking advantage of 15 minutes a day works if you have a dream that you believe in. Once you have that, you will be able to set goals for yourself. Goals are reached with a plan of organized tasks. When 15 minutes suddenly becomes available, you'll use them wisely.

Everyone has the same 24 hours a day. Events happen all the time that put everyone's schedule in jeopardy. Events such as an interruption from a colleague, fire drill, or waiting longer than expected in the gas, post office, lunch lines or stuck in a traffic jam. All these events can create 15 minutes of time that can be wasted or used efficiently.

Those that succeed, have dreams. They set goals for those dreams. They have a task list of what needs to be done to achieve those dreams. They are prepared to attack an item on the task list at any time. They, more often than not, use those 15 minutes toward achieving those tasks. Task completion leads to goal achievement and the realization of a dream.

What are your dreams? What goals must be reached to achieve those dreams? What tasks need to be accomplished to reach those goals? Come up with at least one dream. Define it clearly in terms of goals and milestones. Know what tasks need to be completed to achieve the goals.

Here is an example of one of my past dreams.

My dream was to be a published author. (FYI, I wrote 2 books with this "15 minutes a day" attitude.) I knew that to get published, it would take several goals:

• Finding and selling a publisher
• Researching material
• Organizing my thoughts
• Writing an outline, paragraph, chapter and book.
• Creating illustrations.

So, how did I take advantage of those 15 unexpected minutes? I was always prepared for them.

Most of my career has been spent in New York City. I took subways and path trains that had delays continually. Phones often did not work and neither did Internet service 95% of the time. If I wasn't with someone, I would work on one of my tasks towards my goal to reach the dream of being published.

• I would always have a book with me that I could read for research.
  
  
• I would always have a notepad where I could write an outline or jot down words towards a specific paragraph or hand draw an illustration (Subways are not always contusive to opening a laptop).
  
  
• I would search my electronic rolodex to find a list of publishers that I had developed. Determine who I should call and practice my sales pitch in my head.
  
  
• I would refine my task list if I learned something new that would help me achieve my dream.
  
  
• I would have a printout of the chapter I needed to reread and edit.

These options would not have crossed my mind if I didn't have a dream that I really wanted to accomplish: have a book published. The tasks would not have been reached as easily if I wasn't prepared for that 15 minute opportunity.

This dream wasn't driven by money that it could bring to me. It was a dream that I could say to myself, "Hey, I did that." Let me tell you, reaching goals and achieving your dream is the best self-esteem builder on the planet. In other words, the best self-esteem builder is taking advantage of the many 15 minute intervals.

Having met the dream of being published doesn't mean I stopped dreaming. I never stopped dreaming. I have the attitude of: Been There, Done That, What's Next. I have dreams that I know that with hard work and persistence, I will reach. (Sorry, nothing of real value comes without sweat and tears). My new dreams include (but are not limited to).

• I want to have my eZine/Blog provide value to many individuals concerning the need to strengthen business/IT relationships. I want it to be widely read and provide value with each issue to many readers. I want people to recognize that need to spend relationship building skills is as important as technical and process skills. I spend 15 opportunity minutes a day writing for one of these avenues.
  
  
• I want to improve my speaking voice and reach the heights where if Jeffrey Gitomer or Randy Pausch were in the audience, they would make the effort to walk up to me afterwards and tell me they really enjoyed the speech. I work on my potential speech topics (personal stories) or practice a section 15 opportunity minutes a day.
  
  
• I want to add value to the current client where I'm positively remembered for years to come and that my knowledge is reusable by their existing staff. I search for new ideas that will help each client 15 minutes a day outside of the normal work that I perform for them.

With these three dreams, I know what has to be done. I have something with me all the time that I can grab whenever I have the opportunity. That means having it in my car, my briefcase, my palm pilot and my iPod. (I use my iPod to carry books on tape. What about you?) It's amazing how much research or inspiration I have received while waiting in line at the Post Office or waiting for someone to arrive at a scheduled meeting.

Fifteen minutes comes through other avenues as well. It is amazing that if you have a dream clarified with goals and tasks, you find 15 minutes every day. I always have my iPod with me at the gym. I listen to 15 minutes of talk; the rest to music while on the treadmill.

The recent writers strike proved that to me. No longer do I waste valuable 15 minutes on TV shows that would prevent me from reaching my dreams faster. I still watch some TV. However, TIVO has given me many 15 minutes of opportunity.

Think about it. Which is more important to you? Is it reaching your dream or knowing who was kicked off of American Idol?. The average person watches 28 hours of television a week. My average is down to about 15. I want to get that down below 10 (another goal to help me reach my dreams).

Time is an opportunity cost. If you waste an hour, it is an hour that you can't get back to use towards reaching your dream. An hour is four fifteen-minute opportunities. Successful people take advantage of the 15 minute opportunities.

Seize the 15 minute opportunity to achieve your dreams.

SBDi speaks both Business and IT languages. Bring SBDi in to help communication between both organizations. Let us help you find the right flexible solution that will help business increase revenue.

Pat Ferdinandi, Chief Thought Translator