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The 1% Day Design: Reshaping Your Day with Just 10 Minutes

, did you know, you're awake for approximately 960 minutes each day, give or take. Here’s a question making me think: What if just 1% of that time, around 10 minutes, could reshape the rest?

There's a lot you can do with this lever if you use it creatively and intentionally. Really significant, meaningful change or improvement more often arrives gradually rather than in grand, sweeping gestures. And Day Crafting is all about the slow, gradual, manageable approach.

This exercise feels like a playful challenge for experienced Day Crafters who put in a lot more than 10 minutes a day into their craftwork and can feel playfully inspiring if you like the idea of Day Crafting but haven't engaged yet.

10 minutes, 1% of your waking hours, can shape the whole day

Consider how 10 minutes of:

• Preparation (a central method in Day Crafting) can prevent 3 hours of flustered reactivity.
• Stillness can reduce emotional reactivity for the entire afternoon.
• Intention setting can shift your identity from passive to purposeful.
• Prototyping a new habit can reveal where change feels good before committing to it long-term.
• Stretching (if you're me) can eliminate most of your (my) aches and pains.

When used deliberately, those 10 minutes don’t just exist in isolation – they ripple. They reshape how the rest of your day unfolds. Don't chase transformation; practise it gently and daily.

I would love to hear back from you on how you can make the most impact on your day with something that takes just 10 minutes. We don't connect enough xx

Ways to Use Your 1%

Here are a few ways to craft your 10 minutes, inspired directly by Day Crafting tools:

• Design Your Day in Layers: Use a moment of quiet to sketch a Blueprint for the day. Don’t over-plan. Choose a rhythm: deep work → light movement → social energy → reflection. (Body-clock Workbook)
• Set a Day’s Intention: Ask, what is most important to get done today?, and write it in your Design Notes. Even a single word like steadfast, light, or open can recalibrate your direction. (Introductory Workbook)
• Review Yesterday, Gently: What worked? What felt heavy? What would you repeat? This helps embed meaningful progress into the days ahead. (Productivity Workbook)
• Start a Tiny Ritual: Make tea slowly. Light a candle. Stretch deliberately. These moments transition us from autopilot to presence. (Change Workbook)
• Focus on your Quality of Inner Life: Breathe. Notice your attention. Ask: am I mindful of my feelings right now? (Self-care Workbook)

Why It Works

The power of small intentional acts is that they scale. Ten minutes becomes a theme, a tone, a signal to your identity that you’re living deliberately, not reactively.

That 1% – those 10 minutes – are significant practice. Try this idea for a week. A bonus challenge is in the leverage, to see what the greatest benefit to the rest of your day could be. So, which 10 minutes will you design today?

Please get back to me with your most creative or impactful use of this idea.

Other Day Crafting news

I've started working with the first Day Crafting associate, someone who will run workshops and deliver 1:1 Apprenticeships. They responded to my email in December, inviting interest from any of you who want to explore guiding others, and I'd welcome talking to anyone else who wants to explore this.

I'm exploring working with the MIND network, offering workshops and 1:1 work where Day Crafting can offer value in ways they don't already cover. There may be short webinars and mini introductory courses that anyone can join. I'll keep you posted. Similarly, I'm exploring training Occupational Therapists in one or two pilot areas. If you're from an organisation that might be interested in referring clients to Day Crafting or getting training in aspects of it, let's talk.

And finally. For those who don't need an excuse for more notebooks and stationery, the Day Crafting Design Notes notebook is now available in paper or hardback, formatted to help you collect Intentions, Meaningful Progress and Design Objectives, and with space (and prompts) for reflective journaling. Available on US Amazon and UK Amazon or your local Amazon, and directly from me in a week or two. (I'm using a lovely hardback version to make my daily Design Notes reflective practice a lot easier.)

If you get a copy and you have any suggestions for improvements or additions, please let me know – I know that some of you are very creative with your Design Notes. A ribbon would be nice, but I'm limited in what I can include at print-on-demand volumes.

Yours,

Bruce

PS: I'm still posting short reels every three days on Day Crafting ideas. If you see these (on any of these channels), please like them, comment and forward them on.

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