I was waiting to get my hair cut this afternoon and I picked up the January 2007 issue of Real Simple. I know, I know…but, hey, I like the magazine, and I figure you can learn something from just about anywhere if you pay attention.

So they had this little factoid section about what happens in 15 minutes. I came across these interesting 15-minute happenings…

  • An estimated 625,000 email messages are sent worldwide. 417,000 (67%) of them are spam.
  • About 91,000 people enter the turnstiles in the Moscow Subway system. How does that compare to the NYC system? Only 51,000 or so pass through the turnstiles in NYC’s subway system.
  • 62 million shares of stock are traded on the New York Stock Exchange.

The issue also included several sections which asked…

What would you do if you had 15 minutes of time?

The answers ranged from kissing your spouse, to playing with your kids, to reading and writing.

I’m amazed at how much we can get done in a very short time, if we only apply ourselves to the tasks at hand. That’s a great argument for being fully engaged, for being where you are, wherever you are.

You and I have 96 15-minutes stretches of time every single day. I want to make mine count for something significant.