5-minute layer cake.

There's a Whole Foods near my husband's office and often he stops there on the way home. Apparently there's a large bakery section, with single servings of whatever.

Brownie.

Napoleon.

Lemon tart.

And Slice of Cake.

Not Slice of Chocolate Cake.

Not Slice of Strawberry Short Cake.

Just ... Slice of Cake.

Which never fails to crack us up.

'Oh! Slice of Cake -- my favorite!' I'll exclaim as I unpack the groceries.

'Are you ready for some Slice of Cake?' after dinner.

'I wasn't crazy about Slice of Cake tonight …'

Layer-caking.

I've been spending a lot of time with cake in the past week, but not Slice of Cake.

I've been layer-caking.

That's one of the ways we Secret-Play-Date, me and my Play-Dating friends.

We alternate maybe ten minutes of play -- drawing a giant map with crayons, for example -- with writing up a marketing plan.

Five-minute layer cake.

I have a thorny project, and overwhelm was getting the best of me.

I thought, how much time could I commit to sitting down and doing it, without freaking out from the overwhelm?

The answer: five minutes.

That may seem puny and ridiculous, but five minutes of working on a project is better than avoiding it for days and days.

So I started alternating -- layer-caking -- five minutes of my project with pretty much anything.

Five minutes of my project, then a little stretching.

Five minutes of my project, then make that phone call.

Five minutes of my project, then hang up that Secret Play Date collage.

Five minutes of my project, then empty the dishwasher.

Yesterday, during my Society of the Secret Play Date live call, I alternated working on my project with doing some small drawings, which helped me feel more in flow. The work I needed to do came more easily.

Because I wasn't using a timer, five minutes turned into fifteen minutes. Then fifteen minutes turned into a half hour.

But I was able to face the project because I had permission to do something else after five minutes.

And the project's getting done.

Cake crumbs?

And I'm noticing, with all this layer-caking, all the tiny bits of time that come in between.

Not in relation to productivity, exactly. Not, 'oh, look how much you can get done while you wait for the toast to pop up.'

No.

It's more about noticing those little bits of time, and being intentional about what I do with them, instead of getting sucked into the internet whirlpool.

It might be three minutes of drinking coffee and staring out the window, because that's what I need right now.

Very interesting and unexpected side effect.

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Join me?

Is there something you want to layer-cake today? What about all those little bits of time?