We've all heard the old saying "A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step" and we understand what it means, but few of us apply it.  If there is something we need to do, we figure out how long the entire task will take, decide we simply don't have the time available, and it doesn't get done. 
     For example, we know we need to clean out the closet, we estimate the job will take three hours and we simply don't have the time today, so we don't do it.  And we won't have time tomorrow or the day after either.  We say we're going to write a novel, but it will take hours a day for many months to do so we don't even start.  We say we're going to redecorate the spare room, figure out that the job will take up an entire weekend, and decide we have better things to do.  
    If we applied that One Step idea to all these tasks, we could get them done.  Author SARK  recommends breaking these daunting tasks into very small ones that can be accomplished in five minutes or less.  We can all find five minutes to do something.  Instead of cleaning out the entire closet, take a few minutes to pick out one old tie to throw out or donate to charity.  Instead or trying to sit down and write a novel, we can sit down at our computer and write down one idea for a novel.  We can hang one picture on the wall of the spare room.  
    When you break it down into these very small tasks, you actually get something done.  This is, in fact, the way very complex modern computer software is designed.  Rather than one programmer spending months writing a program several thousand lines long as they did back in the sixties and seventies, a team of many programmers write small software "objects" that are just a few lines long, then these thousands of objects are put together to form the final software package.
    All of this applies to spiritual development as well.  People sometimes thing that if they want to be spiritual, they have to quit there job and become full time monks.  That simply isn't true.  You can start off with simple spiritual tasks for five minutes a day, three or four times a week.  Eventually, you will want to increase that, but don't let that prevent you from starting now with just five minutes.