Starting Small by Boluwatife

Starting Small by Boluwatife - February 2026 Scholarship Essay

For most of my life, the hardest part of any assignment was not the research, the writing, or even the studying. It was starting. I would sit at my desk, open my laptop, and somehow convince myself that I needed to clean my room, check my phone, or reorganize my folders before I could begin. Hours would pass, stress would build, and the work would still be untouched. The small habit that changed everything for me was simple: I started telling myself I only had to work for five minutes.
At first, this felt almost too easy to count as a real strategy. Five minutes is nothing. Anyone can do five minutes. That was exactly the point. Instead of thinking, “I have to write this whole essay tonight,” I began thinking, “I just have to write for five minutes.” Instead of “I need to study this entire chapter,” it became, “I’ll review notes for five minutes.” This tiny shift made starting feel possible instead of overwhelming. What I quickly noticed was that five minutes almost never stayed five minutes. Once I had started, the task didn’t feel as scary anymore. I was already in motion. Sometimes five minutes turned into twenty. Sometimes it turned into an hour. Even on bad days, when I really did stop after five minutes, I still made progress. That was five minutes more than I would have done if I had let myself avoid the work completely. This habit changed more than just my homework routine. It changed how I saw effort. Before, I thought motivation had to come first and then action would follow. Now I’ve learned that action often comes first, and motivation follows. Starting small lowered the pressure I put on myself. It made big tasks feel like a series of small, manageable steps instead of one impossible mountain. The results showed up in real ways. I started turning in assignments earlier instead of at the last minute. My work became better because I had more time to revise instead of rushing. Studying felt less stressful because I wasn’t cramming everything into one night. Even outside of school, this habit helped me with things like cleaning, exercising, and practicing skills. “Just five minutes” became a way to get past my own excuses. What surprises me most is how such a small habit made such a big difference. I didn’t need a new planner, a complicated system, or perfect discipline. I just needed a way to begin. Those five minutes taught me that progress doesn’t come from waiting to feel ready. It comes from starting, even when you don’t feel like it. In the end, the habit that helped me most wasn’t about working longer or harder. It was about working smarter by making the first step easier. Five minutes may seem small, but for me, it was the difference between staying stuck and actually moving forward.