It takes my trusty, electric tea-kettle seven minutes to come to a boil. Seven glorious minutes to do other things while I anticipate my first sip of coffee in the morning.

Why would I need an electric tea kettle for my coffee, you ask? Because, it's instant coffee.

Gasp. Yes, that's right - it's what I grew up on, and I still drink instant coffee to this day.

Not awful, tasteless dregs, I promise. It's strong, and, with my electric tea kettle, it comes out much, much hotter than conventional, coffee-pot, drip coffee (which, I have to confess, I love the smell of, but not the taste).

Anyway, back to my tea kettle. As the kettle comes to a boil, I have seven minutes, and, this is what I've discovered that I can do in seven minutes:

• Feed the fish and take my vitamins.

• Put the coffee and sugar in my cup, open the curtains, and pop some toast in the toaster.

• Check my phone.

• Put my make-up on.

• Get dressed and make my bed. (I lay my clothes out the night before).

• Empty the dishwasher.

• Run and get the mail.

• Eat a raspberry frosted pop-tart.

• Put a load of laundry in the washing machine.

• Write a grocery shopping list.

Kind of crazy, right?! But, doesn't it make you stop and think about all those precious snippets of time that we let slip away without even realizing? Don't get me wrong, I have plenty of minutes that I enjoy filling with absolutely nothing, but, I also discovered that staring at a tea kettle for seven minutes, while quite fascinating on some days, is actually a reeeeeally long time.

So, whether I think of it as a game, or a bit of mindless motivation to jump start my morning, I quietly whisper to myself, that if I do this and a little bit of that, then I'll be rewarded with a delicious, warming cup of this. My morning = The simple joys of coffee + a wee bit of personal bribery :-)