Ten minutes doesn’t sound like much. But ten minutes a day, every school day, for a whole semester? That number is bigger than you’d guess — and that’s how progress actually works.
When we count by the same number over and over, that’s called skip counting. It’s a shortcut — it gets you to big numbers fast!
Counting by 10s gets you to 50 in only five jumps!
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Which row got to the biggest number the fastest? Why?
If you read 5 pages every day, how many pages after 5 days?
What comes next if we keep counting by 10s after 50?
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The 10s row got biggest fastest — bigger jumps, bigger numbers! 5 pages a day for 5 days = 25 pages. And after 50 comes 60, 70, 80, 90, 100!
Try it
Count and clap! Let’s count by 5s all the way to 50, clapping on each number. Ready? 5… 10… 15… Now try by 10s to 100!
Here’s the math behind why habits matter. There are about 85 school days left in Semester 2. Watch what happens to a small daily number over that stretch.
Same ten minutes. Very different totals.
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Check my math: 10 minutes × 85 school days. Does 850 hold up? Convert it to hours.
Now the harder question: what happens to that total if you skip two days a week? Work it out.
Why do people usually quit a habit in the first column — when it “feels like nothing”?
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10 × 85 = 850 minutes, and 850 ÷ 60 ≈ 14 hours. Skipping two days a week drops you to about 3 days × 17 weeks = 51 days × 10 = 510 minutes — you lose 340 minutes, nearly six hours. That’s the cost of “just today.” And people quit early precisely because the first column is honest: one day doesn’t show results. The payoff only exists in the last column, which is why habits require trusting the math before you can see it.
Try it
Run your own numbers! Pick one thing you want to get better at and a realistic daily amount. Multiply it by 85. Write the total down and keep it. In May, we’ll find out whether you were right.
Additional Notes/Activities
If additional activities are needed for the Morning Meeting, they will be added here.