Find Your Buried Treasure
Reclaim a childhood joy and do it five minutes a day, not just on weekends.
- Difficulty
- Starter
- Time to result
- ~days to results
- Steps
- 3
- Confidence
- 90%
Find Your Buried Treasure asks you to recall one or two activities that brought you joy as a child, the kind Carl Jung described as making hours pass like minutes, and bring them into your day for just five minutes. The mechanism is flow: absorbing activity triggers a cascade of neurotransmitters and hormones that reduce stress and burnout. Crucially it must be done daily and purely for joy, not for an award or an audience. Because it is scheduled into an existing break and repeated every day, it sidesteps decision fatigue. Five minutes of a beloved activity can feel like an hour and reset your mood.
Origin
The idea crystallized when a burned-out doctor colleague told Nerurkar he was counting down to Saturday to play guitar; she asked why he did not just play that night, he did, and felt immeasurably better, revealing a pattern she saw repeatedly in patients.
Core principles
- 01Joy should be a daily practice, not a reward hoarded for the weekend
- 02Activities that made hours pass like minutes as a child put you into a healing state of flow
- 03Do it simply for joy's sake, not for an award, an audience, or to get ahead
- 04Learning or repeating something daily beats an occasional schedule because it avoids decision fatigue
How to run it
- 1
Excavate the memory
Think of one or two activities you did as a child that brought lots of joy and made the hours pass like minutes.
Pro tip Also notice what people compliment you on outside your day job; those are clues to buried treasure.
- 2
Make it small and accessible
Choose a version that is easy to start, like singing, doodling, painting, or playing an instrument for a few minutes.
Pro tip Pick something you can do at home with no setup so nothing blocks you.
Watch out Do not save it for a special day or a rented studio; that hoarding is the whole problem.
- 3
Schedule five minutes daily
Slot it into a natural break such as lunch, the commute, or after the kids are asleep, and do it every day.
Pro tip Daily beats twice-a-week because something always comes up on your scheduled days and derails you.
In the wild
A stressed colleague saved guitar playing, which he had loved since childhood, for Saturdays so he could grind all week. Nerurkar asked why he did not just play that night; he played for five minutes.
→ He came in the next morning amazed, saying five minutes felt like an hour and he felt so much better, ending his weekly joy-rationing.
A high-powered lawyer with end-stage cancer had loved making clay figurines with her sister as a child. Nerurkar told her to buy some clay from the art store.
→ The patient reconnected with a childhood joy done purely for its own sake, reintroducing flow and pleasure into her days.
Common mistakes
Rationing joy to the weekend
Saving a beloved activity for Saturday so you can suffer through the week is the resilience myth in action and needlessly withholds daily pleasure.
Expecting free time to appear
An hour will not magically open up for you; if you do not deliberately schedule the activity, it will not happen.
Is it for you?
Best for
High-achievers who identify entirely with work and save the things they love for rare occasions.
Not ideal for
Anyone expecting the activity to be productive or goal-directed; the point is that it is not.
From the transcript
“think about one or two activities that you did as a child that brought you lots of joy... and figure out how to bring them…”
“why are you waiting for the weekend to do something that you love? I mean, just play for 5 minutes when you get home today.”
From the episode
Dr. Aditi Nerurkar: How to Rewire Your Brain to Stress Less and Relax More
Dr. Aditi Nerurkar