The Time Rules of Productivity
Everyone wants to be more productive and effective with their time, but what are these productivity rules that people use to “hack” their productivity? Do you think you can make use of it in your own life too?
Have you ever come across the 5-minute rule to be more productive and overcome procrastination? You’re probably confused from the many different rules you’ve seen online. This is just my attempt to clarify everything out there, by talking about the main rules you can use here!
Inspiration:
I have come across a lot of “Rules of Productivity” that involve some short time frame when reading productivity and self-development books. The most notable are the 2-minute and 5-minute rules to boost your productivity and trick your brain into doing work. I also have an honourable mention to Mel Robbin’s 5-second rule!
The 2-Minute Rules
There are actually two different 2-minute rules. One of the 2-minute rules tells you to immediately finish any of your tasks that should realistically take you less than two minutes. For example, getting your dishes done, sending an email off or even popping your laundry into the wash. Simple enough right?
The other 2-minute rule gets a bit more complicated and goes further into habit building and breaking down habits into tasks. If you’re looking to reduce your procrastination and resistance to doing something, you should break down the task to the smallest 2-minute-sized chunk possible. This should encourage you to start the act of actually doing the work.
I found this rule from The Power of Habtis by Charles Duhigg. He used the example of running and breaking the entire habit down to just putting your shoes and running clothes on. That in itself should be enough incentive to get your mind and body ready to run and start pushing you to actually doing it.
This rule makes you focus all of your effort and self-discipline in getting the “easy” first 2 minutes done. To get over the initial friction and get the ball rolling and let your instincts take care of the rest of the work.
The 5-Minute Rule
The 5-minute rule is also a bit more nuanced and may even cross into the realm of pulling a psychological trick on yourself. When doing something you’re avoiding, just convince yourself you’re only doing it for five minutes. Want to start writing your next essay but your entire body is going against it? Convince yourself to only work on it for 5 minutes!
This works similarly to the second 2-minute rule, to get over the initial resistance to get yourself into the groove of doing work.
Mel Robbin’s 5-Second Rule
Mel Robbin’s 5-second rule came from listening to her Ted Talk then on Lewis Howes’ The School of Greatness podcast that had her as a special guest. Her magic trick works from counting down from five and immediately avoid your brain’s urges to procrastinate.
When you want to do a task, your brain has some time before it can react and give you resistance to actually doing it. Using the Mel’s 5-second rule doesn’t let the resistance even appear in your mind.
How do you use the 5-second rule though? Your body might feel lethargic and you’re fighting to get the last task of the day done? Count down from 5 quickly and don’t let your emotional brain intervene.
Mindful Productivity
Productivity shouldn't be the end goal of the discussion though. Being more intentional about what we accomplish should always at least be in the back of our minds. The intentionality gives us the direction we work towards and the productivity keeps us working along.
I’ll try to explore more on purposefulness versus productivity to sign up to the newsletter to stay in the loop!