By Deborah Jian Lee
Forbes
Check out related career stories: 6 Tips For Better Work-Life Balance and 5 Signs You Might Be a Workaholic.
There are a million productivity tools at our disposal today. But today we’re going to talk about one that is totally free, super easy and perfect for the lazy procrastinator in all of us.
We’ve all found ourselves lost in an internet rabbit hole, wondering how that “quick” Facebook break turned into an hour-long forage through the world of funny cat videos. Or how reading that one tweet led to a serious IMDB investigation of Jennifer Lawrence’s career trajectory. So young, so successful…Wait a second.
Aren’t there big, complicated projects to work on? A mile-long to-do list to tackle? “We procrastinate for a variety of reasons—anxiety, perfectionism, lack of motivation, guilt, poor decision-making skills,” writes licensed clinical psychologist Andrea Bonior, Ph.D. in Psychology Today.
To stop procrastination in its track, try this one cognitive-behavioral therapy trick called “The Five-Minute Rule.” All you do is pick one task and commit to doing it for five minutes. You can stop after that, but most likely you won’t want to because you’ve already build momentum. Sometimes all it takes to get a project underway is the simple act of starting.
“Yes, the central magic of the five-minute rule comes from the fact that often, for procrastinators, starting is the hardest part,” writes Bonior. “We’re scared of the big, amorphous blob of a task precisely because it is so big and ill-defined, and because we worry that it will take two hours or two days to get to the bottom of it.”
But starting with an easy five-minute commitment can often dismantle those psychological barriers. Sure, it seems like little can be accomplished in five minutes, but in that time you may chart out a plan-of-action, or identify solutions to your project’s obstacles, or simply get so inspired that five minutes turns into three hours of super productive work time.
And this strategy can be used in every area of your life. If you want to get in shape, don’t aim for an Ironman Triathlon. Commit to exercising five minutes every day. Are you finances a mess? Set a timer and give yourself five minutes to skim your accounts. It’ll probably motivate you to dig deeper. Want to read more? Read one page of a new book. You may not want to put it down.
In my work-life balance article, Harvard Medical School psychology professor Robert Brooks advises against making super ambitious resolutions. This can lead to a cycle of over-commitment, falling short and feeling discouraged. “If you’re trying to change a certain script in your life, start small and experience some success. Build from there,” he says.
So start now. Close this browser and try the five-minute rule.
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