PRODUCTIVITY | MOTIVATION | LIFE LESSONS

5 Seconds Can Change Your Life

I learned this powerful trick to help me get more productive, so I figured I’d share.

Every day you wake up, you have a series of choices you can make — numerous choices, more choices than you even think you have.

So, you have to make decisions since you can’t pursue all of those choices in one day.

And while you may have specific things you want or need to get done, you often find that a lot of the choices you can make conflict with each other.

Maybe you want to work on a passion project, and you know you need to work at it consistently to see results. But instead, you may choose to spend time with friends, watch a good movie, nap, etc.

There is room in a day for balancing work and pleasure. But there isn’t room every day to over-indulge in both.

And unfortunately, in an average day, over-indulging in pleasure comes easier to most of us than over-indulging in necessary actions/work.

But we’re productive people, right?

At least, we want to be.

I recently learned about a 5-second productivity technique from Mel Robbins while I was procrastinating on YouTube, and it’s genius.

In general, I’m not the biggest fan of the self-help industry because I think most of it is full of crap.

I don’t know much about Mel, so I’m not saying she’s full of crap, specifically; I just tend to avoid the industry, as a whole, just in case.

But when I find a good nugget of wisdom from one of the self-help gurus, I have to give props where props are due.

The 5-Second Rule

This 5-second rule is not about picking your food up off the floor after you drop it, and then putting it in your mouth.

No, it’s more like this:

In a given moment, you have the choice to work on a project you care about or spend your time leisurely.

For example, when I get back home from work, it’s 6:00 p.m. At that time, I have the choice to watch TV with my housemate for 4 hours until bedtime, or work on a side hustle that I’d like to, one day, turn into my main source of income.

Netflix offers instant gratification (and there isn’t always anything wrong with that!), while working on my side hustle does not.

There’s a brief back-and-forth, but instant gratification usually tends to win.

Interestingly enough, we know what decisions we should make most of the time, but we don’t always want to make those decisions because they’re hard, uncomfortable, boring, etc.

So, the 5-second rule goes like this:

1. You identify what it is you need to do,
2. You count backwards from five down to one, then
3. Without thinking about anything else, you get your body in motion towards your goal.

So, if your goal is to write a blog post, after you count down from five to one, you get up out of your seat and get your laptop or pen and paper.

If your goal is to exercise, after you count down from five to one, you get up out of your seat, change into your workout clothes, and make your way to the gym.

If your goal is to cook a healthy meal for yourself, after you count down from five to one, you walk to the kitchen and start gathering ingredients for whatever food you want to make.

This technique works because it forces you to:

1. Make the conscious choice to count numbers in order to center and focus your mind, then
2. Propel your body into motion, leaving no time to raise objections.

Spending time in our heads prevents us from getting things done, taking risks, saying what’s on our minds, etc.

This technique cuts through all that by limiting the time you spend thinking about why you can’t or don’t have to do x, y, or z.

This 5-second rule sounds incredibly simple, because it is.

And with this technique, I’ve been able to kick procrastination in the butt, especially when it comes to working through my assignments for grad school.

I’ve become so much more consistent with my class and homework schedule thanks to this technique.

And it’s become a lot easier for me to turn down opportunities for instant gratifications (including watching YouTube videos!) when I know I need to work on my side hustle.

Have you heard of this technique before? Let me know in the comments!

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