The 5-Minute-Rule: How to Beat Procrastination and Take Action Now

The number one tip for people struggling to even get started

You probably have a problem with procrastination, like most people.

It’s not your fault, the world around us is constantly trying to grab your attention. How do we battle this?

Introducing: The 5-Minute-Rule

The 5-Minute-Rule is simple.

It sounds too good to be true, but try it out first before judging a book by its cover.

Here is the rule itself:

Every time you want to start an activity but feel like you are endlessly procrastinating, set a timer for five minutes and promise yourself that you will do that activity for at least those five minutes.

After the time is up, you can stop if it’s that bad.

What Will Happen

You will find that you won’t want to stop doing the task that you started after starting.

This way, you can simply keep working until you’re done with what you have to do.

Sounds simple, right?

Where is the catch?

There is no catch.

I’ll tell you why:

Why This Works

The problem that most people have with productivity is not about doing the thing itself. Most of the time it’s not even about keeping their focus (even though that’s another big problem that people have, on which I will write an article in the future).

The problem is usually starting in the first place.

Think about the last time you had to do something and didn’t do it.

Was it because you found the task so incredibly boring that you just couldn’t continue or was it that you didn’t even start?

If it’s the former, congratulations, you are already at a more advanced stage to which most people never get to: having started.

For most of you though, it will probably be the latter.

So how can we get ourselves to start?

You make the task look so simple and easy to complete, that you would feel like an idiot if you refused to do it.

One such way is to only make the task last five mere minutes.

Five minutes.

You can stop after five minutes, how could you not get such a simple task out of the way immediately?

That is why you will start.

After that, the hardest part is already done. Now, you just have to keep going, which is easier said than done, but is much simpler than starting from scratch.

Conclusion

Congrats!

Now you’re a productive individual who starts doing the things that he has to do.

If you struggle with keeping your focus for long periods, maybe try to couple this technique with the Pomodoro Technique.

I haven’t written an article on it just yet, but I will in the future.

Until then, there are plenty of free resources online about the topic, and this keyword that I gave you should get you started.

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With that, I wish you a pleasant rest of your day.