How to Beat Procrastination in 15 Minutes With One Simple Technique

What the laws of physics can tell you about how your mind works.

I have been a student for five years. In every course that I ever took, without failure, during the first intro session the professor said something along the lines of: You have to start revising the material during the semester because you won’t be able to catch up on everything two weeks before the exams.

And every single time my thoughts in response to it were the same: Try me, bitch.

I used to procrastinate for a living. Studying for exams. Canceling subscriptions. Calling people. Packing my luggage. Leaving for work. Anything I ever had to do, I did last minute.

Until I wanted to do the things that I couldn’t do last minute. Start a business. Become an adult. Get my life together. Make plans for the future. These are the kind of things that you can’t do on a Monday night if they’re due on Tuesday morning.

And as a lifelong heavy procrastinator, I struggled with it like no other. All of a sudden, I realized that I couldn’t kick everything down the road until it became so urgent that my stress levels caused me to steamroll through it in a panic-fueled all-nighter.

So somehow, I had to adapt and change my behavior. It was painful and brought me close to tears more than once, but I learned a lot about procrastination in the process. And today, I want to share with you a super simple psychological trick to get rid of your procrastination issues.

Simple solutions bring the best results

If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough.

— Unknown

I’m a fan of simple solutions. Why? Because complicated ones tend to make the problem more complex than it actually is. Procrastination is no exception.

Sure, you can spend endless hours talking about short- and long-term rewards, instant gratification monkeys, visualizations, personality types, habits, approach or avoidance motivation, affirmations, smart to-do lists, task categorization, and so on.

Or, you can focus on the core of the problem and look at what really moves the needle.

At its core, procrastination comes down to the following:

There is something that you should do but that isn’t easy and fun. Instead, you do something else that you shouldn’t, because it’s easier and more fun.

And the solution to the problem is as simple as the description. Ready? Here it comes:

Get yourself to put in only 15 minutes.

Why is this as simple as it is effective? Because it solves the key problem that underlies every procrastination issue. It makes what you have to do a lot easier. Building a website in one go seems insane. Reading through a whole book in one sitting is pretty much impossible. But just selecting a hosting company or only reading a couple of pages? Doesn’t seem so bad at all.

Getting started and keeping the momentum

In physics, there is a distinction between the coefficient of static friction and the coefficient of sliding friction. Sounds like Chinese to you? I’ll explain. These coefficients are numbers used to calculate how much force you need to move an object that’s either sitting still on a table or already in motion. The interesting part is that the coefficient of static friction is higher than the one for sliding friction.

Moral of the story: Getting started is the hardest part, staying in motion not so much. This is true for pushing around furniture in your apartment as well as beating procrastination in your mind.

By committing to do only 15 minutes at a time, you trick your brain in two ways. First, you make it a lot easier to start. You reduce friction and obstacles right in the beginning, where it counts. Second, once the 15 minutes are over, you will have significantly less trouble to keep going. You are already in motion and often will put in way more time and effort than you planned to in the beginning.

This method is as simple as it is effective. All you need is a task you have been procrastinating on and a timer. Ideally, you put your phone into airplane mode and set an alarm for 15 minutes. This will not only ensure an easy start but also get rid of a lot of distractions so you can keep your momentum.

And even if it really isn’t your day and you flip over your desk and give up after 15 minutes, no worries. You still have done something, which is a whole lot better than nothing.

The most important 15 minutes of your life

Yesterday, you said tomorrow.

Procrastination is often labeled as the silent killer. Rightly so. It doesn’t look so bad at first. Putting something off here, “just five more minutes” there. But over time, all of those five minutes sum up. And they rob you of your life.

How many things have you wanted to do but then didn’t, because you couldn’t get yourself to get started?

How much have you pushed off to a vague point somewhere in the future just to never do it at all?

How many dreams have you given up on or buried because you said you’ll work on them somewhere along the line?

How much could you have done and where could you be in your life if you managed to just get started?

Time is the most valuable resource you have. Stop wasting it. Stop procrastinating. Get something done. Even if it’s only for 15 minutes. They will be the most important 15 minutes of your life.

Once you got over the initial hurdle and started working on something, you need to do your best to keep the momentum. Achieving a flow state makes this super easy:

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