Procrastination is something everyone struggles with in routine life. The feeling of knowing to complete a specific task and “putting it off” later, until it meets the deadlines. It undermines productivity, delays progress and increases stress. Some writers claim that structured procrastination helps eliminate unnecessary tasks but chronic procrastination should be avoided.
At first delay brings relief but this short-term comfort brings long-term consequences of being pressurised and stressed by putting off the task that becomes a pile of anxiety. The cycle of avoidance has a negative impact on everything.
Try this method the next time you feel lazy to complete an obligation. Interestingly, this advice against laziness comes from the director of the famous Social Network Instagram, which often knows to be the “culprit” of our inefficiency throughout the day.
Kevin Systrom, Instagram’s founder, says his most important hour for himself is the morning.
That is when he trains for 60 minutes.
Systrom wakes up every morning and rides a bike, and one day, as he says, he will overcome the toughest tours in France.
He is not the only billionaire that trains in the morning, in order to increase his productivity throughout the day.
This habit is shared by Apple CEO Tim Cook, Twitter and Square founder Jack Dorsey, as well as Virgin Group founder Richard Branson.
But how do they cling to this routine every morning, even when they are preoccupied with obligations all day long?
The 5 Minute Rule
The 5 minutes rule is an anti-procrastination technique that is just to start any task for just 5 minutes just to overcome the mental inertia of starting. The key rule of this technique isn’t doing a specific task but–starting it. Once you break the initial resistance, the momentum kicks in, that is hard to stop.
Systrom has a rule with the help of which he is free from prolonged laziness:
“If you do not want to do something, and you know that you have to, make a deal with yourself that you will do it for at least 5 minutes. After five minutes, you will completely forget the given deadline and you’ll finish the task”, he says.
Psychology behind this Rule
The effectiveness of this technique is connected with behavioural psychology. Our brains often perceive the difficult tasks as bigger and tougher than they actually are. Our brain believes us to consider it too hard or too long to do, we avoid or delay it. But to break the task into small manageable steps, deceives the brian to lower the initial resistance.
Why it works(Newton’s law)
Overcoming inertia: Newton’s first law applied to productivity also. According to it,an object at rest stays at rest and an object in motion tends to stay in motion. Your unwillingness to do a work is a state of rest while the 5 minutes rule provides an initial force to start the task to get you moving.
Lowering the pressure: By applying the 5 minute rule, you just lower the overwhelming state and initial resistance to complete the tasks.
Building momentum: Once you start a task, you forget the deadlines and pressure, and are immersed at the work.
How to apply 5 minute rule in Real Life
This 5 minutes rule is applicable in every area of life. Following are the practical examples:
- Work tasks: If you are intending to write a report or article, ensure yourself to write a paragraph, hopefully you end up by writing a whole report or article.
- For replying to emails, just commit to respond to one email. Once you start, you will empty your inbox.
- Fitness: If you are struggling to work out, start by a light exercise or stretching, it may often lead to a longer workout.
- Kevin Systrom himself starts to ride a bike in the morning, he simply commits to one task of riding a bike.
- Household chores: Tidy up a small area in the house and gradually lead to a cleaner home.
- Personal Projects: want to write a book, or create a tune? Give yourself five minutes to work on it– Just writing a sentence, a vocabulary or doing a little practice can lead to a committed work
Stories of success
The 5 minutes rule often involves people using it to overcome procrastination, to build momentum to complete the tasks. Here are examples of how people successfully use the 5 minutes rule.
- A student preparing for exams overwhelmed and stressed about the material to cover. She ready herself to just study a single page by using the 5 minute rule and lead to completing the whole chapter. As a result she built a consistent study habit.
- According to an article people use the 5 minutes rule to introduce new actions to automatic habits such as writing a page before going to sleep and stretching after brushing their teeth.
- A businessman uses a 5 minute technique to start a new project. The work he didn’t want to do, just committed to start a timer for 5 minutes and found the momentum kicks in, leading to continue work without missing deadlines.
- Dave Castro, the director of sport for CrossFit, included a 5 minutes rule to consistently read classic literature. He spends five minutes before going to sleep and upon waking up to read a book leads him to read multiple books annually.
Scientific Backing
A 2011 study published in Psychological Science highlights that the small steps are easily manageable and approachable and can reduce avoidance motivation. The brain resists daunting and intimidating tasks, but responds positively and shows less resistance to smaller commitments. Research proves that when you are committed to a task for 5 minutes, the momentum of beginning the task, often leads to continued engagement and making significant improvement.
Why Executives use it
If billionaires like Kevin Systrom, Tim Cook and Richard Branson choose structured routines and adopt the 5 minutes trick, they know that consistency is the key to having a developed and organised routine. Their whole day is packed with duties and responsibilities yet they start the routine with a healthy and productive activity.
Final thoughts
Although the 5 minute rule is the most powerful trick to fight against procrastination. You need to break the initial barriers by turning the overwhelming tasks into smaller manageable steps. This trick has been used by some of the most popular leaders, executives and founders that often smaller beginnings lead to bigger winnings. That little push you all need to turn your fear into momentum and momentum into achievement.
And that’s true.
Remember how many times have you heard that the best way to finish something is to start with the same.
Motivating in the beginning is the biggest struggle – after that, it is much easier to take the first steps.
Thanks for reading this post! – MyPlugin