Beat Procrastination With the Five-minute-rule

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Highlights:

• Procrastination is the act of unnecessarily postponing decisions or actions
• The 5-minute-rule says to just do 5 minutes of the task you've been putting off, and if you want, you can stop after 5 minutes
• Usually, people find starting the task the most challenging part and often will continue to do the task after 5 minutes and complete it

We all find ourselves procrastinating and putting off things on our to-do-list for another day. If you find yourself in such a situation, then the 5 minute rule can change your life.

What is the 5-Minute-Rule?

The five-minute rule is a cognitive-behavioral technique that is designed to overcome procrastination and boost productivity.

The basis of this rule is that all you need to do is commit to spending just five minutes on whatever it is you're procrastinating, after which you're free to stop if you want. For most procrastinators, the starting is the hardest part. In most cases, people continue to work after the five-minute timer expires, but knowing that they could stop if they wanted to give them that little extra incentive to start something they may have put off.

How to Implement the 5-Minute-Rule?

Here's a simple way to implement the rule:

• Identify and Remove Distractions:

  The first step is to find out what is distracting you, this can be Instagram or YouTube. You can also use a website blocker to remove distractions while you work. You just need to commit to the 5-minute-rule like you did to your toxic ex.

• Set a Timer:

  Set a timer on your phone or laptop for five minutes.

• Start Working for 5 Minutes:

  When the timer starts, you start working. Give it your all even if you don't feel like working; after all, you can stop in five minutes if you like.

• Assess how you Feel After the Timer Goes Off:

  When the timer goes off, see how you feel. The chances are you've overcome the most significant hurdle, which was to start, and now you're on your way to finishing what you started.

What Makes the 5-Minute-Rule Effective

Procrastination is not because of laziness or poor time management skills. In reality, it is a coping mechanism to deal with the negative emotions associated with a task. Whether it's insecurity, anxiety, resentment, or boredom, we try to avoid these negative emotions for as long as possible. That's where our buddy procrastination comes in. Our brains try to protect us in strange ways sometimes.

‘Break the vicious cycle of procrastination with the 5-minute-rule’

By procrastinating, we avoid the negative feelings now, even though we know the stress will be worse later on. We really weren't designed to think ahead into the future because we needed to focus on providing for ourselves in the here and now.

As we evolved, our ancestors needed to focus on the �here and now.' We still follow those same ideas. When we put a task off, we trick our brain into thinking that it is someone else's problem. This way, we can feel stress-free right now. If we ever want to stop procrastinating, we have to understand these fundamental feelings that we all share.

By using the 5-minute-rule, we relieve some of the stress expected from the task. A 5 minute burst of activity is a lot less daunting. We don't want to feel stressed for an hour, but we can rush through 5 minutes of the activity before we feel the stress. Additionally, we get the satisfaction of completing a task.

Other Ways to Beat Procrastination

If the 5-minute-rule didn't work for you, don't fret. There are other ways to tackle procrastination.

Imagine How Great You'd Feel After the Task is Over

There have been studies which show that people are more likely to save for their future retirement if they're shown digitally aged photographs of themselves. This is because it makes their future self feel more real, making the future benefits of saving also feel more heavy. When we paint a vivid image of how satisfied we would be after doing the task we've been putting off, it can be enough to give us just the push we need (1^✔).

Pre-committing in Front of Other People

Telling someone that we're going to get something done can amplify the appeal of actually taking action. This could be because our brain's reward system is so highly responsive to our social standing. Research has found that it matters greatly to us whether we're respected by others or even by strangers. Most of us don't want to look foolish or lazy to other people (2^✔).

Confront the Downside of Inaction

While we might weigh the pros and cons of doing something new, we far less often consider the pros and cons of not doing that task. Known as omission bias, this often leads us to ignore some obvious benefits of getting stuff done (3^✔). For example, you're repeatedly putting off studying for that test. You're tempted by more exciting tasks, so you tell yourself you can do it tomorrow. But force yourself to think about the downside of putting it off, and you realize that tomorrow will be too late to cover all the syllabus. If you get moving now, you have half a chance of covering all the portions, so this enables you to get going now.

Make the First Step

Sometimes we're just daunted by the task we're avoiding. The trick is to break down big tasks into baby steps that don't feel as though they take as much effort. An even more foolproof way is to identify the very smallest first step, something that's so easy that even your present-biased brain can see that the benefits outweigh the costs of effort.

Treat Yourself for Taking the First Step

We can make the cost of effort feel even smaller if we link that small step to something we're actually looking forward to doing. In other words, tie the task that we're avoiding to something that we're not avoiding.

Remove the hidden blockage in your Mind

Sometimes we find ourselves returning to a task repeatedly, still unwilling to take the first step.

We can easily identify what is blocking our mind from starting that task. Ask yourself why it is so and try to overcome it.

The next time you find yourself feeling overwhelmed by your inability to get important tasks done, be kind to yourself. Recognize that your brain needs help if it's going to be less shortsighted. Try taking at least one step to make the benefits of action stay larger, and one to make the costs of action feel smaller. Your never-ending to-do list will be grateful.

References:

1. Don't stop thinking about tomorrow: Individual differences in future self-continuity account for saving - (https:pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19774230/)
2. Processing of social and monetary rewards in the human striatum - (https:pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18439412/)
3. Omission bias, individual differences, and normality - (https:www.sas.upenn.edu/~baron/papers/obias.pdf)

Source: Medindia

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