A simple rule to stop procrastinating
Day 78 / 365
If I ask you about the ‘5-second rule’, you will probably think of the popular belief that if you drop a food item on the floor you have 5 seconds to pick it up before it becomes too dirty to eat. While I doubt the accuracy of that particular 5-second rule, there is another which I have found quite useful in life. It’s the 5-second rule to trick your brain into doing something which you would otherwise put off because you are lazy or unmotivated.
how does it work?
It’s simple — when you figure there’s something you have to do, you have to act on it within 5 seconds. Just count backward from 5, and do it. It’s that easy.
This rule is mentioned in the book ‘5 Second Rule’ by the best selling author Mel Robbins.
Why does this rule work?
The decision of whether to do a task or not is generally done by the rational part of our brain. This means that we do a lot of analysis about the task. How tough would it be? How important is it to do it right now? Is it fine if I do it in an hour? and so on. And our rational brains can more often than not come up with a reason for not doing the task.
With this method, you are transferring the responsibility of decision making from the rational part of the brain to the emotional part. This part doesn’t think that much, it just does.
So the next time you have an email to write, a report to finish, or dishes to wash, don’t waste time thinking about it.
Count backward 5–4–3–2–1
And just do it!
This story is part of my 365 Day Project for 2019. Read about it here
Yesterday’s blog — Justin Schmidt — The guy who purposely got stung by insects for research