5–4–3–2–1 Go!
I mentioned before that I read The 5 Second Rule by Mel Robbins. The main gist of the book is that we will never “feel” like doing the things we know that we should do.
And if we give ourselves time to “think” about it, we’ll usually talk ourselves out of doing those things.
We need a tool to bypass that process of talking yourself out of doing it.
Her suggestion is to use the 5 second rule. What is the 5 Second Rule? Basically, you count down 5–4–3–2–1 and then do the thing you should do.
For example, your alarm goes off in the morning. And you’re tempted to stay in bed. You’re about to hit the snooze button. Mel suggests you count 5–4–3–2–1 and then get out of bed.
Boom.
Don’t give yourself time to think about how warm it is underneath the covers. Don’t think about how you can shave off minutes of your morning routine for more bedtime.
Just get out of bed.
5–4–3–2–1 and do the thing!
The technique is deceptively effective.
Somehow the process of counting down seems to short circuit our procrastination routines.
I’ve been using the 5 Second Rule for a couple of weeks now. It’s been helping me write these posts! And getting tasks done at work.
If I feel an internal whine coming on. Like “I don’t want to write right now…” I’ll sigh and then start the countdown. Then I suck it up and start writing.
Or whatever else it is that I need to do.
Do you have something that you know you should do but you keep putting it off? Start the countdown!
5–4–3–2–1… You’ve got this!
