Is it over yet?

Starting with the one single thing you can stomach starting

I dread getting out of bed. Once up, I beeline for the bathroom. It isn’t long before I find some cleaning to do. The natural next step is putting away the clean dishes piled high on the stovetop (#tinyspaceproblems) to make room for breakfast preparations. Because surely I will starve if I sit down and concentrate on something for 10 minutes before eating what is now an untouched and cold bowl of soggy oatmeal. I wait and watch as my boyfriend microwaves my two-day old leftover Starbucks for me, even though I’m pretty sure this is one of those tasks he can handle unsupervised. Finally opening my computer, I fight the urge to clean a disturbing amount of dust and fingerprints the sunlight is exposing on my laptop screen. Thirty minutes after dragging myself out of bed, I untangle my earbuds, start the timer, and open Medium.

I’m trying this thing called the 10-minute hack, even though I kind of hate the word “hack.” I discovered it last night while reading a David Kadavy interview on Lifehacker. The idea is to devote the first 10 minutes of your day strictly to your primary goal. The hope is that once you start working toward it, you’ll continue due to sheer momentum. If it’s pure torture, well, at least you can feel a little satisfaction knowing you made 10 minutes of progress today and might even again tomorrow.

My primary goal right now is simply to write more. It makes me feel better and as it turns out it’s also a good thing to do when you’re trying to make it as a freelance writer.

I was instantly attracted to the 10-minute hack because the guidelines are easy to remember. In all honestly, that’s probably the singular reason I’m sitting here trying it unlike any of the 30+ productivity hacks I’ve read over the course of stumbling through life and the internet.

Sure, I got a rough start and I’m already not even doing it right—but I’m trying. What more can we do in this life? Besides, it’s been 40 minutes already.

Read it from David himself: The 10-Minute Hack