How to start ANYTHING: The 5 minute timer
Do you want a quick productivity tip? The answer is in the name of the article itself. The gift of 5 minutes and your mobile phone to measure them.
I am a big procrastinator. “I don’t feel like it”, “I’ll start tomorrow”, “I’m hungry”, “I don’t have a pen”, “I’m stupid” and a million other “very good reasons” kill my and your productivity everyday. These may be genuine reasons sometimes (especially the last one), but there aren’t any brownie points for something that you didn’t do.
That being said, how can you and I start fixing our productivity?
It only takes 5 minutes. Sometimes five.
If you want to do something you know you should, set a timer for five minutes. Then just start. Start that homework, make that rough sketch, work on your business, read that book, and write that next line of your book. Do nothing but that for the next five minutes. After that, it’s your choice to continue or to stop. In both cases, you will win.
If you want to take this to the next level, pick a time and do that one thing for five minutes every day without fail.
This is your solution in a nutshell. Now let’s see how it works.
The hardest part of any activity is to start. Once you start, you will realize that it’s not that difficult and blame yourself for not starting earlier. So, when you set the 5-minute timer, you will start because you only have to do it for 5 minutes. If it’s too painful, you can stop after 5 minutes.
This idea is inspired from the book, “The 5-second rule by Mel Robbins”. The 5-second rule says that, when you have an idea to do something, you count to 5, and then you do it straight away. This idea works for stuff like waking up, approaching a person, but honestly, it never worked for me in things that require me to concentrate or are less spontaneous. The 5-minute timer is for work that requires concentration and deliberate practice, not guts and spontaneity.
The 5-second rule helps you to deal with overthinking. The 5-minute timer gives you enough time to start, but less to make it seem impossible.
So if you have to concentrate for two hours straight, you won’t be able to start just at the count of 5. Because the thought of working for the next 2 hours holds you back. But if have to work for only 5 minutes, two things will happen :
- You start without any pressure.
- You make a little progress.
This boosts your confidence. At the end of five minutes, you suddenly have two accomplishments, regardless of whether you choose to continue or not. Then, a third thing will happen :
You will gain w̶e̶i̶g̶h̶t̶ momentum.
Now here is the important part: Make sure that you set very small, highly achievable goals. So small, that you cannot miss them even when you are very tired, have less time or any other excuse. Then you must achieve these goals every day until you gain enough momentum and confidence. After that, you can slowly set bigger goals (success spirals).
So, the idea here is simple. Work for five minutes every day until you feel very confident. Then, increase the time limit to 10 minutes, then 15 and so on. And any day that you can’t sit for your new 15-minute goal because of your “very good reasons”, make sure you get those 5 minutes, at least. Doing it at the same time every day will set your body’s natural clock to concentrate. Just like you are used to sleeping at the night every day. So, you will build your willpower to do the task more effectively every day.
Now you can start on any boring project, do any creative work or simply clean your house. Start small and climb your way up. But, start!
