I’ve written about heuristics – general rules that help decision making – and how they can lead to action. I have another one, stolen from James Clear, that helps me decide what to do and when to do it.
If a task takes 2 minutes or less, I do it now. This is usually responding to emails, making phone calls, putting dishes in the dishwasher, or opening the mail. Small tasks like these contribute a little bit of stress for no reason. If I can deal with them in 2 minutes, I do it now.
I also leverage this mental model when starting new projects or in overcoming my natural tendency to avoid taking the first step. When I was writing a presentation for a conference in May, I didn’t set a daily goal of “Write presentation.” I gave myself a goal on day 1 to open a blank powerpoint presentation and create a title slide. That’s it. And, naturally, I ended up writing more than just the title slide.
That’s the point.
Most of the projects we’re avoiding aren’t that hard. Most of the time getting started is the issue. Find a way to break your big, scary task down. Make it so easy to start that you can’t avoid it. You’re productivity will improve instantly if you can get it going in 2 minutes or less.
