Habit and Procrastination in Under 2-Minutes
“Do you suffer from procrastination? You are not able to keep up on a habit? Well, then the 2-minute rule is the ultimate key to success for you.”
David Allen, an American consultant, describes the unravalled idea to kick on a habit using the 2-minute rule which states:
“If it takes 2-minutes to start a habit, then do it now.”
OR conversely
“It should take less than 2-minutes to start a habit.”
On its own, it seems very lucrative and easy to pursue. But let’s analyse it in depth.
If you take a bird’s eye view (think impulsively), you will realise that any habit can be fallen into the 2-minutes rule.
Writing your diary becomes Write one paragraph a day. Reading a book becomes Read one page a day. Start running becomes put on your shoes.
AND SO ON…
So to develop any habit, you can apply the 2-minutes rule. EASY, right??
BUT rationally speaking, it is not what it seems like…
Let’s Analyze…
Say you wish to start running someday and you have always been thinking about it since forever but never managed to do it.
WHY is that? BECAUSE…
YOU THINK that to go running, you have to:
Leave your comfy bed
Change clothes
Go out
Eventually, RUN
Come back home
Take shower
Go back to bed
So now it is not only running, it is a 7-step process which makes you worry when you think all 7-steps in less than a second processed by your SYSTEM 1 of BRAIN (lazy YOU).
Instead, what DAVID ALLEN recommends is that:
You need to “TRAIN YOUR SYSTEM 1” to not think of these 7 steps at once.
Think of only one key step and there you have your new habit developed.
Instead of thinking that,
IN ORDER TO START WRITING
I have to grab a pen, grab a notebook, think of my day, sit down on a study table (which some, like me, might say they don’t even have), and start writing (which we think of like a supernatural power)
ONLY tell yourself, “YOU’VE TO OPEN A NOTEBOOK.”
AND BOOM. You won’t even realise and you will be attracted towards the idea of writing or reading or running or whatever you wish to develop as a habit.
Take-Home
So, at the end of the day, it is not 2-minutes or half a minute rule that would make you adopt a habit.
It is YOU training your lazy system 1 of the brain that it is as easy as opening a notebook to start writing or tying up your shoelace to start running.
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