A Two-Minute Trick to Outsmarting Procrastination

It took me two minutes to come up with the sentence you are reading now.

Which may seem like a long time for just fifteen words. But actually, it was surprisingly quick, considering how many weeks I’d been delaying writing this piece.

It took me two minutes because I was following the advice of my friend Eric Zimmer:

Choose something you’ve been putting off and commit to doing it for exactly two minutes. Set a timer: When it goes off, you can stop – no guilt, no pushing through. You’re not changing your life overnight – you’re just proving that beginning doesn’t have to be overwhelming.

Eric gives this advice in his exceedingly helpful new book, How a Little Becomes a Lot: The Art of Small Changes for a More Meaningful Life.

I decided to use the two-minute hack in the most meta way possible: To help me write this essay about Eric’s book, an essay that had stubbornly occupied my back burner for weeks.

What makes this strategy effective is its fun-sized commitment. First, it’s only 120 seconds. Second, I only committed to a micro-goal. I pledged to come up with just one idea for a way to start the essay. It didn’t have to be the right way to start the essay. Just one possible lead.

I exceeded my microgoal – I came up with three ideas and chose the sentence you read a few moments ago.

This essay had remained unwritten partly because of that initial hurdle of just getting started. The essay’s seal remained unbroken, and that seal was intimidating. The blank screen was so purely blank, I didn’t know how to make that first mark.

You know the old saying, “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step?”
That’s not a bad maxim.

But I’d revise it to: “A journey of a thousand miles begins with putting on your left sock.”

Putting on the sock is easier than taking a step.

When it comes to outwitting procrastination, I try to make that first action as easy as possible. I try to make that barrier to entry the smallest, smoothest, hint of a bump. Once you go over that bump, your perspective shifts. You’ve got some momentum. It’s much easier to continue.

In fact, I use the literal ‘putting on the sock’ microgoal when I’m trying to get myself to go on the treadmill every day.

Once I’ve put on my socks and sneakers, I move onto the next microgoal: I’m going to step onto the treadmill. I don’t promise myself that I’ll start walking, much less running. I just need to step onto the rubber mat. Once I’m on the treadmill, I say to myself, “Fine, I’ll just go for two minutes.” And after two minutes, the momentum often carries me to stay on the treadmill.

The two-minute trick is just one of the ideas in Eric’s book. The book is a distillation of advice from Eric’s life experience, his wide reading, and the hundreds of guests on his popular podcast, “The One You Feed.”

That includes advice from former guest…me, A.J. Jacobs.

Eric quotes me talking about one of my favorite themes: reframing problems as puzzles. Here’s what I said:

“The word ‘problem’ is very intimidating and very negative,” [I] explained. “It implies that maybe there is no solution. Whereas a puzzle is very inviting. It’s like, I’m gonna roll up my sleeves, and I’m going to solve this puzzle…I try to say, ‘I’m having a conflict with my wife. All right, this is a puzzle. Let’s see if I can make this marriage work better. That’s the puzzle. If I’m struggling to figure out what my book is, it’s not a problem. It’s a puzzle. Let’s solve this puzzle.”

I stand by this quote, though I did use the word “very” three times. Which is very unnecessary.

Julie has another note: I sound weirdly Spock-like. (I accept that criticism with dispassionate logic.)

One other big theme of Eric’s book: The limits of our willpower and the importance of structuring our environment to help us accomplish what we want. To change our behavior, we need to change out surroundings.

Instead of saying “I’m going to refrain from eating Fig Newtons today,” it’s better to put the Fig Newtons on the top shelf behind a box of rice crackers.

It’s the strategy endorsed by wise people from Odysseus (who tied himself to the mast to restrain himself from jumping into the water when he heard the sirens’ songs) to Harvard professor Cass Sunstein (who co-wrote a great book on the topic called Nudge)

The two-minute rule falls into that broad category. You are using your environment – in this case, a two-minute timer – to structure your behavior. You’re giving yourself a temporal nudge.

I’ll stop there, and hope that the two-plus minutes you spent reading this piece were helpful. I’d love to hear your strategies for overcoming procrastination. Even if you just type six words of advice in the comments section, that would be helpful!

ANOTHER UNRELATED THING!

Next Tuesday, I’m doing a live event in NYC. It’s a recording of the “Hello, Puzzlers!” podcast with special guest Wyna Liu — the mad genius behind the NYT’s Connections puzzle. Please join Greg Pliska, Wyna, and me if it is geographically convenient for you! Tickets are here!