Two-Minute Rule – Helping to tackle procrastination and time management 120 seconds at a time

I learned this rule a few ways, over a few years.  The time management help was priceless.  And, it had the extra added benefit of helping me with some of my procrastination and dread of certain chores.  BONUS BIT!

The two-minute rule is so simple…

1. Look at the item.  
2. If it can be done in two minutes or less, just do it right then and there.  

How many of us look at an email and think “I will deal with that later”, when honestly, if we dealt with it right then and there, it would take 2 minutes or less. 

Or, how many of us look at the mail we just threw in that pile on the counter and think “I will deal with all that mail later”.  We all know that 95% of it is junk and that we could easily open the 1 item that needs our attention and just pitch everything else, but we add it to the pile and think we will find a better time later to go through it all. 

The funny thing … the more mail and email piles up, the more we dread dealing with them.  

And, the sad thing is … when we do finally convince ourselves that we have time to deal with the pile, we have to go back and look at each item again before we can make a decision about it.  So, we have wasted time dealing what that simple piece of mail/email - twice.  This double reading adds up and this is time we could have been playing with our cats, doing a crossword puzzle, or dealing with more important emails.

How does the rule really work; check out these examples:

• Email
• Look at the email
• Reply to the item
• Forward the item
• Trash the item
• Make a calendar item regarding the email
• Make a task about the email
• File the item in a sub-folder as reference
• Mail
• Look at the mail
• Pitch it
• Open it
• Put it in the bills to be paid
• Put it in the to be filed folder (or just file it, if that will still take less than two minutes)
• Smile at the card your friend sent you and send her a text letting her know you enjoy the thought (yes, that also takes less than two minutes)

This rule can also be translated to almost anything. For example, I get delivery boxes often.  I cut them down and take them to the recycle bins every few weeks. I could pile them up and then deal with cutting them all down over the course of 30 minutes or so before I drive them to be recycled.  I could feel dread at having to do this chore whenever I wanted to run errands.  And ... I have boxes piling up in my garage or in my kitchen.  

Where my cats love big piles of boxes, I do not.  

So, since I have the box cutter out to open the box, I just slice the box flat and put it into the carrying box that I use to transport all my cardboard to the recycle bin.  Then, whenever I have another errand to run, I can easily grab that box of cardboard and complete a few errands easily.  No need to spend time before I run my errands getting the boxes ready.