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The 10 minute rule: if you want to do something, really force yourself to do it, but only for 10 minutes. If you want to build a daily habit, commit yourself ev
by armchairhacker 5y ago
The 10 minute rule: if you want to do something, really force yourself to do it, but only for 10 minutes. If you want to build a daily habit, commit yourself every day no matter how you feel, but only for at least 10 minutes.
More generally, if you have a bunch of tasks, commit yourself to at least one. Don't necessarily push yourself to do everything but force yourself, no matter how hard, to do at least one. If it's a big task, break it up into smaller tasks.
This one rule is seriously like a magic bullet. 90% of the time you'll end up doing everything. Somehow you're brain just goes from thinking "I hate this, it's so hard" to "wow, this is easy, let's keep going". The other 10% of the time, you can keep your pride, because 1) you at least tried, and 2) it's sometimes a sign of an actual issue (e.g. you feel bad running because you're actually sick). I've heard this advice many times, and somehow I've never yet heard a single person say it didn't work for them.
- rossdavidh 5y agoThis is my method, and it nearly always works. Even if I actually only do the 10 minutes, it is often the case that I discovered a blocker, and now I know that I need to find a solution for that blocker, days (or weeks) earlier than I would have if I had not used the "I'll just do it for 10 minutes" trick. This gives me more time to ask someone for help on whatever the blocker is. When there's not a blocker, I usually end up doing way more than 10 minutes worth.
- andrei_says_ 5y agoAlso even if I don’t finish the task (think debugging), often I get over the big scary unknown horizon and learn enough to make sleeping on it potentially productive. Then I sleep on it :)
- tarruda 5y agoAny chance you're related to Griffin Johnsen the Armchair Historian? Really nice YouTube channel, and I really admire that guy's productivity.
- armchairhacker 5y agoNever heard of him. But I just checked out the channel and it's pretty impressive, honestly I might subscribe.