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Get started with 2-minute rule

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Re: Get started with 2-minute rule

#41

Post by LeonB »

alan_n wrote: post #34

This method is great. I use it all the time. But one of these does not feel like the others... ( cough "Build a program → Code a function" cough ). All the others could be done in the day, except for the vegetable one which is too abstract. And their solution could be done in 2 minutes. The coding one on the other hand... impossible to do in a day and also writing code is imo almost impossible to write in small chunk…

I used to code on the bus while commuting to work. There were many interruptions that meant it would only be successful if I optimised it such that I could start/stop at a moment’s notice. Through this experience I learned that you definitely can do highly productive programming work in tiny burts.

Patterns like these were helpful to getting there:

- “do the simplest thing that could possibly work”

- yagni

- shorten the code-compile-test loop

- don’t put up with slow tools

And others made it super super efficient.

Re: Get started with 2-minute rule

#43

Post by reificator »

LeonB wrote: post #40
reificator wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm specifically talking about this article, which as far as I can tell does not credit or mention Dave Allen or 'Getting Things Done'. In my reading, this paragraph in particular is where it sounds like a solution for laziness more than a solution for "identifying the next action": > The idea is to make it super easy to get started. Once you pass the starting point, which is arguably the hardest step, you start to g…

It credits lifehack, who credit Dave Allen. Though the ideas/details have been twisted along the way, the “2 minute rule” is straight from Dave. All credits on it lead back there. It’s not a contentious idea, the guy’s still alive. It’s his idea.

You described Dave Allen's 2 minute rule as immediately doing things that take under 2 minutes while determining what work needs to be done, instead of marking them as a task to be done later.

The article describes taking long and/or involved tasks and inventing an artificially limited 2 minute version of them that you can begin more easily.

That's very twisted along the way, and does not seem like Dave Allen's original idea. It seems like a conflation of two very different ideas of his that are meant to solve different problems.

I never said Dave Allen's idea was contentious. I never criticized 'Getting Things Done'. I highlighted a facet of the article that I believed people could easily misread and therefore reject as not applicable to their image of themselves.

Please read my posts without the assumption that I am criticizing Dave Allen or his work.

Re: Get started with 2-minute rule

#44

Post by LeonB »

reificator wrote: post #43
LeonB wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It credits lifehack, who credit Dave Allen. Though the ideas/details have been twisted along the way, the “2 minute rule” is straight from Dave. All credits on it lead back there. It’s not a contentious idea, the guy’s still alive. It’s his idea.

You described Dave Allen's 2 minute rule as immediately doing things that take under 2 minutes while determining what work needs to be done, instead of marking them as a task to be done later. The article describes taking long and/or involved tasks and inventing an artificially limited 2 minute version of them that you can begin more easily. That's very twisted along the way, and does not seem like Dave Allen's origi…

Yes, the name "2 minute rule" has been taken, and mixed up with a bunch of other ideas from the same place (and related places). That's why it's twisted.

> I never said Dave Allen's idea was contentious

Sorry, I didn't mean to imply that you had. I meant, the idea that "the 2 minute rule" is effectively a Dave Allen trademark, is not contentious.

Sorry if I seem antagonistic, totally not my intention. I'm in Queensland sitting underneath a large storm at the moment. I do think we're on the same page re effective executive function techniques themselves. ;)

Re: Get started with 2-minute rule

#46

Post by theonething »

themarkn wrote: post #31

A question that sometimes unlocks a task for me, when I can remember is: what’s the smallest possible thing I can do to move this in the right direction? And somehow, thinking about the thing in those terms helps me go “OK well I’ve been putting off this bug that was reported because it touches a system I don’t understand well, BUT let’s start by just reproducing the bug.” And at any point, really, you can either sto…

Problem with me sometimes is (in the context of your example) reproducing the bug is such a hassle and so boring that I don't want to do that even.

Re: Get started with 2-minute rule

#47

Post by forgotmypw17 »

This is a great strategy, and I've used it successfully to tackle many things like sink of dishes (do one piece whenever I'm in the vicinity) and programming (I'm going to do at least one commit per day on my project.)

I think the biggest benefit has been applying it to meditation. I've been told by several teachers that the process of entering meditation is what you initially want to practice the most, because the rest of your practice relies on being able to do that.

I set different "reminders" for myself to meditate. In the beginning I used "being annoyed" and "waiting for something" as two "triggers" for me to begin meditating immediately, and do it for at least 10 breaths.

Re: Get started with 2-minute rule

#48

Post by toast0 »

thewebcount wrote: post #30
DoreenMichele wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Click on the timestamp for the comment. It will give you additional options not visible normally, including favorite .

OK, slightly off-topic rant: I have to say that timestamp is the weirdest UI element I've run across in a long time. Nothing about it gives any indication that it does anything useful. Want to link to just the thread started by a given comment? Click the timestamp . What? Why? Oh well. Want to favorite a comment? Click the timestamp . Um, OK. That's weird. I would never think to do that and on mobile have accidentall…

This is a common pattern, many sites use timestamp as an anchor to the individual post. I'm guessing someone realized there wasn't anything interesting to make a timestamp link to, so you could have it do that, and save space on separate text to explicitly link to the post.

Re: Get started with 2-minute rule

#49

Post by laurieg »

ansaso wrote: post #21

If you consistently need to trick yourself into reading a page of a book there are probably deeper issues that won't be fixed by: "Eat more vegetables → Eat an apple". Hip-shot hypothesis: The productivity literature audience is overwhelmingly intelligent people with untreated ADD & ADHD.

If you have big problems with productivity and procrastination then it's really worth seeing a specialist. You can't diagnose yourself over the internet.

Also, all the coping mechanisms you've built up over the years can easily mask the problem. We used to ask people "Can you dress yourself?" to assess if they have manual dexterity issues. The problem is, almost everyone says "Yes". The people with the dexterity issues simply wear loose clothing and never buy anything with buttons. They probably haven't even thought about it for years, it's just their normal.

Mental issues can be similar. I've you've got through to adulthood you likely have a huge range of tricks, some of which you don't even think about anymore, to help get you through the day.

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