51–60 of 71 posts
She was a patent translator, and when she did not feel like working, she drew a line on the patent where she felt like she would want to stop.
But never once did she ever actually stop at the line, she would always go past it, as the motivation would come while working.
Finding it har to start up writing that article because you can’t quite find an angle or conjoint up motivation? Just write a really bad version first. That gets you going and builds momentum, and then only on your second version try to improve quality.
The equivalent of “I’m going to put my running shoes on and walk around the block”. It puts you in the situation without worrying about performance.
For further reading, this article is based (with credit) on James Clear's original, which uses techniques based on GTD and Fogg's Tiny Habits (which themselves are all probably just formalised folk wisdom), which have been discussed many times here fwiw. 2 Minute Rule https://jamesclear.com/how-to-stop-procrastinating GTD https://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Getting_Things_Done Tiny Habits https://www.success.com/tiny-habi…
I don’t think James does enough to credit Fogg. I mean Atomic Habits — based on Tiny Habits... and the name “two minute rule” lifted and shifted from GTD. He’s a good writer and deserves his success on that basis, but I get a bad impression from these few examples I know of.
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.
There's a quote about this rule (get started and the job will be easier to complete): "What you can do, or dream you can, begin it, Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it. Only engage, and then the mind grows heated, Begin it, and the work will be completed!" - Goethe
Of course, if it's something I want to do but know I shouldn't, like eat a snack or watch TV for "just a couple minutes", then it works fine!
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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…
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.
The Lifehack article, by James Clear, is the source of the confusion. Clear takes Allen's Two-Minute Rule as the first part of his own Two-Minute Rule, the second part of which is something like Allen's Next Actions. It's a mess. The article posted here rehashes the second part of Clear's rule, completely divorcing the name of the rule from its original context.
Also - that life hack article - he’s published that same stuff many many times before. It’s basically an extract from his book. He republishes it every where. And it works, he takes ownership of the idea in people’s minds.
This works wonders, and I first learnt about this approach in the Atomic Habits book [0]. I highly recommend it. I can list at least ten good daily habits that I have developed after reading the book, like doing 2 sets of pull-ups every morning, not forgetting to take vitamins, reviewing my Anki decks, reading books (a couple of minutes in bed, kindle), making the bed, so on. [0] (Non affiliated link) https://www.ama…
This is less about the length of the task and more to do with simply identifying the first step to take. You can see that by the example of starting to run by putting on your running shoes. Advice like this frames procrastination as laziness that can be overcome by committing to less work, but that's misleading. If this helps you stop procrastinating I think it's much more likely that you're simply overwhelmed with c…
I don't think "the 2-minute rule" (originally from Dave Allen of 'Getting Things Done') or the article above frame procrastination as "laziness." It clearly about "Task Initiation" which is a problem related to "Executive Function". None of the related authors would ever frame it as being about "Laziness". That's like... the last thing Dave Allen would do. Also "identifying the next action" (which is what you're sugg…
Internia is why it's hard to start working and easy to continue once started.