I’m sure you’ve had those moments when you’re watching T.V. but at the back of your mind lingers the thought that you need to put your dry laundry away.
Or maybe there’s an email or text that you need to write to someone; or perhaps there’s a book you bought that you really wanted to read and haven’t gotten round to starting it.
And yet, despite these harmless tasks that could be done so easily and quickly, we remain sat on our backsides watching episode after episode of our favourite Netflix series as more and more chores build up.
Part of this laziness may be procrastination, or it could just be simply that, laziness.
And of course, us being the ambitious, goal-driven, determined people that we are, we can’t let laziness stand in the way of being productive and getting things done.
We need to find a way to remove all annoying hindrances so we have enough time for ourselves to not only work but also enjoy our free time.
This is where the 5-Minute Rule comes into play; it allows you to continue having those lazy days (because even though we are such pro-active, organised humans, we still are human beings you know).
But it also ensures that you’ve done all those pesky chores so that you don’t have to spend an entire Sunday wasting your time on them.
I’ve also written a post going through 8 realistic tips to make your morning routine immediately better. This post goes through simple steps you can take to set yourself up for the day.
Having a good morning routine will increase your productivity; it will also prevent sluggishness which ultimately leads to procrastination.
This morning routine will take care of you so that the 5-Minute Rule becomes a back-up and not something you depend on 😉
The 5-Minute Rule
The 5-Minute Rule is extremely simple and easy. It is a mindset, and once you get into the habit it will save you a lot of time, and will overall put you in a more productive mood.
There are two ways in which I think of the 5-minute rule; one for completing household chores, and the other for taking yourself out of procrastination.
1. Getting chores done
The next time you think about those little tasks around the house, ask yourself ‘will I be able to do this in 5 minutes?’
Take for example washing those few dishes in the sink, tell yourself that you will be able to do it in 5 minutes and go and do it.
By the time you’ve finished and come back to continuing watching the next episode of your show, you’ve already completed one of your chores!
With these small 5-minute breaks by the end of the day you may have completed all your chores, all whilst having a relaxing day of sitting around and doing ‘nothing.’
And who knows? You might just find that when you’ve gotten up to do your five minutes, you don’t mind doing more work.
2. Eliminating procrastination
For those of you who have an essay to write and haven’t gotten started, and which you’re putting off because you don’t know how to start or because you honestly can’t be bothered, give yourself five minutes in front of the screen and tell yourself that you will focus solely on this task for 5 minutes.
In this time you may be able to write the first few sentences of your introduction, or finally have an idea of how you will begin it, or be getting into the flow of things and extending your 5 minutes to write more.
If deadlines stress you out or if you find it hard to stick to deadlines, I suggest you read 5 steps to control stress when you’re about to have a meltdown.
In this post, I go through 5 steps that help you deal with stress mentally and physically.
Even better, I not only show you how to prepare yourself to avoid having a meltdown again but I also show you how to effectively deal with the stress mid-meltdown.
This hack allows you to not only spend time doing the things you love, but inadvertently makes you more productive.
By the end of the day, you’ll find that you’ve completed most of your household jobs, or that you’ve finally started your essay.
With these small successes, it will encourage you to work hard on your essay the next day and will also give you time to work on the projects you are passionate about.
You’ll find that in 5 minutes you can complete so much.
