Whenever you are struggling to stick with a habit, you can employ the Two-Minute Rule.
It’s a simple way to make your habits easy.
THE “2-MINUTE RULE” WILL CHANGE YOUR LIFE (JAMES CLEAR)
Today we're going to talk about the “2-minute rule” by James Clear,
the author of the #1 bestseller “Atomic Habits”. Besides being very easy to follow, the great thing
about this rule is that putting it into action will allow you to stop procrastinating right away
and at the same time it will make it easier for you to stick to good habits.
This is important because I often see people taking up something new with a very enthusiastic
approach, dedicating hours and hours of their time to the new hobby or work from day 1,
and then often giving up after a few days or weeks, usually if the desired results do not come.
The problem is their approach to the new habit. The Two-Minute Rule states that: " When
you start a new habit, it should take less than two minutes to do."
Almost any habit can in fact be scaled down to a two-minute version, for example:
"Read every night before bed " becomes "Read one page."
"Do thirty minutes of yoga" becomes "Take out the yoga mat."
"Study for class" becomes "Open my notes." "Fold the laundry" becomes "Fold a pair of socks."
"Run two miles" becomes "Tie my running shoes." And so on.
The idea is to make your habits as easy as possible to start. Anyone can meditate for
one minute, read one page, or put one item of clothing away. And, as we have just discussed,
this is a powerful strategy because once you’ve started doing the right thing,
it is much easier to continue doing it. A new habit should not feel like a challenge.
The actions that follow can be challenging, but the first two minutes should be easy.
What you want is a “gateway habit” that naturally leads you down a more productive path.
You can usually figure out the gateway habits that will lead to your desired
outcome by mapping out your goals on a scale from “very easy” to “very hard.” For instance,
running a marathon is very hard. Running a 5K is hard. Walking ten thousand steps is moderately
difficult. Walking ten minutes is easy. And putting on your running shoes is very easy.
Your goal might be to run a marathon, but your gateway habit is to put on your running shoes.
That’s how you follow the Two-Minute Rule. But why does the two-minute rule work?
The whole point of this rule is to master the habit of showing up to your appointment
with the new habit and being ready to devote time and energy to it.
The truth is, a habit must be established before it can be improved. If you can’t learn the basic
skill of showing up, then you have little hope of mastering the finer details. Instead of trying to
engineer a perfect habit from the start, do the easy thing on a more consistent basis.
You have to standardize before you can optimize. Strategies like this work for another reason too:
they reinforce the identity you want to build. If you show up at the gym five days in a row—even if
it’s just for two minutes—you are casting votes for your new identity. You’re not worried about
getting in shape. You’re focused on becoming the type of person who doesn’t miss workouts.
You’re taking the smallest action that confirms the type of person you want to be.
We rarely think about change this way because everyone is consumed by the end goal. But one
push-up is better than not exercising. One minute of guitar practice is better than none at all.
One minute of reading is better than never picking up a book. It’s far better to do
less than you hoped than to do nothing at all. Whenever you are struggling to stick with a habit,
you can employ the Two-Minute Rule. It’s a simple way to make your habits easy.
If you liked this video I recommend the video "How To Stop Procrastinating" that
you can find on this channel. Also, I invite you to subscribe to the channel and activate
the notification bell if you haven’t done so already and wish you a wonderful rest of the day!