Live4Awesomeness: Productivity Tips #2: Learn about the Two minute rule

If you have been following my blog or newsletter you would know that its easier for anybody to get distracted than to work with focus. If this is a problem for you, I can help you with a few solutions. But first, I want to talk about the two minute rule.

Over the years I have used many methods to keep track of work and organize them better. I have grown fond of a few techniques such as GTD, the Calendar method and others.

I grown to be a fan of GTD because its easy to get it working. In GTD, it is mentioned that if there's some work that can be done easily without getting distracted within five minutes, you have to do it immediately. Here are my rules for such tasks.

I call this the 2 minute rule.

Let's apply the following guidelines to the 2 minute rule.

• The task has to be really simple which means there is no thought or creative process required to complete it
• The task is practically possible
• It must be completeable within the 2 minutes
• It will have a definite definition of done which means you will know if its completed or not.

To get to 2 minute tasks, you will have to do some ground work. There are a few things that you can do to break down tasks into 2 minute tasks.

1. Write down the goal of what you are about to accomplish
2. Break down the tasks which can be completed within 2 minutes each
3. Complete them one by one
4. Retrospect

The reasons for using this technique is simple. The tasks broken down are always easier to complete and they can be tracked better as well. One more reason that this technique works is that it goes well with pomodoros.

Ultimately if you think about it, you have to get the work done whether they are small pieces or whole large tasks. The best way to do this is to ensure that the tasks are split and can be completed.

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