PERSONAL SPECIAL ....DO LESS THAN YOU CAN

DO LESS THAN YOU CAN

When you are working towards a goal or a new habit, start by doing the quickest and easiest action possible

A theme of James Clear’s Atomic Habits is that you can trick yourself into being the person you want to be. One example of this theme is Clear’s explanation of the ‘two-minute rule’: “When you start a new habit, it should take less than two minutes to do.”

The idea is to scale down the whole habit into a very quick, easy behaviour. Clear suggests take out your yoga mat as the two-minute version of do 30 minutes of yoga and fold one pair of socks as the two-minute version of fold the laundry.

There are a number of reasons why this strategy works. According to Clear, who runs a popular productivity website, you have to ‘master the art of showing up’ before you turn to the details. What’s more, the first two minutes become a ‘ritual at the beginning of a larger routine,’ so you can eventually think less about it.

Starting a new habit on the right note

Chade-Meng Tan, a former Google engineer who developed the company’s emotional-intelligence course, Search Inside Yourself, shares something similar. In his book by the same name, Tan writes that the best way to start a meditation habit is to ‘do less formal practice than you are capable of.’ Tan says that sustaining a meditation or mindfulness practice means figuring out how much meditation it takes for you to see meaningful changes in life. And then be careful to not overdose — because overdosing is no longer fun. Over time, your ability to enjoy and benefit from a large dose will increase. When you’re dreading a task like writing a paper or cleaning out your closet, work for at least one minute with purposeful attention and limited distractions. It can take just 40 seconds before we get distracted from the task at hand. But if you pass that threshold, chances are, you’ll be inclined to continue, since you’ve gotten over the starting hump. Clear offered a more existential justification for the two-minute rule: These tiny behaviours 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. He went on: “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.”

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