forward progress of any kind, including small wins, boosts our mood and increases
our happiness and productivity levels.
On top of that, once you start a project, you’ll have triggered a mechanism in
your brain to cue you to keep at it. As I mentioned earlier researchers have found
out that the brain remembers unfinished tasks better than finished ones. Once you
start, your mind will keep nudging you to finish.
I also told you that my snooze button habit was a form of procrastination.
Now I understand why. It gave me momentary relief from the larger stresses in my
life. That’s why I hit it. When I reflect back, I see now that I broke the habit by
creating a “starting ritual”—the #5SecondRule. My snooze button habit got
replaced with a positive new one: counting 5- 4- 3- 2- 1 and then standing up and
starting the day. Seven years later, I still count backwards to launch myself out of
bed every single morning.
So, in sum, here’s how you can most effectively use the #5SecondRule to beat
procrastination: use it to make yourself start. Start small. Attack what you are
avoiding for just 15 minutes at a time. Then, take a break and watch a few cat
videos. And for crying out loud, give yourself a break for blowing things off until
now. You’re only human.
All of this stuff is common sense. You eat the elephant (in the room) one bite
at a time. What we are learning over and over in this book is that unless you beat
the feelings that trigger your bad habits, and you push yourself to just get started,
you’ll never change.