How often do you find yourself staring at a to-do list, completely overwhelmed by everything you see? When you’ve got lots and lots to do, it is so easy to miss the forest for the trees. We tend to totally stress out rather than taking time to evaluate our priorities. This is where my favorite productivity hack comes into play: the Two Minute Rule!

The Two Minute Rule is a productivity strategy taken from David Allen’s best selling book Getting Things Done. And as a self-employed person, it has worked wonders for me! It consists of two parts, but the first part is what we will really hone in on:

If it takes less than two minutes, do it now!

Examples:

An email from a bride confirming her engagement session date – respond with confirmation, place on calendar. Two minutes.

Send off a wedding gallery you uploaded yesterday. Two minutes.

Pay your business credit card. Two minutes.

 
As a business owner who works from home, I also find that I can apply the Two Minute Rule to personal tasks as well!

Start a load of laundry.

Make the bed.

Tidy up the playroom after the kids are off to school.

Simplicity is the key

This principle seems so simple – and that’s just the thing! Once you get in the habit of recognizing and acting on “Two Minute” tasks, you’ll find yourself working so much more quickly and efficiently, and with more purpose!

Why is the Two Minute Rule so effective?

You avoid the time it would otherwise take to review and organize that task than it actually takes to complete it when you first notice it. All of that time you spend writing down, staring at, and thinking of a task? And doing it all again when you re-organize your list? Yeah, that can all be avoided!

Makes use of the time between “bigger” tasks. You know how sometimes you have scheduled events with like 5-10 minutes in-between…for example, back-to-back calls? You can use that in-between time to knock out some of those two minute tasks, such as clearing out spam from your inbox or organizing your desk.

Trains your brain to make executive decisions. When you begin a two-minute task, you are allowing your brain to make a decision on what truly needs to get done next! That’s a great habit to get into!

Domino effect movitation

This is possibly my favorite thing about the Two Minute Rule – the domino effect it can have on the rest of your day! I have found that when I start my day off by completing a handful of Two Minute tasks, I feel accomplished and motivated to take on even more. This works wonders on my productivity level for the day!

Now that you’re familiar with the Two Minute Rule, what are some tasks you can knock out daily using this principle? Do you think you’ll implement this regularly? Let me know what you think in the comments below!