Speaker 1: That workshop, submit the assignment. Read chapter seven, put the
Speaker 1: laundry away. My brain looked at that pile and did
Speaker 1: what brains do best, It shut down. I opened my phone,
Speaker 1: scrolled for forty five minutes and felt worse than when
Speaker 1: I started. Two sound familiar that feeling where the to
Speaker 1: do list is so long and each task seems so
Speaker 1: tangled up in everything else that you just freeze. You
Speaker 1: don't start anything, you don't finish anything. You just sit there,
Speaker 1: paralyzed by the sheer volume of what needs to get done.
Speaker 2: Four five. Today, I'm going to give you the single
Speaker 2: most practical tool for breaking through that wall. It's called
Speaker 2: the two minute rule, and once you understand it, you'll
Speaker 2: start using it every single day. It's simple, it's backed
Speaker 2: by research, and it works.
Speaker 1: Six'.
Speaker 2: Seven welcome To Deep. Focus I'm sam and this is
Speaker 2: your daily study. Companion today we're breaking down the two minute,
Speaker 2: rule how to be procrastination instantly by starting with the
Speaker 2: small possible action eight. Nine the two minute rule comes
Speaker 2: From David allen's Book Getting Things, done which he published
Speaker 2: back in two thousand and. One allen is one of
Speaker 2: the world's leading productivity, consultants and his method has been
Speaker 2: adopted by everyone from college students to CEOs At fortune
Speaker 2: five hundred.
Speaker 1: Companies but the best.
Speaker 2: Thing about this rule is how stripped down and accessible it.
Speaker 2: Is you don't need a fancy, system you don't need an.
Speaker 2: App you just need one. Question ten. Eleven here's the,
Speaker 2: rule straight and. Simple if a task takes less than
Speaker 2: two minutes to, complete do it, immediately not, tomorrow not
Speaker 2: after this next. Thing right, now open that textbook and
Speaker 2: read the first. Paragraph reply with a quick yes or.
Speaker 2: No wash that one plate sitting in the, sink send
Speaker 2: the email file the, paper walk the two steps to
Speaker 2: put the cup back in the.
Speaker 1: Cabinet twelve. Thirteen two. Minutes that's the. Threshold. Fourteen now
Speaker 1: your first reaction might, be that's, it that's the big,
Speaker 1: secret AND i get. It it sounds almost too basic to,
Speaker 1: Matter but stick with me here because the reason this
Speaker 1: works runs deep into how your brain actually processes tasks
Speaker 1: and motivation sixteen seventeen. Replies let's talk about what happens
Speaker 1: in your head when you avoid. Something there's a psychological
Speaker 1: phenomenon called The zygarnic, effect named after A russian psychologist
Speaker 1: Named blumasigarnic back in the nineteen, twenties she noticed something
Speaker 1: fascinating in A viennese. Cafe weeders could remember complex orders
Speaker 1: with six or seven items, perfectly but only until the
Speaker 1: food was. Delivered once the task was, complete the memory
Speaker 1: vanished almost. Instantly eighteen. Nineteen here's what she. Discovered unfinished
Speaker 1: tasks take up more mental space than finished. Ones your
Speaker 1: brain holds onto incomplete work like a browser tab that won't.
Speaker 1: Close every task you start but don't finish is another,
Speaker 1: tab another line of code running in the, background eating
Speaker 1: up your processing. Power the more open loops you, have
Speaker 1: the more mental clutter you, carry and mental clutter is
Speaker 1: the breeding ground for, anxiety, overwhelm and. Procrastination twenty twenty.
Speaker 1: One WHEN i was staring at that to do list Last,
Speaker 1: tuesday my brain wasn't just seeing a. List it was
Speaker 1: holding every single item in a state of suspended. Tension
Speaker 1: reply to, email open, workshop, registration open, assignment open chapter,
Speaker 1: seven open, laundry open, six open, loops all buzzing at,
Speaker 1: once all competing for. Attention no WONDER i froze twenty
Speaker 1: two to twenty. Three the two minute rule attacks this
Speaker 1: problem at its. Root when you knock at a task
Speaker 1: that takes less than two. Minutes you close one of
Speaker 1: those loops, instantly the email is, sent the form is,
Speaker 1: filled the cup is put. Away and here's the. Key
Speaker 1: each completed task reduces the total mental. Load you're not
Speaker 1: just clearing an item off a, List you're freeing up
Speaker 1: actual cognitive. Bandwidth twenty four twenty. Five research from The
Speaker 1: university Of, California irvine found that after an, interruption it
Speaker 1: it takes an average of twenty three minutes in fifteen
Speaker 1: seconds to fully refocus on a. Task twenty three. Minutes
Speaker 1: that's not a. Typo when you have six small tasks
Speaker 1: nagging at, you each one is a potential. Interruption even
Speaker 1: if nobody physically walks up to, you your own brain
Speaker 1: is interrupting itself with these open loops.
Speaker 2: Twenty, six twenty. Seven, now let's get into the psychology of,
Speaker 2: momentum because this is where the two minute rule really.
Speaker 2: Shines there's something called the progress, principle studied By Teresa
Speaker 2: ammobula At Harvard Business. School she found that the single
Speaker 2: most motivating factor in a person's workday isn't a big
Speaker 2: accomplishment or a bonus or praise from a. Boss it's
Speaker 2: the feeling of making progress on meaningful. Work even small progress,
Speaker 2: counts especially small progress twenty, eight twenty.
Speaker 1: Nine think about the last time you completed something and
Speaker 1: felt a tiny spark of. Satisfaction maybe you organized one,
Speaker 1: drawer maybe you wrote the first sentence of an. Essay
Speaker 1: maybe you cleared your inbox down to. Zero that little
Speaker 1: rush of accomplishment isn't just a, feeling it's a chemical.
Speaker 1: Event your brain releases a small hit of, dopamine the
Speaker 1: neurotransmitter associated with motivation and. Reward and here's the fascinating.
Speaker 1: Part dopamine doesn't just make you feel, good it makes
Speaker 1: you want to keep going thirty and thirty. One this
Speaker 1: is why the two minute rule is so powerful as
Speaker 1: a starting. Mechanism you're not trying to write the entire
Speaker 1: essay in two. Minutes you're trying to open the document
Speaker 1: and write one. Sentence one, sentence that's. It and when
Speaker 1: you do, that your brain, goes, oh we're doing.
Speaker 2: This, now here's a little, dopamine and suddenly writing the
Speaker 2: second sentence doesn't feel so. Impossible then the, third then
Speaker 2: the paragraph thirty, two thirty. Three there's a famous study BY. B.
Speaker 2: J fogg At Stanford's Behavior Design lab that backs this.
Speaker 2: Up fog found that the most effective way to build
Speaker 2: any new habit is to make the starting behavior so
Speaker 2: small it feels almost. Ridiculous go to the gym for an,
Speaker 2: Hour just put on your workout. Shoes not study for three,
Speaker 2: hours just open the. Textbook the two minute rule is
Speaker 2: Essentially FOG's principle applied to the overwhelm of daily. Tasks
Speaker 2: you shrink the task until it's small enough that procrastination can't.
Speaker 1: Get a grip on. It thirty four thirty.
Speaker 2: Five let me walk you through a practical.
Speaker 1: Example say you have a research paper due in two.
Speaker 1: Weeks it's a big, assignment maybe two thousand, words and
Speaker 1: you haven't. Started the topic feels. Enormous where do you even?
Speaker 1: Begin your brain keeps throwing up. WALLS i need to
Speaker 1: find sources, First THEN i need to. Outline THEN i
Speaker 1: need to write the. Introduction and the introduction needs to
Speaker 1: be good because it sets the tone for the whole.
Speaker 1: Paper and what IF i pick the wrong angle and
Speaker 1: thirty six thirty, Seven, sam see what happened? There the
Speaker 1: task exploded from one thing into a dozen, subtasks each
Speaker 1: with its own anxiety. Attached this is what psychologists call task.
Speaker 1: Paralysis the scope feels so large that starting feels pointless
Speaker 1: thirty eight thirty. Nine now apply the two minute. Rule
Speaker 1: what can you do in two? Minutes Open google scholar
Speaker 1: and search for three keywords related to your. Topic that's.
Speaker 2: It don't try to read the, papers don't try to download, Them.
Speaker 1: Just search and look at the.
Speaker 2: Titles two minutes, done forty forty. One, tomorrow do the
Speaker 2: next two minute. Action open the most promising paper and
Speaker 2: read the. Abstract that's a one minute. Task maybe you
Speaker 2: read two abstracts three minutes. Total you're still well under
Speaker 2: the threshold of what feels like a chore forty. Two
Speaker 2: the day after, that copy one useful quote into a
Speaker 2: document one, quote thirty seconds of work.
Speaker 1: Forty four forty. Five within a, week you have a
Speaker 1: collection of, sources a growing, document and something real to work.
Speaker 1: With you never sat down for a grueling three hour study.
Speaker 1: Marathon you never white knuckled your way through a single.
Speaker 1: Session you just kept doing two minute tasks and they
Speaker 1: compareunded into genuine progress forty. Six that compounding effect is
Speaker 1: the secret. Weapon it's the same principle behind compound interest in.
Speaker 1: Finance one percent improvement per day doesn't sound like, much
Speaker 1: but over a, year it transforms. Everything the same is
Speaker 1: true for small tasks done. Consistently ten two minute tasks
Speaker 1: a day is twenty minutes.
Speaker 2: Of, real meaningful. Work over a, month that's ten hours of,
Speaker 2: progress and most of it happened without, friction without forcing,
Speaker 2: yourself without the dread that usually accompanies the word study
Speaker 2: forty eight forty. Nine let me give you a specific
Speaker 2: framework for applying this to your study. LIFE i call
Speaker 2: it the two minute. Scan at the start of each
Speaker 2: day or whenever you sit down to, study take sixty
Speaker 2: seconds to scan your. Environment look for anything that takes
Speaker 2: under two minutes to. Handle reply to that group chat.
Speaker 2: Message put the charger back where it. Belongs open the
Speaker 2: document you were working on. Yesterday set out the books
Speaker 2: you need for your next. Class wipe down your, desk
Speaker 2: refill your water bottle fifty fifty. One then do, them
Speaker 2: all of them right, there in one. Burst most of the,
Speaker 2: time this takes five to eight minutes, total but the
Speaker 2: effect is. Dramatic you walk into your study session with
Speaker 2: a cleaner, space a clearer, head and the momentum of
Speaker 2: having already accomplished something that's not wasted, time that's set up.
Speaker 2: Time it's the equivalent of stretching before a. Run it
Speaker 2: prepares your mind for focus fifty. Two, now let's talk
Speaker 2: about a common mistake people make with the two minute.
Speaker 2: Rule some folks hear about it and think it means
Speaker 2: they should only do small. Tasks that's not the. Point
Speaker 2: the rule isn't about avoiding big. Work it's about clearing
Speaker 2: the small stuff so the big work becomes easier to.
Speaker 2: Tackle once you've knocked out the five quick tasks that
Speaker 2: were cluttering your mental, space you'll find that sitting down
Speaker 2: to write that essay or study for that exam feels
Speaker 2: significantly more. Doable the overwhelm has been, reduced the open
Speaker 2: loops are, Closed your brain can, finally, folks