The 2-minute productivity rule

There’s a good book called Getting Things Done - The Art of Stress-free Productivity by David Allen. It’s widely seen as the bible on productivity.

There’s a simple concept in it called the 2-minute rule. It goes something like:

If a task will take less than 2 minutes, do it right now. If it will take longer, write it down.

I think about this several times a day, whenever I notice a dirty mug on my desk, or some camera gear that’s in the wrong place, or if I remember that I had to bank transfer some money to a friend, or pay a bill of some sort.

Every time, I feel that moment of Resistance, when I think “it’s fine, I can do this later”.

But sometimes, I remind myself of the two-minute rule. I tell myself that if I could follow this rule consistently, my life would be much more pleasant, and my brain less cluttered with little jobs that detract from the bigger picture.

About 50% of the time, this internal argument works and I get off my backside and do the thing. I’m still working on the other 50%.