I landed on an easy(looks stupid) tip that transformed me from procrastination to action. It works.
I am following this technique every day / every hour and at every possible opportunity.
Before I reveal the technique, let me share my experiences.
I am a typical guy who procrastinates and think a lot even to do small things in daily life.
- Getting up early in the morning is always a hassle for me. I keep pressing snooze button again and again.
- Going to vegetable market on weekends - I know this has to be done every week. Even for such a small thing, I think about a perfect time to start. I keep pushing it until late in the evening on Sunday wherein I need to rush to the market as my stock becomes empty.
- Being a constant thinker, I would think 10 times before I call someone. I look for a perfect time to call someone. That also gets pushed and pushed. Most of the times, I won't even call. I am always looking for a perfect time to call as I do not want to disturb the other person.
- Even day to day stuff, I am dragging myself to do any work.
- so on and so forth.
One fine morning I landed on a life hack video from Mel Robbins. I was amazed by the small technique which transformed me.
Before any action, say 5..4..3..2..1.. start... That is the whole technique. Looks simple. As Mel says, It looks stupid. But it works all the time.
The 5 Second Rule is simple. If you have an instinct to act on a goal, you must physically move within 5 seconds or your brain will kill it.
The moment you feel an instinct or a desire to act on a goal or a commitment, use the Rule.
When you feel like hesitating before doing something that you know you should do, count 5-4-3-2-1-GO and move towards action. It works when you count down and not count up.
Why it works?
We all have fast brain and slow brain. Get into immediate action mode comes from fast brain. This is quick technique to hack your brain and get into action.
Mel applied this technique. Transformed herself and she even wrote a book on this. There are 3 million followers who are using this technique.
After I discovered this approach, I am using it daily to get up at 4.30 am everyday without fail. This has been happening for more than 50 days. I am sure I have crossed a milestone of 21/45 days.
I am also applying this technique on the 4 other examples I have quoted above.
It is truly a life hack. It works. It works for me. You can give it a try.
If you are a in depth reader, you can watch the following videos.
Mel's TEDx Talk on this:- How to stop screwing yourself over | Mel Robbins | TEDxSF - YouTube
