One of the most impactful concepts from David Allen’s Getting Things Done book and mentality is the Two Minute Rule.
Simply put, the idea is that if you come across something that takes your attention and takes two minutes or less to complete, do it.
Don’t push it off until later. Don’t try to fit it in your schedule. Just get it over with.
There are two particularly interesting aspects of this rule:
- It makes you think about your timing for checking your phone, calendar, etc. If you don’t have time to take care of something that requires your attention and won’t take more than two minutes to complete, what are you doing checking your phone in the first place?
- It helps to kill off little tasks before they grow into serious attention drains.
It isn’t as easy to follow as it sounds, but it’s worth the effort.
-Brandon