Imagine how much time a procrastinator spends in a day distracting himself from the thing he really should be doing. Checking email. Tweeting. Posting photos on IG. Watching sports commentary. Anything but that. For these calculations, I’ll go with a reasonable number: 1 hour per day. At 1 hour per day over 20 years, that totals to 304 days.

Imagine what he could’ve done with that time. Gone on amazing dates with his wife. Played football with his kids. Got that edge in career wise. Instead, he’s left with…vague memories of TikTok videos of kittens playing with a parakeet.

Don’t fritter away the best years of your life on that nonsense. To do that, here’s one simple tool to help you do what’s really important: the 5-minute rule.

What is the 5-minute rule?

When you have a difficult task ahead of you and can’t find the motivation to get up and started, it’s easy to dwell on how much it’s going to suck. Instead of paralyzing yourself with a fixation on the unpleasant, try this:

1. Tell yourself you’ll work on X for 5 minutes.
2. Set a 5 minute timer.
3. Work.
4. Stop after the timer rings.
5. Check if you want to continue or not.

Often by the time the alarm rings, the anxiety of getting started will be gone and you can continue without much effort. If you’re still feeling “uggghhhhh,” it’s probably best to come back to it another time.

Why does it work?

The idea of something is often much worse than reality. Case-in-point: giving a big speech in front of colleagues. The worst part is often walking up to the stage and standing there buzzing with anxiety before you’ve spoken. After that first word, the tension breaks and focus shifts to what you’re doing now instead of worrying what might happen in the future.

Breaking tasks into small chunks reduces the fear and anxiety around getting started. The obstacle is often not in the activity itself, but the ideas and feelings you’ve concocted about it. As with the speech, once you break the tension, keeping going is easy.

The five-minute rule works is a productivity Trojan horse. Because your mind thinks it’s easy, it drops its defenses and allows you to get started. Once that initial resistance breaks, you discover it’s not as terrible as imagined and momentum takes over.

What are the alternatives?

Although lesser known, you can apply this same rule in a variety of ways to maximize productivity.

1. Apply the 5-minute rule to when you feel you want to stop. Same as above, set a timer and work for another 5-minutes and see what happens. You might realize it’s time to stop or that you can keep going.
2. Start with the small and easy tasks. If you have a pitch deck to write and love designing slides, tell yourself you’ll just decorate the first two. Once you start, you might find you can’t stop.
3. Don’t use a timer. Honestly, I’ve never used a timer and it strikes me as silly. Trust instead that your internal clock will tell you when time’s up and reassess.

What are the drawbacks?

There are a few key points to be careful of when using the 5-minute rule. Although they can seem minor, minor stressors accumulated over years can spell disaster. Office syndrome anyone?

First, don’t push yourself too hard. Discipline is key for leveling-up, but taken to an extreme it can lead to burnout, resentment, and repression. 5-minutes is 5-minutes. If you really don’t feel like doing it further, don’t white-knuckle it. Otherwise, it will erode your mental health and lead to more costly burn outs in the long-run.

Second, take breaks. When deadlines are pressing down and big stakes are on the line, it’s easy to lie to oneself that, “No, I’m fine. I can do this.” Sometimes, though, that feeling of “ugggghhhh” isn’t procrastination, it’s your body telling you that you need rest. Excepting extraordinary circumstances, listen. Take a break and get back grinding after you’re refreshed.

Finally, the five-minute rule is not a panacea. Count it as one of many powerful arrows in your quiver to tackle the day. Also, as with all other techniques, frequent use leads to effective use. It might not slay procrastination in a day, but I’m confident it will give you an edge in leading your best life on the daily.