00:01:26 Keep on Top of Tasks With the Ten-Minute Rule

00:03:03 Start With the Low-Hanging Fruit

00:03:49 Use a Timer

00:05:02 Keep Tabs on the Bigger Picture

00:06:53 Focus on Output and Not Outcome

00:08:26 TAKE ACTION

Self-Discipline On Autopilot: Do The Right Thing, Easily And Habitually (Live a Disciplined Life Book 21)

By Peter Hollins

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https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0GJ3JLX5W

How to make self-discipline automatic, second nature, and habitual.

The biology of self-control and how to hack your body's limitations

Understanding all the roadblocks to motivation and self-control - almost all are psychological

Why you must start managing your TIME, not your energy

The role your neurotransmitters play in self-discipline

Clarifying your areas of control and interest for maximum adherence

How to make discomfort your best friend

How to "surf the urge" and "zazen"

Emotional kung fu and how to use your emotions to your advantage

Tools to get started, keep going, overcome distractions, and follow through every single time.

Self-discipline is the ability to do what you don't want to do. It allows you to push through, conquer, and achieve. Without this gritty trait, nothing is possible in life. Keep that in mind.

You know the feeling.

You've got something important to do.

You sit down to do it, and somehow an hour passes, and you've barely started.

It's not laziness.

That's what happens when a task is too big for your brain to engage with it cleanly.

Peter Hollins has a fix for that.

It's called the Ten-Minute Rule, and it's from his book Self-Discipline on Autopilot.

The premise is this.

Nothing on your to-do list should take longer than 10 minutes.

If it does, you break it down until it doesn't, or you delegate it, or you cut it.

Simple rule, but the reason it works is worth understanding, and that's what we're covering today.

The 10-minute rule.

Delegate or ditch.

Start with low-hanging fruit.

Use a timer Keep the bigger picture Focus on output, not outcome Let's get into it Keep on Top of Tasks With the Ten-Minute Rule

The ten-minute rule is both a productivity trick and a way to push through procrastination.

It’s easy:

• No item on your to-do list should take longer than ten minutes.

If a task does take longer than ten minutes to do, then break it up into smaller tasks until it doesn’t.

That, or delegate the task to someone else or delete it entirely.

By doing so, you:

• Instantly bring more focus, speed, and efficiency to your day.

• Beat procrastination.

• Strengthen your self-discipline.

Everyone can manage to do something for just ten minutes at a time, right?

It may seem crazy to suggest that you could do everything you need to do this way, but you can!

To use this rule, try to remember your options:

Delegate

To get more time in your day, better manage your energy, and save it for what matters, delegate.

Good boundaries mean you don’t say yes to everything, but only to those things that are essential to your most important goal that day.

If it’s not important?

Then you have just two options:

1.

Ditch it entirely

2.

Get someone else to do it

This may mean having to let a few things slide or be done less than perfectly-but if they are not your priorities, so what?

You could delegate “down,” but don’t forget that you can also delegate “up,” i.e., to superiors, supervisors, or people who actually know better than you.

In other words, ask for help!

Start With the Low-Hanging Fruit

Yes, you should have big, hairy, audacious goals, and yes, you should be working hard, but sometimes if you’re having trouble getting started, you can get the ball rolling by starting with the easiest task first.

Naturally, you want to avoid endless “research” or planning, but begin any task with those quick gains that can be made without too much effort.

This will give you confidence to keep going.

• Tip: Sometimes, your easiest and most satisfying task might simply be breaking things down into smaller tasks-which is intrinsically rewarding because it makes you feel like the project is manageable.

Use a Timer

Use your phone to set a ten-minute timer, and when it goes off, stop what you’re doing.

You may wonder, “What if I’m genuinely not finished with my task when the timer goes off?” Well, there are a few things you can do:

• Notice exactly what task runs over time and notice if it repeatedly happens

• Ask if you need to plan this task better next time, or if the chunks need to be broken down further

• Look at the task again and see if you really need to continue

• Consider if the rest of the task can be delegated or assigned for later

This technique will eventually teach you to cut to the chase quickly.

If you are routinely not getting to the crux of each task within ten minutes, something is wrong.

Either you are planning poorly, or you’re wasting time with things that are actually not necessary.

The human attention span does not follow along neatly with the hours and half hours on a clock-ten minutes is actually plenty of time if you are consciously brining your full, fresh attention.

Keep Tabs on the Bigger Picture

Of course, nobody writes an essay or builds a house in ten minutes.

But the technique can still be used for bigger tasks in that it will:

1.

Help you overcome procrastination, and

2.

Get you thinking clearly about the stages and steps of the process.

When you are unclear about what you’re doing, you can waste enormous amounts of time.

The clock may show that an hour has passed, but in reality?

You’ve only mustered a few minutes of quality time during that period.

• Set the timer and work on the small chunk of the bigger task.

Then, when the timer goes off, pause and see where you are.

You may be very surprised at just how much work can be accomplished in ten minutes!

And anyone can manage ten minutes of solid effort, even on a task they’ve been avoiding.

Decide then if you want to set the timer for another ten minutes.

You don’t have to, but if you do, commit to that full ten minutes, absolutely no excuses.

This technique works for procrastination because it eases some of the main causes of procrastination:

1.

We are overwhelmed with the size of the task.

But if we do just ten minutes, we don’t focus on the enormity of an intimidating task, just on the next ten minutes.

2.

We have planned poorly and don’t actually know the smaller steps in front of us or the broader outline of the task we’re doing.

Lack of clarity can lead to lack of motivation, and you may feel aimless and irritated.

Having to break the task down into logical ten-minute chunks forces you to remove this obstacle and think strategically.

Focus on Output and Not Outcome

If you sit down to study a 10,000 word chapter in your textbook, and you focus on that enormous-sounding number-10,000!-then it’s going to feel like heavy lifting.

• Focusing on the outcome almost always means looking far over the horizon at a goal that’s really, really far away.

• But if you focus on the output, you pull your attention back to the only thing you have control over-your attention right now in this moment.

Just read one paragraph.

Try to understand that paragraph.

Make some notes.

Take a breath, go in again, and read the next paragraph.

Simple!

One way to think of this rule is even simpler still: Just start.

Very often, the most difficult part of a project is simply summoning up the momentum to get going.

Once you’ve begun, you start to see what the next step is, and the next...

Before you know it, half an hour has passed and you’ve covered enormous ground.

In just the same way as your brain will trick you into thinking you’re finished when you’re only 40% finished, your brain will also convince you that the task ahead is very difficult, very boring, too complicated, totally unmanageable, etc.

When you just leap in and start, you short-circuit these excuses and begin before you can talk yourself out of it!

Pick a task you’ve been putting off and identify the first ten-minute task you’ll have to do to get the ball rolling.

Without thinking too hard about it, set the timer and just start with it.

Ten minutes may not seem like much, but then again, an hour is only a few ten-minute chunks one after the other.

• Remember: The most complicated task in the world is similarly made up of very simple ones.

Even if you can only eke out ten minutes on a project before you stop again, well, that’s great: The next time you start, the task is that little bit smaller than it was.

One final point to remember about this rule is that breaking things into chunks is intrinsically rewarding.

After each baby step, have a mini celebration.

Tell your brain this is a reward so that it releases dopamine-a neurotransmitter that teaches you, “This is good.

Do this again.” With every completed baby step, you feel a teeny tiny pop of pride, and that’s one small vote of confidence in your own abilities.

The 10 minute rule works because it solves the actual problem, which isn't motivation.

It's clarity.

When you don't know what the next 10 minutes should look like, no amount of willpower moves you.

Break it down.

Set the timer.

Start before you're ready.

And Peter makes a point worth keeping.

Each completed chunk releases a small hit of dopamine.

Your brain logs and has evidence you're capable.

Over time, that's how discipline becomes automatic.

Self-discipline on autopilot is linked in the description.

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