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The One-Minute Rule
How about this for advice?
This is an incredibly easy, incredibly effective rule—but it must be followed consistently if I want to see results. And it does take work.
It’s very simple: I must do any task that can be finished in one minute. Hang up my coat, read a letter and toss it, fill in a form, answer an email, note down a citation, pick up my phone messages, file a paper, put a dish in the dishwasher, replenish the diaper supply by the changing table, put the magazines away…and so on.
Because the tasks are so quick, it isn’t too hard to make myself follow the rule—but it has big results. Keeping all those small, nagging tasks under control makes me more serene, less overwhelmed.
That is from The Happiness Project, a new project in self-experimentation, a' la Seth Roberts.
The site has many good pointers, but this is horrible advice. It might be better to follow the rule: don't do any task that can be accomplished in a minute. Most people are neurologically programmed so they cannot truly internalize the scope and import of deeply significant, long run, very good news. That means we spend too much time on small tasks and the short run. Clearing away a paper clip makes us, in relative terms, too happy in the short run, relative to the successful conclusion of World War II.
There is yet another problem. The more accessible we become to the world, the more we are burdened with small tasks. Imagine the manipulation if the rest of the world knows we are following the one-minute rule.
Best of all is the modified rule: Wake up early, and don't do any small task before 2 p.m.. After two p.m., do small tasks with p = 0.19.
The pointer is via Ben Casnocha; here is Ben on how to be a human theme park.
Here is my previous post Against Errands.
Beneath the fold, from The Happiness Project, are her "Twelve Commandments". Number ten gets my special endorsement...
- 1. Be Gretchen [her name].
- 2. Let it go.
- 3. Act as I would feel.
- 4. Do it now.
- 5. Be polite and be fair.
- 6. Enjoy the process.
- 7. Spend out.
- 8. Identify the problem.
- 9. Lighten up.
- 10. Do what ought to be done.
- 11. No calculation.
- 12. There is only love.
Posted by Tyler Cowen on December 21, 2006 at 05:49 AM in Education | Permalink
Comments
Maybe you have to be Gretchen to know what some of these mean. Act as I would feel? Spend out? No calculation? I hope she doesn't follow those when she goes out shopping.
Posted by: Pelkabo at Dec 21, 2006 7:41:22 AM
This is very similar to the "Two-Minute Rule" from David Allen's Getting Things Done book. See this link for more:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gtd
Though from what I understand few people implement the whole process he describes, the Two-Minute Rule is very popular.
Posted by: Jed Christiansen at Dec 21, 2006 8:08:27 AM
Tyler: is blogging a small task? Most of your posts are before 2 pm. When is the underlying blog research done?
I concur with Jed Christiansen's observation.
Posted by: Ted at Dec 21, 2006 8:14:57 AM
"Clearing away a paper clip makes us, in relative terms, too happy in the short run, relative to the successful conclusion of World War II."
This is certainly the best sentence I have read today, so far.
Posted by: Tom Nuttall at Dec 21, 2006 8:39:52 AM
In "The 7 Habits of Highly Successful People," Covey has a neat little diagram that demonstrates Tyler's point: It's a box cut into 4 parts -- 1) things that are urgent and important, 2) things that are urgent but not important, 3) things that are important but not urgent, and 4) things that are not urgent and not important. Sets 1 and 2 we don't need to worry about because they take care of themselves. The problem is with sets 3 and 4 -- we waste time on tasks in set 2 (urgent but not important) and don't spend enough time on tasks in set 3 (important but not urgent). Like the old saw about spending days on planning your vacation but not giving more than passing thought to planning your retirement.
Also, my own (limited) experience tells me that Gretchen's One Minute Rule is really a woman thing. I suspect it's because women, at least in the West, get stuck with all the nest-building/maintaining tasks that can become insurmountable if allowed to pile up.
Posted by: jp at Dec 21, 2006 9:09:04 AM
Hey, it's Gretchen from the Happiness Project. Thanks for your interest--even if you thought the advice was horrible. For me, I find that I can't think about the important things in life if I'm distracted by looking for a box of paper clips. But it was interesting to hear a very different view. Maybe I'll try it your way for a week, and see what happens. Someone posted to tell me about David Allen--shoot, I thought I was being so ingenious and original! and someone had thought of the very same idea before. Oh well. Happy holidays--I love your site! be happy, Gretchen
Posted by: Gretchen Rubin at Dec 21, 2006 9:17:57 AM
I've been doing a version of the one-minute rule for years... I call it "happy hour". When I get to the end of the day, I look at my list of things to do and knock off as many of the easy ones as I can in the last half hour of the workday. That way, I go home feeling like I've accomplished something. I've found that in doing the little things at the end of the day, I end up focused on the big thing for the next day on the way home from work, and frequently have a really good mental head start the next day as a result.
matt
Posted by: fasolamatt at Dec 21, 2006 9:23:25 AM
No. 10 was also endorsed by Poor Richard:
"Resolve to perform what you ought. Perform without fail what you resolve."
I am pleasantly amused to see our favorite economist favoring the concise formulation, which leaves out the redundant middle step.
Posted by: halleck23 at Dec 21, 2006 9:51:33 AM
Up until a few weeks ago, I kept a messy desk, including three enormous stacks for three different projects. I get a large number of faxes, emails, and packages (I manage real estate development). I came to realize that each stack of paper or pile on my desk represented a decision put-off.
So, now, after a big clean-up and filing flurry I have a clean desk. At the end of everyday, I file or deal with anything loose. That way, the next morning I may deal with the large issues of the day, without a multitude of little issues hanging over and cluttering up things. It also robs me of a mutltitude of little tasks which I can start in order to put-off doing the big things. When I come in, I have only a clean desk and my conscious between me and the major tasks of the day.
It has helped immensely, increased my production, it's aesthetically pleasing, and I suspect my employers are less suspect of my organizational abilities.
I recognize this just applies to me, though.
Posted by: ElamBend at Dec 21, 2006 11:56:08 AM
Depending on your line of work, there can be a utility to having large piles of stuff that a one-minute person would be putting away. In my line of work (law practice), I have a lot of things that may or may not turn out to be important within the next several months. By putting them into piles, I keep those things readily retrievable if they become important, but I haven't wasted any time in putting them away (i.e., filing them) in case they turn out to be unimportant. When a matter is ultimately closed or appears to be indefinitely in limbo, I can go through the associated pile pretty quickly and actually file just a small fraction of what's in it.
Posted by: jp at Dec 21, 2006 12:14:32 PM
I found the two minute rule a great help in my life. Not because it helped me become more efficient, but because using it helped me develope the discipline to become more efficient.
Posted by: Michael Foody at Dec 21, 2006 1:01:20 PM
Tyler sez: "The more accessible we become to the world, the more we are burdened with small tasks. Imagine the manipulation if the rest of the world knows we are following the one-minute rule."
The one-minute rule might be better expressed as "I must do any task that can be finished in one minute - assuming I intend to do it at all." Even if others burden you with an abundance of unwanted small tasks, you are still the one that ultimately decides whether or not you are going to do them. Doing them immediately as they come up gets them done; deciding you aren't going to do them at all gets them off your plate; ignoring them without either completing them or deciding not to complete them makes life miserable for yourself and everyone around you.
Posted by: eddie at Dec 21, 2006 3:51:34 PM
"...urgent but not important..."
How can something be unimportant and still urgent?
Posted by: David Sucher at Dec 23, 2006 12:11:40 PM
Technically, "urgent" means something that needs immediate attention or you will suffer the consequences, but it doesn't necessarily mean the consequences are severe. A teleconference that starts in five minutes is urgent, but it may also be pointless.
Posted by: Windypundit at Dec 24, 2006 10:44:15 AM
Actually, I myself came up with something which is "important but not urgent."
I was reviewing wind-damage on my roof. (We had a nasty and unusual storm in Seattle last week and some folks are still without electricity.) I lost a few shingles and while it is "important" that I get a roofer out in the next month or so to repair it, it is not "urgent" as the underlayment and the steep pitch will keep my dry for quite a while.
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