HolisticImprovement

Do you ever have projects or things you don’t necessarily want to do? Of course, we all do. Usually they seem too challenging or too complicated so we put off starting them until the last minute. I’ve procrastinated like this all my life, but recently I’ve found the best way to actually get working on the things I have to do.

I call it the “just start” method. Tell yourself to commit to just starting whatever you need to do, and commit to working on it for five minutes. That isn’t a lot of time to commit to, especially because you’d easily spend at least five minutes doing some pointless thing to avoid your task.

The best part about this is method is that it’s actually somewhat of a “brain hack.” Your mind doesn’t want to get a start on something and switch to something else right after; it prefers completion. You’ll find that when you get into the “just start” habit that you’ll end up finishing your entire project or at least getting a good amount done (much more than 5 minutes of it).

For example, when I’m about to write a long, detailed blog post, instead of putting it off, I’ll just start it…and an hour later it’ll magically be done!

According to Newton’s Laws of Motion, an object in motion will stay in motion unless an external force acts upon it, and an object at rest will tend to stay at rest unless an external force acts upon it. This also applies to taking action. You will find that if you’re “at rest,” meaning not doing something, you have the tendency to stay at rest.

The “just start” mindset has helped me so much in getting things done, especially things that I don’t really want to do in that moment. Try it out for yourself and let me know how it goes for you in the comments below!

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