What if You Just Started?
Imagine, you’re at work and there’s a task you need to get done. You know that this task might not be the easiest to complete or it’s simply something that doesn’t hold your attention for too long, but you know it needs to get done. You keep finding other things to do that fill your time and at the end of the day, you push that task to the next day yet again. Some tasks that do not have strong deadlines can be easy to keep pushing to the next day. In this post, we will explore the power of 5 minutes and just starting with the next smallest step.
Power of 5 Minutes
Starting the task and giving yourself at least 5 minutes to work on the task can make a big difference. Have you ever noticed when you didn’t feel like going for a walk or the gym? But if you went anyways, you generally went for longer than you originally wanted to and you felt so much better after. Giving yourself just 5 minutes to get started on the task you’re avoiding works the same way. For a task you have a hard time starting, set a timer for 5 minutes, get started and you’ll notice that when the timer goes off, you don’t want to stop working on the that task and you want to get it finished. What’s happening here? There are a few psychological factors to this phenomenon:
Cognitive Dissonance: This is the discomfort experienced when holding conflicting beliefs or attitudes. When you initially didn't want to do a task but start doing it anyway, your mind tries to resolve the dissonance between your original reluctance and your current action by convincing you that you must have a good reason for doing it.
Commitment Bias: Once you start a task, you may feel psychologically committed to completing it. This is related to the concept of sunk costs – the idea that once you've invested time or effort into something, you're more likely to continue investing rather than abandoning it.
Completion Bias: The human brain is wired to seek closure and completion. Starting a task creates a sense of momentum and progress, making it psychologically uncomfortable to leave it unfinished.
Zeigarnik Effect: This is the tendency to remember uncompleted or interrupted tasks more than completed tasks. Once you start a task, it occupies your working memory, making it more difficult to forget about and move on from.
Goal Gradient Effect: Progress towards a goal tends to increase motivation. Once you start working on a task, you're already making progress, which can motivate you to continue until completion.
When we leverage these factors to our advantage to completing something we originally avoided, we increase our productivity, which can lead to less stress and greater productivity. One of our clients implemented this technique and was able to start and complete projects that at times would get put off. Her leadership noticed that she was more productive and projects were getting completed more quickly. This is the power of just getting started and committing to a small amount of time. What task is hard to get started for you? How can you leverage this technique to increase your productivity?
Conclusion
We explored the power of getting started on a task for at least 5 minutes in this post. So what are you waiting for? Set the timer for 5 minutes, get started on the task you have avoided, and observe how you can’t really stop once you’re started.
