How to Overcome Procrastination and Build Good Habits Using The One-Minute Rule

Do you know what the number killer of all goals is? It is procrastination, my friend. People fail to achieve what they want in life because they procrastinate and never do anything about what they want.

Procrastination is very common in us. It is an act of delaying your work.

When you decided to write an article and publish it to your blog, but you delay the writing and put it off until the next day, you are procrastinating.

When it is time to get up in the morning, change to your sports attire and go for jogging, but you cancel doing it because you feel more comfortable sleeping to continue to sleep, you are procrastinating.

When you promised your spouse that you will clean up the closet and you forget to do so and you tell your spouse you will do it tomorrow, that is procrastinating too, my friend.

Procrastination kills more dreams than you can ever imagine.

Want to know if you’re a procrastinator and what type of prorcrastination personality you have? Take this quiz to find out.

A lot of people fail to get the results they want because they are not doing the necessary work or pouring in the required effort to produce the result.

Yes, some people will work on their goals for a day, a week or even a month, but that’s all they’d do. After that, they will give up because they have taken action but are not seeing any result.

Success does not come this way. I believe that success requires hard work and consistency in taking action.

In my opinion, success is about doing the work when you feel like procrastinating. It is about taking action when you can rest. It is about working on your goals when the rest of the world is sleeping or having fun and enjoying life.

So how do you overcome procrastination? Well, there is a powerful technique you can use and it is called the one-minute rule. In Japan, this technique is known as the Kaizen method.

This technique is simple to understand. The rule is that whatever work you want to do or action you want to take, you just need to focus and do it for a minute.

Yes, you read that right. All you need to do is to work on it for just one minute.

For example, if you want to write an article, just commit to doing it for a minute. If you want to improve your tennis skill, just commit to the practice for one minute. If you want to make reading your habit, just do it for a minute.

Why The One-Minute Rule Works

Anyone can commit to working on their goals for a minute. The key here is to make sure that you get started on the small thing.

If you are going to write an article, come up with the title. If you want to go for jogging, just get changed. If you want to make it a habit to read, read for just one minute.

Whatever you want to do, get it started for just one minute. This method works, especially in overcoming procrastination because it basically breaks down the task into such a small piece that anyone can do it effortlessly.

Too often, we try to tackle the entire project and this is what overwhelms us. Think about it, if you have to write a 5,000 words article, it will take you the whole day to do so. Some even need a few days to complete a 5,000 words article.

This is what causes most people to procrastinate. They are overwhelmed by the project. They will do whatever they can to delay and give excuse NOT to do it.

However, with the one-minute rule, things will be different. It breaks down the task into simple and effortless action that you can do right away.

Once you work on your goal for just one minute, trust me, you will have built up the momentum and you will NOT stop after one minute. You will do more.

It is human nature to want to do more and to expect to get results fast. This is why weight loss pills and get-rich-quick schemes still sell like hotcakes.

People want quick fixes and they want an immediate result. And this is also why people are procrastinating.

If you are a blogger and I’m telling you that there is a guaranteed way to success, but you will have to post a 1,000 words article every single day for the next 5 years, would you do it?

Well, some people will think that this is going to take too long and too much effort. On the other hand, some people will do it, but just for a few weeks or a few months, and then they will stop.

Only those who continue to blog, take action, pour in the effort, and be consistent in moving forward, are those who succeed.

Do you think Bill Gates built Microsoft in just a day? Do you think Richard Branson became a billionaire in a month? Rome was not built in a day, my friend.

Success is going to take time and you have to be patient.

This is why the one-minute rule is so powerful. It helps build your habit rather than giving you quick fixes that will fail you in the end.

Use The One-Minute Principle At Your Own Pace

Now, you don’t really have to follow exactly and do it for just a minute. The principle is that you have to start small, but it does not really need to be a minute.

For instance, you can start with a mere 10 minutes or 15 minutes. If you want to write an article, start with 10 minutes. Write for about 10 minutes a day. This will build your habit to write.

The same goes for reading. If you want to build the habit of reading each day, start with just 15 minutes a day. Or if you find this challenging, lower the level and make it just 5 minutes a day. I believe everyone can read for just 5 minutes a day, no matter if you are busy or not.

You have to make the task as simple and as effortless as possible. You want to make it so easy to do that you will never think twice or even have the thought of procrastinating it.

In the beginning, you start small. Once you have accustomed to it, grow your habit and spend more time on it.

You can start with reading for 15 minutes a day. After a week, you can make it into 20 minutes or even 30 minutes a day. Start small and grow.

So start with this one-minute principle and take action every day. When you make it into a habit to take action, the result will come automatically.

Therefore, implement this principle into every area of your life right now. Develop productive habits that will get you the result you want in life.