My 20 Minute Rule

Habits

Aug 5

Time to be #relatable. I procrastinate. A lot. There have been times where I procrastinated for so long and felt so guilty I ended up hiding in bed for days. Obviously, this is neither productive nor healthy. For me, this procrastination usually kicks in when I’m either avoiding a task that I don’t enjoy but will ultimately help me achieve my goal, or when my self-doubt has convinced me that even if I do finish this task (whether I enjoy it or not), I’ll fail my goal anyway. Shaky self-worth, unreasonably high personal expectations, and fear of failure all combine to make a nasty cocktail designed to help you talk yourself out of work.

In my 2021 Goalsetting for Actors post, I mentioned my “20 Minute Rule”. This is one weapon I use in the war against procrastination. Today, I bequeath that weapon to you, that you might use it to vanquish your procrastination foe.

According to evolution theory, every single self-defeating habit humans have developed has been useful at some point in our history. Anger was designed to give us the strength and adrenaline we needed to fight an immediate threat and protect ourselves. Tears and crying was literally to cry for help when we were injured and needed assistance. And procrastination was a mechanism our brains used to conserve our energy so we’d have enough to deal with a future emergency. That’s it. Let me say it again: procrastination is just preserving our energy so we have enough to deal with a future emergency. That’s why so many of us leave important tasks to the last minute - that’s when we realize it becomes an emergency.

This video by HealthyGamers.GG is a great explanation about procrastination and how to reframe your relationship to it.

If we accept that procrastination is inevitable - and arguably helpful - we can shift our focus from slaying our procrastination beast, to convincing it to join our quest.

How do we do that? Create a sense of urgency that your lizard brain can respond to!

Break the task you’re avoiding into smaller subtasks - as small as possible. Then pick a subtask and commit to working on it for 20 minutes. Make a promise to yourself that you only have to work for 20 minutes, set a timer, and chances are, your brain will interpret that as “I only have 20 minutes to get this task done!” and you’ve got yourself a fake emergency. At the same time it’s easy to commit to 20 minutes, so your brain also thinks “I can handle 20 minutes, and as soon as that’s done I’m going to watch Avatar: The Last Airbender again!” Simultaneously you have a deadline and a light at the end of the tunnel. How cool is that!

Here’s the really cool part (I think): after my timer has gone off, I usually end up working for longer. Setting a time-based goal (I’ll work on this task for 20 minutes) rather than an output-based goal (I’ll finish this task) means I don’t put pressure on myself and I’ll get more done because I’m relaxed. If you’ve ever been “in the groove”, you know how little you want to stop working once you’re in it.

Now, that doesn’t happen every time. Occasionally I work for 20 minutes and very little gets done. But since I stuck to my time-based commitment, I don’t feel the need to beat myself up for not accomplishing the task (sometimes I do anyway, but that’s for my therapist and I to figure out).

Importantly, you need some kind of reward for getting your 20 minutes in. Something really tempting (if you’re on a diet or food plan, I don’t recommend making this reward food-based). A video game, a book, a beach trip, whatever. Something you enjoy, and you can tell yourself you get to enjoy it totally guilt free.

Note that this doesn’t have to apply only to those creative tasks you want to do but find yourself procrastinating (looking at you, writing blog articles!). It can also work for things you don’t want to do, like your bookkeeping or taxes, cleaning your room, or writing a cold call email template.

Bottom line: know the psychology of your brain and why you procrastinate, and then use that to your advantage! Don’t fight against your nature, work with it! Procrastination is just a tool, and you can choose to use that tool in a constructive way.

So, to summarize:

Everybody experiences procrastination, whether to avoid an unpleasant task, to avoid failure, or some other reason.
Procrastination evolved as a tool to help humans regulate energy so we have enough in case of a future emergency.
The goal isn’t to get rid of procrastination, but to use it as the tool it is.
Create a sense of false urgency for the task you want to accomplish. Start by breaking it down into smaller subtasks and committing to work on one subtask for 20 minutes.
Set a timer to get your brain into emergency mode.
Once the 20 minutes is up, keep working if you feel like it! Otherwise, stop. You get to enjoy a guilt-free treat now!
This trick is excellent for creative tasks, but also for administrative or other dull tasks like taxes or cleaning.

How do you deal with procrastination? Let me know in the comments!

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About Me

Larissa is a professional audiobook narrator, voice over artist, and actor. With her home recording studio in Vancouver, B.C., she is able to spend her time doing what she loves most - becoming a conduit for stories that resonate with us.