The Two-Minute Rule and Time Blocking

We have all been there. Around mid day you look down and see that your task list has somehow grown by 20 plus items by lunch time. This can be extremely overwhelming and stressful. Today I wanted to share a tip from David Allen’s book Getting Things Done (GTD for short)

The Two-Minute Rule

If the task will take less than two minutes, and you have the time to do it, then do it now.

David Allen in Getting Things Done

That seems pretty simple, right? It only takes two minutes!

Yet it can be hard to follow this rule. I know I have failed a few times and had (and to be 100% honest still have) two-minute tasks that I keep putting off for whatever reason. This is where time blocking and task batching has come in handy.

Use Time Blocking to help

To combat this resistance I have recently been combining the two-minute rule with my experiment with time blocking and task batching.

During the day I will identify a few tasks that can be done in two-minutes (inbox clearing, sending reminders, reading an update, etc.) and then batch them together and create a time block for them on my calendar. 

During this time block, my only goal is to complete as many two-minute tasks as possible. If I find that something is taking longer than 5 minutes to complete (ok I break the rules a bit with this one) then I will not work on it and instead look for a time to schedule it into a time block.

Benefits of batching and time blocking two minute tasks

By batching these tasks it has helped get them off my mind. Since I have a time block scheduled for these tasks, I know that they are going to get taken care of so my mind is not constantly trying to remember to do them. This has freed me to work on more important work. 

Batching them has also given me several small victories in a short amount of time. Crossing these items off my task list helps give me that positive rush that I need to tackle larger projects. 

So if you are feeling like your task list continues to get longer and longer and you are having trouble with finding the time to get two-minute items done consider using time blocking to.

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