The 1-Minute Rule

The 1-minute rule is an absolutely amazing hack to improve your productivity. I learned this hack after reading The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin, and honestly, it has made such a difference for me!

The purpose of this rule is to help you eliminate those little niggles that pile up over time. Those small tasks that seem too insignificant to put on a to-do list, but actually really bug you when you haven’t got them done. Using this rule, you can be more productive and get those little jobs done more efficiently. And this can all done just by making the most of every minute!

The 1-minute rule simply states that if something can be done in less than a minute, do it then and there. That’s right! Whenever you think of a little thing that needs to be done, ask yourself: “Can I do it in 1 minute?”. If the answer is yes, then do it straight away!

This rule works so brilliantly because you do have a surprising amount of “free” minutes in a day. However, most people let these minutes slip by with the mindset that a minute isn’t long enough to do anything. Yes, 1 minute isn’t long enough to do something major, but it is the perfect amount of time to accomplish small tasks. Open the mail, put something back in its place, move that picture frame to somewhere that looks nicer. Anything!

I know you’re probably thinking this won’t make much of an impact in your life, but trust me, it helps more than you would expect! It helps you to stop putting things off. When you use any free minute you might have to do something that actually needs to be done, you will be far more productive!

It also helps you to get rid of tasks that you might dislike doing or find inconvenient. When you know that you’re going to spend 1-minute maximum doing it, it doesn’t seem so bad! And you can just get them done and out of the way, so you don’t have them bugging you in the back of your mind.

So I challenge you to give the 1-minute rule a go! No matter what the task is, if you can do it in 60 seconds, do it as soon as you think of it! I promise it will lift some weight off your shoulders. I hope you find this tip as helpful as I have. I would love to hear how you get on! Please feel free to comment or contact me with any questions or suggestions, I’m always here to help!

-Becky