A Five Second Hack To Beat Procrastination

I’d like to think you’re reading this because you have every aspect of your life under control and have nothing better to be doing. However, there's a good chance that you clicked a link whilst scrolling through social media as a form of procrastination. 

The thing is, we all know what’s in our best interest, but knowing and acting are two very different things. Therefore, I’m going to try and help you achieve whatever it is that you’ve been putting off by discussing something that’s worked for me – The Five Second Rule .

The Five Second Rule is one which states that the moment you have an instinct to act on a goal, count backwards - 5-4-3-2-1-GO!!! However, before you reach GO, you must physically move before your brain can kill the instinct to act.

So how does it work?

Basically, our brain has a five second window between recognising an instinct to act and providing excuses as to why we shouldn’t act. By counting down from five it makes you focus on your commitment or goal and distracts you from your excuses. The rule is what’s known in psychology as a metacognition tool. Metacognition simply means that we have an awareness of our own thoughts and when we recognise our thoughts we are able to act quickly and trick our brain into doing things we don’t want to do.

There are lots of different aspects to this rule, but the most important one is that of physical action related to an instinct. This physical action could mean grabbing your keys and driving to the gym, shutting down Netflix and opening up a textbook or simply jumping out of bed before you hit the snooze button. One thing’s for sure though, if you don’t act, you won’t change.

That’s all there is to it! It’s a simple rule, but not always easy to follow. The key is to build momentum, so start now, 5-4-3-2-1-GO!!!