Genius Way To Overcome Procrastination Is Changing Our Entire Outlook On Household Tasks

How many times have dishes been piling up in your sink and you’ve thought, “I’ll wash them later?” But then when later came, you thought, “I’ll do them in the morning.” A million times? This is called procrastination — and we all do it. But what if we told you there was a neat mind hack that could make those tasks you keep putting off and putting off a total breeze?

The different kinds of procrastinator

Amusingly, doing anything other than the very thing we need to do is so common that experts have actually categorized different kinds of procrastinators. For example, there are the perfectionists, who won’t start a task because they worry the results will fail to meet their sky-high expectations. Then there are the rebels, who push back against anyone telling them how to act — even if that person is themselves.

The three-minute rule

Yes, that’s right — often we really are our own worst enemies. This is why the three-minute rule’s so revolutionary, as it helps us fight back against our very natural desire to, you know, do nothing. The trick behind it’s also so simple that anyone can apply it, and it can be applied to many situations inside and outside the home. The results may truly be transformational.

The other three-minute rule

Before we go any further, though, we know what you’re thinking: yes, there’s more than one three-minute rule! Brant Pinvidic, a Hollywood producer, even wrote a book on the subject. His three-minute rule concerns boiling ideas down into a three-minute pitch that successfully conveys everything you want it to. Yet while this idea might be helpful for screenwriters or CEOs, it isn’t what we’re talking about here.

Not the five-second rule

Neither is the five-second rule, which refers — of course — to the length of time a piece of food can lie on the ground and still be fair game for eating. We all practiced this one as kids — in theory, if you dropped a fry but picked it up within those all-important five seconds, it was all good! As adults, though, we’ve realized this rule might just be a little gross.