How two minutes can change your life forever.
Good day, delightful beings!
How are you feeling today? ☀️🌿💖
Hello you wonderful souls! I am so happy to be back and write for you! 🤗 Last week, I took a small break to re-organise work, life and health along with all the other things that hopped uninvited onto my To-Do-List. In addition to that, balancing the many work projects that have started to come back into my life again. In a nutshell:Uff! Sooooooo many of you sent messages, not only asking if everything is ok (yes, it absolutely is! 💖), but also lovingly complaining that I better get back to writing. Your wish is my command - and here I am again! 🤓 Thank you for following with your kind and encouraging words. You guys rock! 🙌
Time is long but life is short.
Despite the uncertainty that surrounds us, it seems that for many of us a twisted, busy sense of normalcy has somehow returned. We still stay at home, and we still are worried about how the COVID crisis will play itself out, with cases rising in India on a daily basis. Many of us have created a routine with the main purpose to keeps us sane and active, so we don’t think too much about the fact that we have no clue how life next week might look and feel like. 🙈 So while we are meticulously structuring our days, with new plans and a tainted sense of hope, we fall back into a trap that we had almost forgotten about: Welcome back, good old procrastination! 😅
Time to out yourself: Are you a master procrastinator, too?
Tim Urban, writer and “Wait but why”- blogger shows us in his truly hilarious TED talk that procrastination doesn't make any sense - and yet, we are all guilty of it! Please take out 15 minutes today to watch this ultra-funny video (Urban will take you on a journey through YouTube binges and Wikipedia rabbit holes), leaving us with the encouragement to think harder what we really procrastinate about. And isn’t this the best way to do this instead of something you really need to do today? 😂
Luckily, you don’t have to worry anymore: I have a great solution how to beat your “I’ll-do-it-tomorrow”- blues! As Isaac Newton taught us many moons ago, objects at rest tend to stay at rest (like your lazy bum on the couch), and objects in motion tend to stay in motion. This is just as true for humans as it is for falling apples - and trust me: once you start, you will be unstoppable! 🙌✅🙌
If you don’t want to be like this, keep reading.
Welcome to the 2 minute rule!
I first read about this in David Allen’s bestselling book “Getting Things Done” years ago, and - apart from many other great tips and tricks he has to offer - this one stayed with me until today.
In a nutshell, the 2 minute rule says: If a task takes less than 2 minutes to complete, then do it right away.
Correct, it is that simple! Just ‘nike’ it, and do it right NOW. You will be surprised how many things we tend to put off - and not even notice - that we could have finished in just 2 minutes or less! For example, washing your dishes immediately after your meal, tossing the dirty laundry straight into the washing machine, cleaning your desk quickly in the evening to reset it for the next day, sending that email, or replying to that annoying message on WhatsApp… you get the point.
The idea behind is to let nothing silly piles up that will later takes your attention away from doing what you really have to or want to do… and isn’t this what life is all about? Tackling the big, challenging, reality-altering tasks? If your answer is yes, you know what you’ve got to do - in less than two minutes, of course. 😅
Before you jump up to beat your procrastination, take a deep breath, and press play.
I am sending lots of love, hope and happiness your way. Stay strong, stay positive - in the larger picture of things, all those storms around us are here to clear the cobwebs inside and outside of us. If you feel a bit shaky this morning, close your eyes, keep breathing deeply, and listen to this wonderful track that features the most inspiring Allan Watts with the most amazing quotes. ☀️
“Lets suppose that you were able every night to dream any dream you wanted to dream, and you would naturally as you began on this adventure of dreams, you would fulfill all your wishes. You would have every kind of pleasure, you see, and after several nights you would say, well that was pretty great, but now lets have a surprise, lets have a dream which isn't under control. Well something is going to happen to me that I don't know what it's gonna be. Then you would get more and more adventurous, and you would make further and further out gambles as to what you would dream, and finally you would dream where you are now." - Alan Watts 💖
Thank you for being here with me in my wonderful, adventurous dream. 🙏
With love from Goa,
Isabelle 🌿
*Yeahyeahyeah - in sign language 🤗
P.S.: If you want to learn more about the Art of Procrastination, then “Don’t buy this book!” by John Perry is your next read. Check out the small review I wrote here. Scroll all the way to the bottom.
