Every second counts.
Mel Robbins, a best-selling author, personal development coach, and motivational speaker, is revealing a simple move that she says will transform you from a chronic procrastinator to a model of productivity.
Robbins recommends you invoke “The 5 Second Rule” whenever a task looms and you feel anxious, loafish, or distracted.
Start counting down from five and when you reach one, get immediately and feverishly to work. This technique catches your brain off guard, urging it to act before it understands and forcing it to work for, rather than, against you.
Robbins told Vogue this month that the method allows you to assert control over your own thoughts, “regaining confidence in yourself; fighting your fears; stopping stressing, living happier, and finally having the courage to share and defend your ideas.”
And asserting that control just might save your life — research shows that those who dilly-dally, postpone, and delay do so to their detriment and run the risk of developing depression, poor health, physical pain, and economic difficulties.
While designed to motivate, the 5 Second Rule can also be used to make bold choices and control harmful impulses.
Robbins recommends employing it to get out of bed in the morning and advises counting down before lashing out to give your brain time to dismiss destructiveness.
“To change, to start a business, to be a better parent, a better companion, and to do all the things you want to achieve in life — you will necessarily have to go through complicated, scary and uncertain things. You’re never going to ‘feel it,’ but you can do it,” she told Vogue.
