[PODCAST 277]: Turning Tiny Tasks Into Big Wins

In today’s podcast, I’m talking all about the 2-minute rule and how it has been so life changing for me and my family in this stage of life. I’ll be sharing a few fun examples from my own life of how I’ve used the 2-minute rule recently.

If you’re brand new here at LearnDoBecome, we help people who are overwhelmed with the details of life to create simple systems so they can do what matters most. I think you’re going to find that this little system of using the 2-minute rule will free up so much of your time, your mental energy, and it will help you get a lot of good things done!

We talk all about how if you have a 2-minute or less task that you’re going to put on a to-do list, just go ahead and do that task. It’ll probably take you longer to actually write down the task than it would to just do the task.

But some people reach out to us and say, “Well, what if I have 100 or 200 or 500 2-minute tasks? Am I supposed to just drop everything in my life and not do any of my other responsibilities because I have a million tasks to do?”

That’s not what we’re suggesting at all. Instead, if we have hundreds of 2-minute
or less tasks, we recommend grouping them into different categories.

Here’s your huge list of 2-minute tasks:

And here’s that same list segmented by categories:

So, for example, you might have a series of tasks that can only be done on the computer or errands you need to run. As we group our two minute or less tasks, this will allow us to hone in on them in each category and figure out when we can create project time to work on these grouped tasks.

I recently turned several 2-minutes or less tasks into a home project, and I completed it a couple days ago!

Late last year, I had a couple months where I was just super sick. I was in my first trimester of pregnancy and I spent most of my days laying on the couch. I was not very productive by the world’s standards of productivity. I was just trying to keep myself from not feeling too terrible and taking care of my toddler during the day. My husband is a medical student in his first year, so we have a lot going on.

The 2-minute or less household tasks were just not going to get done right then. It was just not the right time. As I was laying on the couch, I would sometimes have these thoughts in my head of, “Oh I should do that” or “That would be a good task to check off” or “I need to do that at some point.” And I would never get to those things because I just didn’t feel good.

Instead of feeling discouraged and letting that list build up in my head, I did a mind sweep–where I just opened a digital note and wrote down all the different things around the house that were bothering me.

I put that list safely into my Someday Projects List because I didn’t need to make it a Current Project, and it wasn’t urgent enough to go on my Next in Line Projects List, but I would like to do it someday.

A few months later, after I wrote down all these tasks, I actually got to making it one of my Current Projects in February. We had a stretch of days that were in the negatives and the temperature was just way too cold to be outside. So I thought, “Great, this is the perfect opportunity to get some stuff done around the house and I can tackle this project!”

This is an example of a project for me that only took about a day. I stretched it out throughout the day so we didn’t have to do it all in one sitting. As the day went on, we were able to start knocking out the tasks on our list. And it was really fun to work on it with my son by my side!

Here’s what we accomplished:

We moved the toys off the top of the fridge and put them with the other toys in our toy rotation boxes.

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Moved the silverware drawer to a shelf in our pantry since our son has been able to reach everything.

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Added the printer ink into our long-term office supplies box.

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Retrieved the art that fell behind our piano (and has been sitting there for several months).

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Washed the shower curtain.

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Reorganized the under-the-bed storage so we can get to our office supplies easier.

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It did take me pretty much the whole day to fit these tasks into my schedule, especially as I worked alongside my toddler. It might take more or less time for you to tackle a project like this, but I love that we can adapt this to meet our own needs!

I am especially grateful that none of these tasks were weighing on my mind anymore once they were all written down and safe on my future projects list. Then I could make it a fun day of completing 2-minute or less tasks in this one context of my life.

Adele shared this great idea in our STEP Mastery Facebook group:

“I like this idea very much. I think I will make it a routine instead of a project. 30 minutes a week will be dedicated to doing ‘2-minute tasks.’ During the week, I’ll briefly note the 2-minute tasks and I’ll do as many as I can in that 30-minute window, carrying over any that I can’t do to the following week. I see this as a routine instead of a project because although the individual tasks may be ‘one and done’ there will always be more 2-minute tasks.”

I’d love to hear how you plan to implement this idea into your own life! 🙂 Feel free to share your examples in the comments section below!

Testimonials from Our STEPpers!

We received so many kind messages from our STEPpers and participants in our STEP Momentum accountability group graduation ceremony that we hosted last week.

While the formal STEP Momentum group has ended, it’s never too late to join in on the fun! We have the exact same timelines that we followed inside the STEP program, so you can jump in at any time and start working on the program. We have 4-day, 2-week, 3-week, and 1-month timelines available (and of course, you can extend the timelines as needed!).

Here are some messages from our STEPpers: