The Two-Minute Rule for Building Lasting Habits

The Two-Minute Rule for Building Lasting Habits

When you’re trying to build a new habit, it’s easy to start too big. When you think about the change you want to make, your excitement and motivation can convince you to do too much, too soon.

Everyone’s heard things like: start small, take baby steps. But even when you know you should start small, it’s still easy to start too big.

This is why, if I have to recommend one place to start when building a new habit, I would recommend choosing a habit that is as easy as possible to perform.

The most effective way I know to do this is to follow the “Two-Minute Rule.” The Two-Minute Rule states, “When you start a new habit, it should take less than two minutes to do.”

In the last lesson, you chose a habit that will cast votes for your desired identity. In this lesson, we’ll take that habit and scale it down into a two-minute version.

For example:

“Walk 10,000 steps each day” becomes “Put on my running shoes.”

“Keep the house tidy” becomes “put one item of dirty clothing in the laundry.”

“Be a better partner” becomes “make my partner a cup of coffee every morning.”

“Get straight A’s” becomes “set my books out on the desk when I get home.”

The idea is to make your habits as easy as possible to start. The Two-Minute Rule helps counterbalance our tendency to bite off more than we can chew. It also gives you a small way to reinforce your desired identity each day.

When all we hear about are other people’s spectacular results, it’s natural to think that we need to push ourselves to the limit to achieve anything worthwhile. I know, I've made that mistake many times myself. Instead, you can simplify the process by narrowing your attention to the first movement.

You may not be able to automate the whole process, but you can make the first action mindless. You’re trying to build a “gateway habit” for a larger behavior or bigger ambition that you’re ultimately working toward. Make it easy to start and the rest will follow.

You can usually figure out the gateway habits that will lead to your desired outcome by mapping out your goals on a scale from “very easy” to “very hard.” Most people start with ambitions that are big and very hard but need to transition to habits that are small and very easy. Even broad life goals can be transformed into a two-minute behavior. Wanting to live a healthy life may be your ultimate ambition, but then you can ask “what do I need to live a healthy life” – I need to stay in shape. Then you can ask what do I need to stay in shape – I need to exercise. What do I need to do to exercise? I need to change into my workout clothes. And so on until you get to behavior that takes two minutes or less – until you discover the first movement.