When to use the "2-minute rule"

You've probably heard of the 2-minute rule.

It's one of the most shared tips by newsletter readers, and one of the most common productivity tips shared online.

For instance, fellow reader Taylor shared it as a tip for this newsletter:

And so did another reader, Jesper:

(This one would be called the "5-minute rule", but the idea is the same.)

Overall, it's good advice.

It stood the test of time, and it works!

It's often easier to just do things when they come up than to create a long list of 20 quick things to do that never get exciting or important enough to be done.

But there's a problem with it…

If you take it literally, you may end up getting nothing done.

In the age of Slack, MS Teams, text messages and urgent notifications popping all the time, your most precious thing for productivity isn't time management, it's keeping your attention unscattered.

The 2-minute rule doesn't really work anymore, because new things appear every 5-10 minutes.

It's crazy out there!

When should I use the 2-minute rule?

So, let's try to make sense of the situation.

Here we have a simple heuristic that helps us act quickly on small tasks and get things done more efficiently…

… But that can derail our productivity if you use it all the time because you'll spend your whole day doing 2-minute tasks.

How do we balance this?

One way I've found helpful is to completely separate "focused time" from "scattered time".

For instance, right now I'm writing this newsletter.

I'll spend about one hour writing this specific issue, as it's on the simpler side.

As I'm writing this, I will NOT do any other tasks, even 2-minute ones. I won't pay a bill, respond to a WhatsApp message, answer an email, or even grab a glass of water.

This is my focused time and not breaking the flow is important because if I do, I might spend 10 whole minutes trying to get back into the flow. I may need to re-read everything I've written so far. I'll need to get back in the mood and the right mind space to start writing again.

After I finish this, I'll go do email (189 messages in my inbox, terrifying).

I consider email "scattered time", because "doing email" is the act of dealing with many small tasks.

Then, the 2-minute rule applies.

If I can deal with something that comes up as I do email in less than two minutes, I'll do it right away. If it takes longer, I might put it on a to-do list to do it later.

(These "2 minutes" are flexible too. Depending on what appointments and commitments I have later, I might make it 5 or even 10 minutes.)

This way, I often finish doing email with zero outstanding tasks.

Inboxes and Outputs

You can choose what you consider to be your own "focused times" and "scattered times", but one way to think about it is "inboxes" and "outputs".

Inboxes are whatever mediums of work that are based on communication.

AKA: People asking you to do stuff.

This includes:

• Email

• WhatsApp/Telegram/SMS

• Slack/Teams

When you're working on inboxes, you need to sort through and PRIORITIZE things to be done now or later. Here the 2-minute rule applies beautifully.

Output work is work that generates a meaningful output.

Examples:

• Excel

• PowerPoint

• Writing a Google Doc

• Programming

• Designing something

This type of work tends to need FOCUS.

And because it needs focus, if you use the 2-minute rule while doing it you'll constantly get distracted and not get much done.

You'll be trading 1-hour tasks for a bunch of 2-minute tasks.

We all know which are most important.

Keep working smarter.