5 minute rule; part 2

i like the poetry (irony? serendipity? whatever...) of using the five minute rule to explain the five minute rule. while i've been questioned a couple of times about it in the 10 years, i think it could stand concretization.

the first time i was kicked out and readmitted to college (about 10 years ago), i was forced to take a student development course. they discussed time management, study methods, etc. as you can imagine, i was daily riveted.

one (and only one) concept stuck with me. the idea behind the five minute rule is simple. if you need to get something done, tell yourself you'll do it now, but only for five minutes, after which you can stop. of course, five minutes come and go, and you're already working, so might as well continue. and the reason you keep using the rule is that, this time, you really will work for only five minutes. the reason i like it so much is, i think, that it resonates with my personal motto: self actualization through self delusion.

with respect to this blog, i use the five minute rule to just write something (like this post), no matter how irrelevant. this gets the motor running, and i can then direct that energy towards stuff i actually care about writing (like the groundwork for this story i'm working on). so in the future, post titled "5 minute rule" will probably be random nonsense. (at least, they'll be less pointed than this post.)