The 10-Minute Rule That Turns "I Can't Do This" Into "Oh, That Wasn't So Bad"
The 10-minute rule that helped me do the scary things
Let’s talk about that thing you’ve been avoiding all week.
The one that sits in the back of your mind like a splinter. The task that feels so heavy, so complicated, so impossibly difficult that you’ve convinced yourself you need a full afternoon, perfect energy, and complete mental clarity before you can even think about starting it.
Maybe it’s logging into your bank account to review those mysterious charges. Or calling the doctor’s office to sort out that billing issue. Or responding to that email you’ve been rehearsing in your head for three days.
Your brain has turned it into Mount Everest.
Anxiety turns molehills into mountains
Anxiety doesn’t just make tasks feel bad. It warps our perception of how long they’ll take and how hard they’ll be. That five-minute task? Your brain sees a three-hour ordeal. That straightforward phone call? A high-stakes negotiation requiring a law degree and perfect eloquence.
It’s not rational. But it feels completely real.
So you avoid it. And every day you avoid it, the task gets heavier. The anxiety builds. By the end of the week, you’re not just anxious about the task itself, you’re anxious about how long you’ve been avoiding it, ashamed that something “so simple” has defeated you, and convinced you’re fundamentally broken for struggling with this.
Then one day you finally do it. And it takes seven minutes. Seven minutes.
The relief floods in, mixed with frustration. “I made myself miserable for an entire week over seven minutes &$%#?”
Time as your starting point
Not referring to time blocking or scheduling. Not adding it to your calendar and hoping you’ll magically feel ready when the notification pops up.
I’m talking about using a specific amount of time as the tool that gets you started.
