This 2 Minute Exercise Could Really Improve Your Daily Life

Psychology is still struggling to find the true origins of procrastination, even if it is a very widespread phenomenon, affecting many of us. Who has never said to themselves one day: “ Hmm I still have two days to finish my tax form, I’m wide ! ”, or again: “ The dishes can wait, I (insert more enjoyable activity here) to do » ?

A purely human way of always wanting to postpone the inevitable, which nevertheless does not come from laziness or any lack of organization. Why such persistence in wanting to postpone a task while knowing that we will have to accomplish it in any case? Why hesitate, when this habit complicates our lives more than anything else? A new study, published on October 16 in the journal BMC Psychologyoffers a surprisingly simple solution to put in place to stop this machine.

Take the bull by the horns (and the mind)

The team, led by Anusha Garg, focused on what she called the “ starting line problem » : that extremely brief moment when we hesitate to embark on a task. To intervene exactly at this moment, the researchers tested an exercise, a two-minute guided reflection, centered around three mechanisms recognized in experimental psychology.

First of all, you need to mentally name the emotion that is blocking you for you to take action (“ affect labeling “), in the words of the researchers). The simple act of labeling the paralyzing emotion alleviates the emotional charge that we associate with the task and facilitates decision-making.

Then, if a task seems out of reach for you, break it down into several sub-objectives, more easily attainable (« sub-empty “). Naturally, your brain will then perceive that the effort it will have to make will be lower, because a small task generates more intense and less conflicting motivational activation.

Finally, third little exercise: give yourself a micro-reward as soon as the first step is completedwhich creates positive reinforcement and makes the effort itself more attractive (“ self-chosen reward “). Let’s take an example: if you have to prepare a long presentation for your work, start by creating the file and titling it. Then treat yourself to a short coffee break or a little music session and you will give your brain’s reward system what it expects to consider the effort as ” rentable » in the very short term.

Very convincing results

In the study, participants who completed this two-minute exercise (compared to the control group) reported better mood immediately after performing it. A clear sign that exercise has indeed reduces aversion or tension associated with the task.

They also reported feeling less resistant (emotionally speaking) to the task, as if the blockage they felt at the beginning had lessened. Within 24 hours following the exercise, these same participants were significantly more numerous to have started the task which they had previously avoided. An effect which was completely absent in the control group.

These first results show that we can really reduce the emotional burden that keeps us stuck, and that a simple two-minute exercise is enough to change the way we approach a task. But Garg’s team didn’t stop there: they wanted to understand why some participants then got started more easily than others.

The researchers therefore carried out a complementary study, in which they observed that the division of the task worked and made the participants “ a little more motivated “. On the other hand, this burst of motivation was significantly stronger if the participants linked this first step to immediate gratification. Proof that motivation is not necessarily correlated with discipline, since it was not mental strength that pushed the participants forward, but the immediate value they attached to their action(s).

If you want to try it, you have seen that there is no nothing too complicated to set up. You can practice this little mental gymnastics on a daily basis and take short-term profitsbecause it is in this temporality that it is effective. In the long term and through practice, it will become easier to stifle doomsday anticipation which makes you imagine the worst before you have even laid the first stone. Remember that we have never seen anyone regret having embarked on a project or carrying out a task that they hated; the opposite is much more common ! To directly translate these results into a practical tool, Anusha Garg’s team has developed Dawdle AI, a free application which will guide you in the exercise they have developed. To find out more, you can take a look at the application’s official website.