“But for those of us who would like to make some headway on those onerous tasks that would truly make us feel better once they’re in our rearview mirror, I offer an old CBT trick called the five-minute rule. What’s the idea?

Here it goes: you pick the task you want to work on, and you vow to work on it for five minutes, and five minutes only. Yes, you must stop after just five minutes. “What can I possibly get done in five minutes?” you ask yourself. But that is the procrastinator talking, the voice that would at this very moment lobby for doing nothing rather than doing anything at all. Are you going to listen to that voice? Don’t. So let’s ask again: What can you get done in five minutes? Five minutes more work than you would have done otherwise, and often the hardest part of all.”