17 Dec 2025 · 5 min
Brian Johnson extends Timothy Pischel's two-minute rule: if a task takes under two minutes, do it now. But when you're deep in important work, resist anything that seems like it'll only take one minute. That minute becomes five, then thirty, and your focus is gone.
You're listening to Optimize with Brian Johnson. More wisdom in less time. Hi, this is Brian. Welcome back to another micro class. This one is only one minute. It will only take one minute. Inspired by Solving the Procrastination Puzzle by Timothy Pischel. This is a fun one. So we're going to create a new rule in getting stuff done. 101. The class we had a two minute rule which basically said that if something takes less than two minutes, do it immediately. Do not put it off, don't put it on a list somewhere, just do it. That's a huge idea. One touching something, right? But now we need to add a new rule which is if something you think will only take one minute comes up into your mind while you're doing something important, you don't do it. Here's the basic idea. So here's our mountain that we want to summit, right? Remember mediocrity. Mediocrity is getting to the middle of a rugged mountain. That's what it means, right? The ancient root of the word is stuck in the middle of a rugged mountain you got right here you didn't quite summit. Now if we want to move past mediocrity to excellence, we've got to notice when we're hanging out here and we say to ourself, oh, I'm just going to go online and check my email or Facebook or Twitter or whatever, right? It's only going to take a minute. Literally, it only takes a minute to open your email and go check it out. But what happens is that minute is a slippery slope. You fall all the way back down to the base of the mountain and you waste hours of time. How many times has that happened to you? You go in to check your email and three hours later you don't even remember what you were doing when you distracted yourself or Facebook or Twitter or whatever. Only one minute. If you say that to yourself, oh, it's only going to take a minute, then what do you do? Get started, you get back to work. Don't distract yourself. You summit your mountain of excellence. Keep that in mind and realize that the Internet when you should come with a warning label. Warning. Really smart people are trying to hook your attention. Tim Sanders in the interview I did with him called it clickbait. The most interesting one line thing with the most seductive picture that can get you hooked in, right? And curious about what's going on can distract the living bliss out of us. We need to know that. And if we get tempted to go spend a minute somewhere, then we Go get started again and again and again. So remember, two minute rule. If something takes less than two minutes, you one touch it, you get it done right. But if you're focused on a big project that's important and you come up with this, oh, it's only going to take a minute. You do not do it. You continue doing what needs to get done. Only one minute. Procrastinators Nightmare. All right, more soon. Hope you enjoyed. Have another awesome day. See you. Hi, this is Brian. I hope you enjoyed that micro class. If so, I think you'll enjoy everything else we offer at BrianJohnson me two basic things. One our free newsletter. It's called the Optimizer. Over 50,000 people start their day with it and they tell us it's pretty awesome. And 2 our optimal living Membership program. This is where I put all my best stuff. 10 bucks a month for a ton of wisdom. Two primary things in there philosopher's notes plus optimal living 101 classes. When you sign up, you'll get instant access to 250 philosopher's notes, which are basically six page PDFs and 20 minute MP3s where I capture my favorite big ideas from great books. The PNTV episodes are kind of a mini version of all that goodness. You'll also get instant access to all my Optimal Living classes. This is where I take all the ideas we cover in the Philosopher's Notes and boil it down to the most practical stuff you can apply today. Classes include Confidence 101, Getting Stuff Done 101, Relationships 101, Habits 101, etc. You'll also get access to what we call micro classes that that I think you'll love. We aim to astonish, and we're blessed to have thousands of members telling us we're helping them change their lives and that this is the best 10 bucks they invest in themselves every month. Go to BrianJohnson ME membership to learn more. Thanks for your support and have an awesome day.
