Unable to focus while working from home? This 10-minute rule might help

Encourages you to complete your task

It is Sue Ellson, who came up with the idea of the 10-minute rule. In an article on LinkedIn in 2016, she writes, “You are more than welcome to stop once the 10 minutes are up, there is no obligation to continue. However, you will have spent at least 10 minutes getting closer to achieving the task — in fact you may even complete it either within the 10 minutes or shortly thereafter.”

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Helps avoid distractions and prioritise

She goes on to suggest that the rule will help you prioritise and determine what is the most important task that needs to be completed first. It will remove distractions and help you focus. “If you only have 10 minutes to complete an activity, you will naturally try and work out the quickest way to get it done,” explains Ellson. And since you want to complete the task early, you would ideally keep your phone away or avoid checking social media during the time.

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Keeps negative thoughts away

Pyschotherapist and author Amy Morin agrees with Ellson in another article she writes in Inc.com in 2017, adding that the 10-minute rule can drown “those exaggeratedly negative thoughts”. “Perhaps you imagine yourself being too tired to work out. Or maybe you make catastrophic predictions about how frustrated you’ll feel when you try to do your taxes. Those thoughts influence your behavior and cause you to keep procrastinating. The 10-minute rule challenges those thoughts head-on,” she emphasises.

Improves time management

Dividing a big job into 10-minute tasks helps you compartmentalise, and improves time management. Else, there is always the tendency of lingering over it for hours.