Procrastination is said to affect more than eight in ten French women and men and even nine in ten young people aged 18 to 24. But how do you fight against this (almost) unstoppable urge to postpone everything? A method straight from the United States promises to “transform your life”. Her name ? The five second method. explanation.
It’s a feeling we all know, or almost. Faced with work to be done, to be cleaned, obligations to be met, we apply the ostrich’s policy. We look elsewhere and postpone it. The French men and women are especially gifted at this game. 85% of them are procrastinating, according to an Odexa survey for JeChange. To combat this laziness, there is a simple method: the 5-second rule.
Popularized by Mel Robbin in his book The 5 second rule, this technique consists of making a decision and taking action in less than five seconds. According to the author, five seconds is the perfect amount of time to keep the brain from telling us what to do and stopping us from doing something. “If you have the instinct to act towards a goal, you have to move physically within five seconds or your brain will kill it”she explains in her book.
Two charts to make a decision
To make a decision, two main currents direct the brain. The first is instinctive, it does not ask for reflection. It is a “fast, intuitive, emotional system and is also much more efficient”, explains neuroscientist Dr Emma Sarro in Glamor columns. The second diagram calls for reflection. He is “slower, deliberate, logical, sometimes considered our ‘fact checker’, but also takes more cognitive energy†
The five-second rule would reconcile these two ways of making a decision. The goal is to change the mindset when making decisions. For Mel Robin, the promise is great. “It only takes 5 seconds to transform your life!”† So, ready to tackle it? You have five seconds.
(ETX Daily Up)