The Two-Minute Rule: Starting Impossibly Small

Most people fail at building habits because they start too big. They decide to meditate for 30 minutes daily when they've never meditated before. They commit to running 5 miles when they haven't run in years. They plan elaborate morning routines when they currently hit snooze five times.

The gap between current reality and ambitious goal is too wide. So they fail. Then they internalize that failure as evidence they "can't stick to things." The problem wasn't them—it was the starting point.

The Two-Minute Rule

Here's a different approach: make your new habit so small it takes two minutes or less.

Want to meditate? Sit for two minutes.
Want to journal? Write one sentence.
Want to read more? Read one page.
Want to exercise? Do one push-up.

Two minutes is the magic threshold. It's short enough that resistance can't form. Short enough you can always find time. Short enough that skipping feels absurd.

Why It Works

1. It eliminates resistance

Resistance to hard things is natural. Your brain evaluates the effort required and says "not now." But two minutes? There's no effort to resist. No excuse that works.

2. It makes showing up easy

The hardest part of any habit isn't doing it—it's starting it. Once you've sat on the meditation cushion, you'll probably sit for more than two minutes. Once you've written one sentence, you'll often write more. But you have to show up first.

3. It builds the identity

After two weeks of two-minute meditation, you're not "someone trying to meditate." You're someone who meditates. The identity shift happens through repetition, not duration.

The Natural Expansion

Here's what typically happens: You commit to two minutes. For the first week, you do exactly two minutes. You're proving to yourself you can show up.

Week two, some days you naturally extend to three or four minutes. Not because you should—because you want to.

By week three, two minutes feels too short. You extend to five, then seven, then ten. Not through discipline, but through genuine desire born from consistent practice.

This is natural expansion. It happens automatically when you build from a foundation of consistency rather than willpower.

Common Mistakes

Starting too big: "Two minutes seems pointless. I'll do ten." No. Do two. Prove you can show up daily first.

Expanding too fast: After three good days, you jump to 20 minutes. Then you miss a day because 20 feels like too much. Stay small longer than feels necessary.

Skipping because it's "just" two minutes: The two minutes IS the practice. You're training the behavior of showing up, which is far more valuable than the duration.

Implementation

Choose one habit. ONE.
Make it two minutes or less.
Do it every day for two weeks.
Don't expand until it feels automatic.
Then grow naturally, not ambitiously.