#Microblog Monday 537: Judging Time

Not sure what #MicroblogMondays is? Read the inaugural post which explains the idea and how you can participate too.

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You know how those productivity lists all talk about the five-minute rule? If the task takes five minutes, do it instead of writing it on your to-do list. The idea is that we take more time to agonize over the task than to do it, so if it’s quick and easy, take care of it and move on.

It’s great advice, but most of the time, I have no clue if a task will take me five minutes. I mean, returning an email? Yes, I can generally predict that if it requires a yes/no answer, I can respond immediately and archive the email. Inbox zero!

But there are phone calls I need to make that I would predict should take five minutes, which turn into 20 minutes, and three follow-up calls. Or backing up my phone, which I thought would take five minutes but ends up requiring a software update and a photo download and and and…

You get the point. It’s hard to judge time. Don’t feel bad if you leave the task on your to-do list.

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Are you also doing #MicroblogMondays? Add your link below. The list will be open until Tuesday morning. Link to the post itself, not your blog URL. (Don’t know what that means? Please read the three rules on this post to understand the difference between a permalink to a post and a blog’s main URL.) Only personal blogs can be added to the list. I will remove any posts connected to businesses or sponsored posts.