Your Most Important 2.5 Seconds: The fastest way to take control of your day

Dear Essentialists,?

What if I told you that 2.5 seconds could change the direction of your entire day?

Recently neuroscientists and psychologists have discovered that the "now" we constantly experience lasts, on average, between 2-3 seconds.?(1)

A few seconds may seem trivial. But, as it turns out, it is anything but.?

Progress can happen in tiny increments.?

2.5 seconds is enough time to shift your focus, put your phone down, close the browser, or take a deep breath.?

It's enough time to open a book, take out a blank sheet of paper, jot down an idea, or make a phone call.?

Action can begin in just 2.5 seconds. Then you can build on that momentum to take the next step during the next 2.5 seconds. And so on and so on.?

Think about all you could accomplish with just a few minutes of focus.?

Of course, 2.5 seconds is enough time to become distracted by nonessential activities too.?

Big tech companies are acutely aware of this.?

We are constantly bombarded with micro-tweets, likes on Facebook, and TikTok videos we can scroll through endlessly.?

These bite-sized activities are engineered to make us feel like we aren't wasting time.

But soon, these seconds pile up - resulting in the wrong kind of effortless activity - one that is easy but returns very little value.

Looking at taking action through the lens of 2.5 seconds changes the way we view and value our time. This mind shift can change how we act and, ultimately, what we accomplish.??

A 1-Minute Strategy to?Maximize Now

The key to harnessing the power of "now" is to make it easier to get started on what's important and harder to do something trivial.????

1. Make a list of "go-to" micro-actions you can turn to when you notice yourself being unproductive. (e.g., put my phone down, get out my planner, stand up and walk outside, etc.)
2. Keep this list somewhere you will see it often.?
3. Use it when you begin to feel unproductive or distracted.?

"Great things are done by a series of small things brought together."??

-?Vincent Van Gogh

In gratitude,?

Greg

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(1)?https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg22530030-500-the-time-illusion-how-your-brain-creates-now/#:~:text=In%20recent%20years%2C%20they%20have,the%20beginning%20of%20the%20weirdness.