Episode three of Mood Ring, hosted by Anna Borges, explores the One Minute Rule. Coined by Gretchen Rubin, the concept dictates that if it takes less than one minute to complete a task — think washing a dish — then you should just get it done right away. Anna interviews behavioral psychologist Dr. Ayelet Fishbach, exploring why following this rule can prove so challenging for some, and ways to reconsider your real priorities.

Full Transcript

Anna Borges: Every Friday, I count on the minutes until the workday is over and the weekend begins. And every Friday there is always one thing standing between me and a night of relaxation, a list of chores, as long as a CVS receipt. I always tell myself that I'll do it differently. Next time I tell myself, next week I will wash my dish. As soon as I'm done with it next week, I won't let these mugs accumulate on my nightstand and have to do the walk of shame to the kitchen with them. Like next week, I'll scoop the litter box every day. I will not let these chores pile up and ruin my relaxing Friday night, except I do. I always do. Come Monday, I'll finish dinner and bring my dish to sink. And instead of taking literally a minute to wash it while I'm there, I just set it down and walk away. And then the next day I set another dish on top of it. And then the next thing you know, it's Friday again, and I'm telling myself next week will be different. I just want to understand why is this so freaking hard?

THEME MUSIC

I'm Anna Borges and this is Mood Ring, a practical guide to feelings, even when you're feeling overwhelmed by the smallest of tasks. Every episode we’ll explore one new way to cope with our feelings, with our baggage, with our brains, with our dishes or with the world around us.

In this episode, we're talking about something that I hoped once upon a time would solve my chore problem. The one minute rule, it was coined by Gretchen Rubin, an author who among other things specialized in topics related to productivity and happiness. The one minute rule is straightforward: if a task or a chore will take less than a minute to accomplish just do it, don't think about it. Don't add unnecessary steps, like adding it to a to-do list, just do it then and there done. Boom. It seems simple enough, right? Except it didn't turn out to be that easy for me. I tried to live by the one minute rule, probably a million different times, and it's just never stuck or made much of a difference. So why do an episode on the one minute rule? Well, because this rule is known for its simplicity and its effectiveness, and I want to see if there is a way to make it work for me once and for all. So we decided to hit up a psychologist, specifically a motivation expert. Uh, Ayelet Fishbach PhD who wrote the book, Get It Done, surprising lessons from the science of motivation. And I didn't waste any time asking what I really wanted to know. Why do I struggle with this so much?

Ayelet: Well we all discount the future? And that, uh, sounds like a fancy terror, but what it actually means is that anything that is in the future worse less than if it happened right now, uh, meaning if, uh, you consider doing work in the future, that seems like less work than if you need to do, uh, the work now, uh, if you need to pay a price in the future, that seems like it's less costly than if you paid now and also for good things. Okay. If you think about doing something exciting next month, well, it's not as exciting as doing it today. So as, as people we discount the future, which means that we, we like to postpone.

Anna: Yeah, that is, that is very at least true for me. I think just the instant gratification of it all feels very human at least, but is hard to push against, you know, like, because I think, for example, like when it comes to like goals and stuff, I'm pretty good at breaking things down into smaller tasks and really building toward it. But with, for example, my dish example that is, feels like a lot of effort right now because I'd rather be doing something else, but it feels very low reward. So I'm kind of like, how, how do I change my perception?

Ayelet: What do you do?

Anna: Yeah, no, like literally what do I do? Like, how do I, how do I change it? So I am motivated like motivated to do things in the present instead of just being like, screw you future Anna.

Ayelet: So let, let me introduce another, uh, concept for, uh, research and motivation, which is, uh, a broad decision, uh, frame. Uh, what that means is that you make decision not just for now, but for every similar situation. Uh, in other words, you set a rule. And so it's not about whether I will wash my plate now is whether for the next month, every time I finish my dinner, I'm going to wash my plate. And when you accumulate these decisions together is often easier to see your priorities. It's often easier to see the self control, uh, conflict.

Anna: So is the specificity at play there what's important. Like, for example, if I was going to say, yeah, every time I eat dinner, I'm gonna do my dish right after. Is that more motivating potentially than like the overarching 60 second rule or one minute rule that might be too broad?

Ayelet: Yes, it is. Uh, more specific. It sets a rule about what to do when you have a plate in your hand, when you finish eating. Uh, I, it's a very example, but every time I, I finish eating, I will wash my plate rule, uh, means that you don't really need to think about it. And whether it's under a minute or over one minute, and whether this will even applies or just like, uh, the ideal is to make all these behaviors like washing your teeth. You don't really debate with yourself or least, most people don't have this like internal argument do I wash my teeth or do I not wash my teeth? It's morning. I woke up, I wash my teeth.

Anna: Not if you have depression, first thing to go is my personal hygiene. No one, judge me if you're listening to this, but no, no, I, I definitely, I definitely really love it. Kind of speaks to what I was hoping would happen for me with the one minute rule, which is that these things would become automatic. That if I approached it with intentionality, then eventually it would, I don't know, become like brushing my teeth when I'm in a good mental health place, you know? But what, what's the difference between something that becomes kind of a habit that you don't have to think about and the things that feel like they take so much work?

Ayelet: The one thing to realize is that there is a range. Like it's not either it's a habit or not. Okay. So washing your teeth is kind of the extreme example, but how about exercising three times a week, even when people tell you that they have the habit, it's very easy to quit that habit.

Anna: I am curious then since the goal doesn't always have to be to make it a habit, even though I personally would love to make these boring things, a habit. Is there a way to make doing them when they're not a habit, feel more fulfilling or be present in these moments or affirming to myself or the life that I want to live,

Ayelet: Make it fun.

Anna: I can't make doing my dishes fun. How,

Ayelet: You know, the music, uh, find a way to, uh, uh, just make it, uh, more pleasant, uh, but seriously, like what's what predicts what we do most of the time. It just, it feels good at the moment. It's not so much, it's important for us in the long run. It's like people with clean houses have found a way to enjoy cleaning.

Anna: I'm gonna have to try that tonight. It's as we're recording, it's a Friday and Friday is my deal with all the crap that's accumulated night, truly. It's like all the dishes that I'm talking about not having done, but tieing to like, no, I know this is a podcast about mental health. Like I have my own mental health struggles and I'm sure a lot of people listening do too. And I'm curious whether or not in your experience, something like the 60 second rule can help with motivation or decision making, you know, when things are like things mentally are stacked against you is almost how I put that, but I'm not sure that's how I want to put it, but you, you know, when you're depressed as hell!

Ayelet: When it gets to vision. I, I, I think that really is that the most important thing in your life to have clean plates and, and to finish this, to do list, is, is this the reason to, to do things? Uh, uh, because it sounds to me like a, you know, sometimes we just, we want to deal with all these errands. Uh, so our desk is clear and, and we feel that our mind is clear and we can do something else, but really the, the doing something else is the goal. Right? So like,

Anna: Well, actually, I, I am really curious about how this ties into your work about like creating an environment that's sets you up for, I don't know the life that you want to live, but you know, how your environment might, might impact things. And so for me, like dishes is a really great example of that. Like, I may not care about my dishes that much, but I'm like, oh, I also know that like my environment being clean does set me up, I think for like, decisions that I wanna make and stuff like that.

Ayelet: Yes. And so the way to change behavior is by changing the situation in which the behavior occurs. Okay. And like, that sounds fancy. It's not such a fancy principle. Okay. Like if, you know, if, if you want to wake up in the morning, you set an alarm clock, uh, because if you are in a quiet dark room, then it's easy to stay in bed. Uh, uh, we all do it intuitively. Other changes to the situation are less intuitive, uh, changes that involve, uh, removing certain objects from your environment, because they're unhealthy