Parkinson’s Law: Why Your Work Takes Longer Than It Should

“Temporal scarcity – the perception that your time is strictly limited – is a powerful psychological tool that can radically improve your life.” - Neal A. Maxwell

You open your laptop to write a one sentence email, a quick project update, you know you can complete it in seconds. You’ve got an hour before your next meeting, so why stress?

However, the work silently expands as you debate, writing the salutation and sign-off, and rewrite the middle section three times, confirm a figure from a spreadsheet, tweak a bulleted list, and then spend 10 minutes deciding if you should use an exclamation mark in your sign-off.

As you close your laptop, a whole hour has disappeared within a one sentence email. The aggravation seems out of proportion, but then it dawns on you: the email was never complicated; you just gave yourself one hour to complete it, and it grew. It’s Parkinson’s Law in action.

If that story sounds painfully familiar, you aren’t alone, and it makes this month’s blog theme, a mid-year reset, the perfect opportunity to audit our habits before diving into the second half of the year. The perfect time to assess how we’ve done since January and to review the upcoming six months. To accomplish goals, there has to be a certain amount of planning and vision. It is helpful to take a moment to consider and look forward to the second half of the year and what you would like to have achieved.

The psychology of Parkinson’s Law: why work expands

“Deadlines are effective precisely because they create scarcity and focus the mind.” - Sendhil Mullainathan & Eldar Shafir

Parkinson’s Law works because when we give ourselves too much time, work expands to fill it. A couple of cognitive biases cause this behavior: a lack of constraints leads to perfectionism and procrastination, disguised as diligent preparation.

More time doesn’t mean less pressure; it actually causes more stress. This is the emotional reality. Parkinson’s Law is not about being lazy. It’s more about being human; it is our nature. We tend to leave tasks undone until they are due. But the extra time increases the complexity of the task.

We have more time to worry about the task because of the extra time. Extra time causes the mind to relax in its less efficient form, and instead of enabling us to be productive, it makes the task overly complicated and causes unnecessary worry.

We don’t think of constraints as being a good thing, but they may actually help us improve our time and life management skills.

Parkinson’s Law is a principle of human psychology that explains why a 20-minute task becomes a 2-hour task. Time management is a collection of techniques and systems. Time management is a toolbox of methods for us to manage our habits and tasks; it includes prioritizing, planning, estimating, focusing, and protecting our attention.

There is a great deal of overlap, but one is not the same thing as the other. Yet this overlapping can play a critical role, and they are actually completing what we set out to do. Parkinson’s Law explains why time is wasted, and time management provides tools to prevent that waste.

The deeper truth is that most people think they have a time problem; what they actually have is a container problem. Too much time and we drift; too little time and we panic. Just enough time creates focus, momentum, and relief. Productivity is psychology and not scheduling.

Further exploration

How time constraints improve productivity

“Time is what we want most but what we use worst.” - William Penn

The science of constraints is shifting from pressure to focus. While we often perceive time pressure as a major source of stress, cognitive science has shown that it can be a valuable instrument for achieving top performance. If managed correctly, short time frames will break down large, daunting projects into concrete steps.

Unlimited time leads to over-analyzing. When we hyper-focus by setting shorter timeframes, it helps our minds to compartmentalize a problem into manageable bits. The brain knows it only needs to push hard for a short period.

The pressure to get there in less time becomes a cognitive filter that provides enforced clarity and priority. When time is on your side, the brain tends to see all of its constituent details as being equally important. When you realize you don’t have time to do everything, you are compelled to identify exactly what matters most and let go of trivial or non-essential activities.

The unrestricted schedule leads to overthinking and subsequent fatigue in your decision-making and complexity. Tight deadlines streamline your decision-making. It automates your compromises and removes the side issues from your trade-offs, eliminating secondary tasks and helping you avoid perfectionism, which might be holding you back.

We are looking for the “Just Enough Time” sweet spot. Good boundaries excite the brain. Approaching deadlines causes the body to release dopamine and cortisol, which increases our attention levels and heightens our senses. The shift in neurochemicals converts panic into positive pressure, which primes our neurology to begin and complete the task.

Further exploration

The time container method

The core of this strategy is the Time Container Method. This is your own system that will change how you interact with your to-do list altogether.

The majority of productivity systems don’t work because they view time like an empty space where you’re supposed to work until it’s complete. The time container treats time as the ultimate constraint-a strong structure to work within.

"What we must do is determine the essential tasks and give them our focus... Saying 'yes' to the essential tasks, requires saying 'no' to almost all others." - Luke Seavers

The reason why working within time constraints is such an incredible force is that the overwhelming psychological baggage of enormous tasks vanishes, replaced by immediate motion.

The Actionable 5-Step Framework

Implementing this framework is straightforward and highly mechanical, taking less than a minute to set up.

Step 1: Choose the task
Select one single thing from your to-do list. Don’t try to do two. Treat that one project or goal as your only destination.

Step 2: Decide on the container
Determine rigid, unflinching time chunks by purpose. Use 10-minute chunks for small administrative jobs or trivial avoidance activities; 25-minute chunks for ordinary, everyday things; and 60-minute chunks for truly challenging, meaningful, creative, or analytical tasks.

Step 3: Protect the container
This is the most important rule in this framework. Turn off any browser tabs you don’t need, silence your phone notifications, and lock yourself into a zone. There is no opening up the timeline once the timer starts. DO NOT fool yourself by saying just five more minutes.

Step 4: Stop when the container ends
As soon as your alarm or buzzer goes off, cease work. Leave your desk, close the notebook, or put the pen down. Observing the hard stop teaches your mind to consider the container a physical, immutable boundary.

Step 5: Celebrate completion, not perfection
As time is up, congratulate yourself on what you have achieved. All you have to do is simply pour the container with true and attentive effort. A perfect score doesn’t matter in any case; celebrating the very action of performance boosts your productive confidence.

Why it works: the deeper nuance

This framework does more than just structure your afternoon. It can actually change the nature of your psychological relationship with a heavy workload.

Emotional friction is decreased. Major projects often lead to extreme procrastination, as the sheer scale of the undertaking can be overwhelming. Time container removes the feeling entirely. Instead of the huge pressure of completing the huge proposal, you just commit to sitting down and filling the small, non-threatening 25-minute container.

You start more quickly and end more quickly. Because your time commitment is explicitly limited, jumping into something feels far less awful. And because you know the clock is always winding down towards an absolute hard stop, you inherently avoid the low-yield activities.

It causes forward momentum, not a barrage. As you stitch time containers together throughout the day, your day begins to take on its own rhythm. Instead of being swamped with a boundless to-do list, you develop an incredibly effective sequence of high-energy sprints.

Now that you understand the framework, what is the very first task you want to tackle today?

Further exploration

Final Thoughts

A mid-year reset is less about rearranging your schedule and editing your to-do list, and more about regaining your relationship with time. Parkinson’s Law states that it’s not usually the task itself that is the problem, but the container we allow it to spill into.

Open spaces of time create mental expanses for overthinking and bloat, and simple tasks become enormous; but when we establish clear containers, clarity, motion, and freedom come through.

The time container method is a process that allows you to work with your brain rather than against it, creating bite-sized time containers that take the pressure of obligation and turn it into focus, taking the dread of overwhelming lists and turning it into ease.

When you move into the second half of your year, the challenge is less about what you need to get done and more about the containers you’ll create in order to get it done. Your future productivity does not reside in spending more time; it lies in your just-enough-time container, where your attention can take a breath, and your work can fly.

“Time is the scarcest resource and unless it is managed nothing else can be managed.” - Peter Drucker

Recommended reading

PARKINSON’S LAW MASTERY FOR TIME: Time Compression System to Get 10X More Done by Controlling Time Instead of Managing it (The Time & Productivity Mastery Series), by Slavica Bogdanov

The Elasticity of Time: Understanding and Using Parkinson´s Law: Deliver more impact in less time, by Jaime Zambrana

Beating Parkinson’s Law: Escape the Law of Productivity and Become a Prolific Producer, by Abe Wood

The Time Boxing Manual: Maximizing Productivity and Time Management, by Joseph Fansler

Citations

Image generated by Copilot – Temporal Scaracity

Photo by wesfly on Unsplash

Image generated by Copilot – Time is what we want most

Photo by Kevin Ku on Unsplash

The Pareto Principle: Finding the 20% That Changes Everything

“Want success? Stop doing everything. Start doing what actually counts.” - Brian Tracy

It’s hard to spot the precise moment the business of low-impact activity took over your day. You’re sitting down with a plan, a coffee, ready to tackle something of value, and an hour has somehow slipped away on emails, straightening, checking schedules, and managing other busywork. You are busy, yes, but there is no relief in it, no progress, and no happiness. You are simply passively drifting towards the easiest, least demanding tasks that will consume your energy.

We all have mornings like this, when we spend the entire morning doing everything BUT the ONE thing we need to do. We may find ourselves exhausted by noon, not exhausted from working, but exhausted from NOT working on the one thing that would have gotten things done.

“Things that matter most must never be at the mercy of things that matter least.”

– Richard Koch

What the 80/20 rule really means

The Pareto Principle, also called the 80/20 rule, describes the theory that approximately 80 percent of effects originate from roughly 20 percent of causes. It is most relevant to psychology as a behavioral tool for productivity, prioritization, and well-being, guiding people in identifying the vital few efforts that contribute most to the desired outcomes.

“Strive for excellence in few things, rather than good performance in many.” - Richard Koch

Our brain has limited executive resources. To avoid burnout and decision fatigue, it’s about pinpointing the 20% of tasks or habits that deliver 80% of the enjoyment or benefit, whether it be in life or at work.

The psychology of how we mess this up. The mind has evolved to actively fight the 80/20 rule. By nature, we fall back into spreading ourselves too thin, over too many tasks. This occurs because of a combination of subtle psychological traps.

One trap we fall into is the comfort trap. Our brains want that quick burst of happiness, and so they push us toward activities that feel easier and less stressful. So, we answer emails and clean off the desk. This is all because dopamine is produced after a quick fix of doing a low-impact task, which makes our brains think the task was productive and useful.

Another trap is the fear that we will miss out on opportunities if we focus only on 20% of the tasks. Are we neglecting the other 80%? It feels risky to us to let these tasks slide, even when they do not tie into what is most meaningful in our lives. What if? What if there is something important in these tasks? We cannot do everything, and therefore, need to learn to focus our attention on what is most important.

We have one more psychological trap: identity confusion. Doing everything because we haven’t clarified who we are becoming. How do you define the 20% of effort if you do not have a clear sense of your identity? Who do you want to be?

To make the 80/20 rule work for you, it is time to shift your focus from effort to impact. You can start by writing down your daily or weekly to-do list. Then look at the list and figure out the exact 20% of actions that actually generate 80% of the results related to your priorities. 

Using this formula, you can start by cutting or delaying the tasks that are really just noise; 80% of these tasks only consume your time but provide little reward.

The truth is that most of what we do is noise, and only a small fraction has a real impact on our lives.

“There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at all.” - Peter Drucker

Pareto Principle (The 80-20 Rule): Examples & More, by Olivia Guy-Evans

How to identify your personal 20%

This exploration is to identify your high‑leverage actions, or tasks that consistently move you forward. As well as pinpointing your busywork traps, the tasks that feel productive but don’t matter.

Let’s try a grounding question.

If I could only do three things this week, which ones would actually matter?

Here is a guided exercise designed to help you strip away the noise and pinpoint your personal 20% leverage points. The theme of this blog for June is a reset month, a mid-year pause and reset, reframe, reestablish your goals.

Think about the last six months. Take a notebook or an open document and write your answers to the following three questions:

  • Which specific decisions or activities generated your most significant results, personal or professional?
  • Which decisions or changes gave you the most relief?
  • Which actions felt the most deeply rewarding and meaningful?

Then, let’s create a map of your actions. So, the next thing we are going to do is to draw a map of your activities. It should help you see which of them are important and which ones are of minor importance. Take a piece of paper, make a line right in the middle, and list the recurring daily activities in these two columns. You can use this list as a point of reflection.

If this week were limited to just three activities, what would truly matter?

Put a circle around these three things. Anything else on your list has to wait until these three high-leverage tasks have been done.

Applying the 80/20 rule to different areas

“Believe it or not, it is not only possible to accomplish more by doing less, it is mandatory.” - Tim Ferriss

The 80/20 rule is about intentional focus. Let’s look at a few domains in your life. Try to break down each area into two columns.

Work & Career

There are only 2-3 important tasks that drive your career forward. The top 20% might include developing deep expertise in one core skill, networking key professional relationships, or focusing on high-revenue work. The 80% noise is low-priority meetings, agonizing over the template for a presentation, or compulsively checking your email. You can block off your high-energy time each day, hands off, for just this top work and schedule all of your administrative tasks for one afternoon time block.

Well-being & Health

There’s no extreme health program required for an energetic and vibrant body. The 20% influence could simply be making sure you are getting between 7 and 8 hours of sleep, staying properly hydrated, or taking a daily 20-minute walk. The 80% distraction would be spending tons of money on products and stressing over how to get in a workout. Make sure you get enough sleep, eat regular healthy meals, and get enough movement during your day. Basics before you consider all sorts of expensive diets and sleeping pills.

Learning & Growth

Real growth in thinking comes from integration, not the mere ingestion of vast amounts of data. 20% of this growth comes from thoroughly learning one or two important books, learning a skill by actually doing it, or writing something down to make it clear. 80% noise, for instance, might appear in your case as skimming endlessly through online articles and news feeds, or opening numerous online courses you never finish. This month, just commit to one book or one skill. Slowly absorb it, take notes, and integrate it into your life when completed.

You can use this formula in your relationships or in managing your household. Just create your list.

Reclaim Your Time With the Pareto Principle, by Carlos Alos-Ferrer, Ph.D.

Change your life with the 80-20 rule, by Tony Robbins

Conclusion

“You can do anything but not everything.” - David Allen

Every morning, I maintain a tracking log. It helps me to plan my day and utilize my time for important tasks. But most importantly, at the top of the page are the following questions. I give them a few moments every day to help me keep focus on what truly matters, on where I should be using my time and energy in meaningful ways.

  • What matters most today?
  • What is the one thing I can do today that would make everything else easier or more meaningful in my life?
  • What is the one habit that, if consistently implemented, will provide a significant increase in my energy and well-being?

This concept is not about perfection. It’s about developing intentional focus to receive the highest return on your energy.

I will put my best energy into the few things that have the biggest impact.

Recommended reading

The 80/20 Principle: The Secret to Achieving More with Less, by Richard Koch

The Pareto Principle and Minimalism: Focus, Efficiency, and Intentional Living, by Michael Wells

Pareto Principle: Unleash the True Power of the Pareto Principle (The Secret Strategy to Optimizing Every Area of Your Life), by Joanne Carver

Citations

Photo by Jon Tyson on Unsplash

Image generated by Copilot – Pie Chart 80/20

Photo by Alain ROUILLER on Unsplash

Image generated by Copilot – Messy/Neat Desk

The Mid‑Year Reset: Refocusing on What Matters

“Once you have mastered time, you will understand how true it is that most people overestimate what they can accomplish in a year – and underestimate what they can achieve in a decade!” - Tony Robbins

Stop doing more — start doing what matters most

Most people arrive in June feeling stretched, not because they failed, but because life filled the space where their intentions once lived. Our year began with such a strong start, but the daily hustle of the world has a tendency to either drown out our goals or lead us off the intended path.

The underlying principle for this month is a reset. I’m a big fan of new beginnings, and the middle of the year feels like the perfect time for change. Resetting isn’t about accomplishing more. It is about getting back on track.

Why mid‑year is the perfect reset point

Just as a new year helps us set goals. Mid-year resets become another checkpoint, a time to review your intentions against the actual data from the last five months to recalibrate your direction for the next six months.

Your midpoint becomes a meaningful junction, a place to look back with honesty and forward with intention. Sitting halfway between where you have been and where you are going to be for this year. A reset, or a redo. Doesn’t everyone love a fresh start?

Behavioral scientists noted that the psychology of the halfway or mid-year point is an excellent time milestone in that it separates the work you have already completed from what’s ahead.

Those who excel look at June like halftime or between periods at a sports game, not a final point of failure, but an available pathway for optimal strategy adjustments. Unlike January, with sheer, tenuous willpower, June leverages established momentum and familiar day-to-day constraints to design better systems.

Six months of living provide an actual diagnostic map of where your friction points lie and where the cognitive biases manifest. Seeing patterns will provide you with the data you need to achieve your intent for the remainder of the year. This is about deliberate choices to maintain alignment with your initial goals and with what’s important.

In January, we set our resolutions for the year. This checkpoint is a time to examine whether the goals you set are still valid. Have you reached any of those goals? January goals are more like a remake of the self, with the midpoint being a tweak to your goals.

What habits failed you, why, and through which triggers and barriers did your habit lose focus? Break down overwhelming tasks into realistic, granular daily habits by de-escalating the pressure of perfectionism or unattainable standards. Rather than relying on the unpredictability of motivation, develop triggers for your habits by connecting them to long-established, permanent routines.

“Productivity is less about what you do with your time. And more about how you run your mind.” - Robin Sharma

Redefining Productivity

We often measure our value by the length of our to-do lists. Our culture tends to determine value by constant, raw production.

But filling every hour with tasks creates a false sense of security. Remember chronic busyness doesn’t amount to effectiveness. It might just be a fast track to exhaustion and burnout.

True productivity requires a more internal standard of measurement. It is not about doing more. It is about being intentional. It also concerns grasping your priorities for both short-term and long-term goals. 

“Things that matter most must never be at the mercy of things that matter least.” - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

I have included these links to my “What Truly Matters” series. It is worth exploring what truly matters to you as you review your past and determine the path forward.

What Truly Matters? Finding Meaning in a Chaotic World

Money Talks: Uncovering What Truly Matters

What Truly Matters? A Personal Growth Mindset

What Truly Matters? Finding Meaning and Purpose

What Truly Matters? People Matter Most!

Health First: Prioritizing What Truly Matters

What Truly Matters? Wisdom

Productivity is when your time matches your priorities. Once you think of your time in this way, your priorities change automatically. Completing fifteen miscellaneous tasks isn’t as important as completing a single significant project.

Success isn’t determined by size or mass; it is determined by intent.

The activity of motion can sometimes be mistaken for real movement. Motion is chaotic, reactive, and dependent on demands from outside of yourself. Motion is just like running on a treadmill. You are burning up tons of energy but not really going anywhere.

Progress is intentional; progress is purposeful; progress is guided by a vision. Progress is walking. Every step brings you closer to the place you want to be.

Running in circles generates endless friction while the status quo remains in place. A single intentional step forward transforms your position. Movement-driven systems drain; progress-driven systems energize.

To defend your time, you must ruthlessly prune every obligation. Before accepting any additional requests, pause and reflect. Consider this one fundamental question:

Does this move me toward the life I’m trying to build?

If not, it’s a distraction. If yes, it’s your priority, and you have full focus on it.

Society trains you to equate output with productivity. This way of thinking equates your value with the completion of tasks and causes you to burn out.

Productivity is the match between your time and your values, not between your output and your tasks.

How to evaluate where your time is going

Your time is one of your most valuable resources.

Reset, Refocus, Readjust, Restart, as many times as you need to.

This is a concept we know, but do we really implement it? Instead of time management, which implies doing things faster, time alignment deals with living life with intention-it bridges the gap between who we wish to be and what we do on a day-to-day basis.

At its core, time-alignment deals with dedicating your hours not to what is merely urgent, nor what others expect of you, but to what matters to your life-your health, family, and career.

You need to manage time, and you need to manage your energy, so do the tasks that are your most demanding and of the highest priority in your prime-time, during your mentally busiest and highest-functioning periods, rather than against your natural cycles.

You also want to achieve a balance between your present and your future. Allocate time to what you need to do immediately, while continually carving out time for your investments, learning, fitness, and long-term priorities.

If you find you are constantly procrastinating, it’s likely because you are out of alignment.

Find the points where energy is leaking. There will be tasks that offer no value and will suck up significant amounts of your mental and emotional energy. Recognize what is causing these drains, actions that leave you feeling flat, agitated, or resentful.

Determine the tasks that cause your mental energy to leak, which offer nothing back to you and contribute nothing toward your stated objectives. Think of this as busy work. Determine whether it’s possible to remove, reduce, delegate, or alter this leak.

Write down your three fundamental values. Is it family, creativity, or health? Whatever they may be, are you channeling your energy into the areas of your life that matter most? Taking stock of your time doesn’t have to involve spreadsheets and tracking methods-it involves you looking at your life and becoming conscious of what you are doing with your time. Time is precious.

Right now, you are probably squandering significant amounts of time on frivolous current affairs. Find the places where you get caught in the thoughtless mode, for example: scrawling on social media, negativity in online forums, or non-critical and task switching; these seem like necessary evils, but they sap your focus away from the things that actually matter and will take a toll on you and your future. Attempt to identify and remove unproductive moments from your daily routine.

Notice that these energy leaks are actually robbing you of the time and energy you need to devote to whatever you care about, and frame them as a loss of time.

How to Analyze Time Usage for Better Productivity, by Compass ai (Upskillist)

Time Management Test: How well do you use your time? Psychology Today

Conclusion – the mid‑year clarity check

“The key is not to prioritize what’s on your schedule, but to schedule your priorities.” - Stephen R. Cobey

The heart of this post is a reflective moment. June isn’t a verdict; it is a vantage point. We are officially halfway through the year. Before you rush headfirst into the next six months, take a breath. This is your moment to pause, reflect, and realign with what truly matters. This blog is based on monthly themes, so follow me for more on the mid-year clarity check.

True personal efficiency is not about doing more things. It is about doing the right things. Identifying your top priorities and ensuring they are scheduled.

Ask yourself:

  • What actually mattered to me these past six months?
  • What drained me more than it should have?
  • Where did I feel most like myself?
  • What am I pretending is important because other people value it?
  • What deserves more of me in the next six months?

We need these checkpoints to assess where we are in our lives. Are we on track to achieve our goals? Or have we lost our way and need to find the path again?

You don’t need a complete life overhaul to change your trajectory. Small pivots yield powerful results over time. Commit to this single, manageable change. Small steps forward will compound, guiding you toward a more intentional and aligned second half of the year.

A mid-year clarity check is a strategic pause to reflect, assess your progress, and realign your goals. It gives you a clean baseline to maximize the second half of the year.

For the next six months, I will give my best energy to what matters most, not what matters loudest.

How To Do A Mid-Year Goals Check-In, by Ana Mcrae

Recommended reading

Momentum: The Art of Getting Things Done with Purpose: Redefining productivity through focus, clarity, and alignment, by Alex Tan

Life Management not Time Management: Redefining Success through Priorities, Not Schedules, by William Robinson

Mid-Year Reset: 30 Days to Reinvent Your Life, by Book Of Genres

Reset: Powerful Habits to Own Your Thoughts, Understand Your Feelings, and Change Your Life, by Debra K. Fileta

The Productivity Project: Accomplishing More by Managing Your Time, Attention, and Energy, by Chris Bailey

Why Small Starts Create Big Change, by Linda L. Pilcher

Citations

Image generated by Copilot – You have mastered time

Photo by TSD Studio on Unsplash

Photo by Liv Bruce on Unsplash

Photo by Planet Volumes on Unsplash

Designing a Life That Moves Forward on Its Own

“No behavior happens in isolation. Each action becomes a cue that triggers the next behavior.” - James Clear

Momentum has been on my mind this month, not the booming, inspirational kind, but the silent, physics kind. The kind that describes how one simple action, once started, just sort of seems to propel itself forward. How one day just feels different when something is already in motion. I’ve been noticing how much we just wait for motivation, as if it were the weather, and yet it doesn’t always deliver.

Motivation comes and goes like sleep. It comes and goes with stress. It comes and goes with your mood. Your hormones, your mood, the weather, the news. It is a feeling.

Momentum, however, is different. Momentum is physical. If it’s moving, then it wants to keep moving. An object in motion continues in motion. An action already in progress is easier to continue.

Our focus today is on developing a system where momentum’s motor replaces motivation’s engine. We will look at some strategies for designing your environment, as your environment is always shaping you.

Systems create structure, routines create consistency, rituals create meaning, and momentum is the emergent property that results.

Why systems beat willpower

Goals show you where you are going, but systems get the job done. A good system has a much higher payoff than an act of willpower. Linked with systems thinking, a consistent system is a more robust tool than brute willpower because it perfects the underlying mechanism rather than relying on your fluctuating emotions.

Willpower is Inconsistent.

A system doesn’t care how I feel.
A system doesn’t ask me to decide.
A system removes friction, so the action becomes the default.

“Progress beats perfection, and every action you take is bringing you closer to your goals.” - Amy Porterfield

Self-control is a limited mental resource, subject to external factors such as your environment, mood, and energy level. A momentary spike in stress or exhaustion will deplete your ability to self-regulate.

Developing systems helps you focus on consistent, small processes that require zero emotional drive, making success sustainable even on your worst days. 

The idea is to design your environment to remove obstacles. Pre-planning, automating tasks, and restructuring your surroundings removes the mental effort of choosing, conserving your energy for the actual work. 

We are wired to take the easiest route; if doing nothing is easier, that is what we usually do. You will often default to procrastination. To replace fleeting motivation with lasting habits, behavior experts recommend using small, repeatable cues to create an autopilot effect.

In my life, I call these systems routines and rituals. Where systems provide structural logic, routines and rituals inject identity and meaning, transforming what you have to do into who you are.

Routine acts as the physical engine of your systems, overriding decision fatigue by standardizing how and when. Habit stacking is an excellent example of routines. A new habit is tethered to an established habit. In this case, one action automatically cues the next behavior, requiring zero willpower. It becomes automatic.

The good news is that a predictable sequence builds physical momentum. Once the sequence starts, stopping it actually introduces more friction than finishing it.

Routines manage your time; rituals manage your energy and identity. Creating a bridge between logical systems and human emotion. A routine is what you do; a ritual is how you feel about it.

Designing a system is about automating habits. The brewing of my morning cup of tea triggers a short exercise warmup for the day while I wait. The two actions are stacked habits. They are forever connected in my mind. Do one and the other follows. I don’t have to think about it; it is the ritual.

Willpower is a Myth: Why Systems Beat Self-Control Every Time, by Jon Rumens

Willpower will fail you. Systems are the real secret to winning at work and life, by Thomas Oppong (Fash Company)

Elements of a small‑starts system

“The signature of mediocrity is not an unwillingness to change. The signature of mediocrity is inconsistency.” - James C. Collins

Your environment design will have significantly more force than your willpower. Since self-control depletes, structuring your surroundings, routines, and social circle to support you means you won’t always have to fight your willpower or conquer challenges.

Designing your environment is a key strategy for sustainable change. Your surroundings cue your behavior. So, make good habits visible and make your bad habits more difficult to fall back on; make them so that they require significant effort. 

Leave your gym shoes by the door. Or instead of having cookies on the counter, keep healthy snacks visible. When the environment is aligned with your goals, you stop burning willpower just to get started.

Temptation bundling is a psychological tactic that links an enjoyable, quick gratification activity (a want) to an unpleasant or good-for-you habit that you’re inclined to procrastinate about (a should).

Create some rules for yourself. When I do the activity, I love, pair it with one that needs to be completed, but that you often put off. James Clear of Atomic Habits suggests making a two-column list where the first column is the tasks I want to be doing, like watching a particular show, or listening to a podcast, and the second column would be the tasks and behaviors I should be doing and typically avoid.

For example, only listen to your favorite podcast while doing cardio or folding laundry. This tactic works because it links immediate gratification to long-term benefit, creating a built‑in reward loop.

How to Stop Procrastinating and Boost Your Willpower by Using “Temptation Bundling”, by James Clear

Leveraging social accountability, which relies on public commitments, community support, and peer pressure to improve the success of goals. By making the commitment visible in public, you can turn private intentions into public ones. Accountability partners, group check‑ins, or even posting progress can reinforce consistency.

How To Maximize Personal Growth with an Accountability Partner, by Habit1Ox

Practice self-compassion to maintain momentum. We are our own worst critics, and often get lost in self-judgment, which is especially demotivating and energy-sapping. If you miss once, that’s an anomaly. If you miss twice, it’s the start of a new, unwanted habit. Self‑forgiveness keeps the system intact by preventing guilt from becoming a new friction point.

Willpower is a limited, inconsistent resource. In systems thinking, a vulnerable stock is a resource that depletes gradually and is not replenished immediately. Willpower behaves like this. Every decision you make drains your mental energy, from choosing what to wear to resisting a distraction. If your strategy for success relies entirely on this depletable stock, your strategy is fragile. When stress hits or fatigue sets in, the stock hits zero, and the strategy fails.

Systems reduce friction and decision fatigue. Systems thinking focuses heavily on flows and throttling points. In human behavior, these are friction and choice. Making a choice requires mental processing. A system removes the choice entirely by establishing a fixed rule (I open my textbook immediately after closing my laptop work tabs).

By organizing your environment ahead of time, you remove the physical and mental obstacles that slow down positive actions. You stop burning willpower just to get started.

A core part of systems thinking is that the systems structure is the cause of its behavior. The output will change when the structure changes on its own. A system that works sets up the environment so that doing the right thing is the easiest thing to do.

If my phone is within reach, I will reach for it.
If the cookies are on the counter, I will eat them.
If my workspace is cluttered, my mind will be too.

By placing your phone in a different room, you establish a workspace that focuses before you actually sit down and get to work. To engage in distraction, you have to disrupt the system and overcome inertia, a more difficult endeavor than remaining on task.

How to build a system that works for you

“You cannot consistently perform in a manner which is inconsistent with the way you see yourself.” - Zig Ziglar

Designing a system that works for you is a science of human engineering. It’s not about changing yourself to succeed, but rather about manipulating the variables of your environment so that success is unavoidable.

Here’s how you put the five system design fundamentals into practice:

First, you must clearly identify the habit you want to make sustainable. When your goals are unclear, such as getting in shape or being more productive, there is no clear path to reach that goal. What you want is to move beyond a hazy desired end result and focus instead on a concrete, repeatable action. Articulate your goal in terms of a specific action statement.

The template for a sustainable habit action statement is: [Immediate Cue] + [Tiny Action Verb] + [Specific Context] + [Friction Scale].

To transform and become more productive, by stopping time-wasting (a vague behavioral statement), you could construct the action statement. After I finish my lunch, I will select a high-priority task to work on.

Use a daily habit to anchor the new action. The cue should be automatic: closing a laptop, brushing teeth in the morning, so the cue is involuntary.

Start with the smallest possible execution of the behavior. Building consistency with a two-page reading habit, or ten minutes of tidying your desk, rather than a daunting 25-page reading, builds consistency. Small behaviors are those that you can perform even on the worst or most fatigued of days.

Design an automatic cue that cues the subconscious habit loop. Memory fails us when we are busy, and it cannot provide a cue. Make it concrete by anchoring the new behavior to an existing routine of the day.

Reset your perception of this cue by telling yourself: after I [current habit], I will [tiny new habit]. For example, after I sit down with my morning coffee and turn on my computer (current habit), I will write one sentence for my journal, or one line for a poem, or a lyric (tiny new habit).

Remove cognitive and physical friction. In systems thinking, friction is a throttling point, anything that slows the flow of action. Reduce friction by preparing your environment in advance. Assemble all necessary tools ahead of time so there is no setup delay when the cue fires.

Examples:

  • Leave your textbook open to the correct page the night before.
  • Pre‑fill your water bottle and set out your workout clothes.
  • Keep your workspace uncluttered to reduce cognitive load.

When the right action is the easiest, momentum becomes automatic.

Conclusion

Momentum is not a feeling; it is a force. Once you design a system that moves, it will keep moving, and so will you.

Every time you force yourself to decide whether to exercise, eat well, or work, you spend mental energy. The constant strain of deciding what to do next after getting out of bed starts to deplete your energy. A system, a consistent set of steps followed each morning, removes decisions, removes willpower.

“Just do it? First, you make your habits; then your habits make you.” - John Dryden

Consistency is key. Get the ball rolling and carry momentum into the summer with confidence and clarity. Design your own ritual systems.

The 5 Triggers That Make New Habits Stick, by James Clear

5 Ways to Use Psychology to Develop New Habits, by Ari Howard

Decide to show up. Commit to the micro-start. Tell yourself the ritual is a success the moment the candle is lit, or the shoes are tied; track consistency over perfection.

Recommended reading

Morning Rituals: The Simple Routines That Make You Feel Your Very Best All Day, Every Day in Just 5 Minutes, by Katie Stone

Habit Stacking: 127 Small Changes to Improve Your Health, Wealth, and Happiness, by S. J. Scott and Jonathan Green

Temptation Bundling: The Science of Making Habits You Actually Want to, by Milind Gurav

The Habit Architect. Designing Daily Systems That Forge Unshakable Success: How to Build Invisible Structures That Make Excellence Automatic—Without … Burnout (Hard Life Problems Worth Solving), by JV Seth

Citations

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Image generated by Copilot Mediocrity Trees, based on my prompts.

Photo by Vinicius “amnx” Amano on Unsplas

Image generated by Copilot – Do it, based on my prompts.

Building Momentum: How Tiny Steps Compound Over Time

“Everything is energy. Our thoughts begin it, your emotions amplify it and your action increases its momentum.” - unknown

Momentum is built not by emotional motivation but by tiny, repeatable actions that reshape identity, reduce resistance, and generate the momentum that makes long-term change inevitable.

Motivation is wanting to act on an emotional level, while momentum is a force born from steady action that moves you. Small wins are building blocks that slowly build self-confidence and, therefore, momentum.

Small starts are essential because they bypass the emotional block to the action and help build momentum. They also help to reinforce your identity through consistency of action.

Across writing, manufacturing, physics, finance, and psychology, the same principle emerges: small, consistent actions create disproportionate results.

To conquer the overwhelming task of writing a novel, Stephen King committed to a micro-goal of just 2,000 words a day. This small, disciplined step ensured he didn’t get writer’s block and allowed him to build massive narrative momentum. 

Since WWII, Japanese manufacturing culture has embraced the idea of Kaizen (continuous improvement). The concept, instead of a radical system upgrade (huge overhaul), encouraged executives and workers to make very small, nearly undetectable adjustments to the entire facility. Those minute adjustments added up, enabling Toyota to become the world’s number 1 automobile company.

The essence of momentum

Momentum is not about motivation. It is the physical feeling of your brain’s reward and habit circuits engaging and reacting positively to you moving forward. It is the bodily feeling of energy that action generates, not one that you need before you can get started.

A feedback cycle of action → reward → more action

“Momentum solves 80% of your problems.” - John C. Maxwell

The trick is that momentum operates on a feedback loop. When you move, even just a little, your brain receives information that you are, in fact, moving forward. The reward in this movement pulls your brain forward.

You don’t wait for motivation to strike. Effort comes first, and then the act of putting in effort is what actually triggers your motivation. Action yields progress. Progress stimulates a neurochemical reward, which drives the desire to take further action. 

Much like it takes more effort to get a physical object to begin moving than it does to maintain its momentum, so too with mental momentum. While you are moving, you don’t need to constantly redecide that you are going to move. An action actually changes the perceived reality of the task. Tasks that initially seemed insurmountable may then become a series of smaller, accomplishable tasks.

The New Science of Momentum: How the Best Coaches & Leaders Build a Fire from a Single Spark, by Brian S. Lassiter

How tiny steps compound

Compounding tiny steps will change how you view goals. When you do something daily, you’re removing the burning out associated with trying to manage massive leaps and falls, and just showing up every day reteaches you to believe that you can be who you are meant to be. The smallest tiny step you take adds up, and the small efforts compound into exponentially bigger results. Here are three foundational pillars of how compound tiny steps work:

  • Consistency beats intensity
  • Small wins change identity
  • Compounding makes the effort exponential

Making massive leaps and falls usually causes a total burnout and a loss of speed. Steady and consistent effort does not cause overstimulation. It is much easier to follow a 15-20 minute habit each day than long marathons every once in a while.

Tiny successes are what create your identity. Daily habits mold you into who you are. Tiny actions you accomplish each day are a statement about who you are becoming.

Every time you do one small thing that you said you were going to do, you have faith in yourself that you can do something. Most people envision themselves to be in the process of changing their life-as in I am trying to lose weight-vs who they truly are-I am a person who is trying to take care of myself.

“Success is the sum of small efforts repeated day-in and day-out.” - Robert Collier

Compounding makes the effort exponential. I have always heard of compound interest, and it is related to financial gain, but compound interest is also related to personal success. Compounding is the phenomenon of exponential growth. Small things you do each day add up over months and years.

According to Atomic Habits by James Clear, when you improve 1% every day, you end up 37 times better at the end of the . (Clear, 2018)

Chart The Power of Tiny Gains

Compounding can go unseen. It is like a snowball that increases and compounds as you add more to it over time.

In their book, The Progress Principle, Teresa Amabile and Steven Kramer discuss a study of over 12,000 diary entries from professionals. Harvard researchers discovered that making incremental, meaningful progress on daily work was the single most powerful motivator for sustained high performance.

Why We Should Cheer for Life’s Wobbles: How small wins build big momentum in work and life, by Lindsey Godwin, Ph.D. (Psychology Today) 

The Power of Small Wins: How Tiny Habits Lead to Big Success, by Liam Osuos

Integrating the Two-Minute Rule + Do Something Principle

“Small steps can help people make big changes to achieve what they really desire. That wish isn’t going to go anywhere unless you do something about it. Every day, just do one thing. At the end of six months, you’ll be somewhere.” - Marlo Thomas

Integrating the Two-Minute Rule with the Do Something Principle creates a powerful strategy to overcome procrastination. By scaling daunting tasks down to tiny gateway actions, you bypass mental resistance and trigger the natural inertia needed to build lasting momentum. 

The main enemy of productivity is not the work but the massive activation energy that it takes to start the work. And thus, a personal philosophy of starting small and doing something is ideal for giving yourself a push in the right direction and getting you to gain traction.

Both ways break down overwhelming goals into tasks of less than 120 seconds.

You don’t need to finish the task. You just need to start the process. Tell yourself you will open your notes, tie your running shoes, or read just one page. Make sure your inner self-talk is supporting the action. Often, we are initiating an action and telling ourselves we don’t want to do this now.

The Self: The Transformative Power of Self-Talk

Once you begin your micro-commitment, the psychology of action takes over. 

Newton’s law of inertia dictates that objects in motion stay in motion. By executing a two-minute action, you lower the barrier to entry so low that you naturally cross the threshold from planning to doing.

The two minutes serve as a gateway habit that naturally points you down a productive path. You are establishing a habit loop. Once you write one sentence or open one file, your brain adapts to the environment, making it vastly easier to keep going. 

When a large project threatens to break your focus, rely on bite-sized steps to sustain your workflow. You want to use micro-actions to maintain focus and movement.

When you find yourself losing momentum and can’t stay committed to what you’re doing, scale the task back rather than walking away. If you need to move large objects, split your lifting sessions into 10-minute micro-sprints or successive 2-minute chunks.

Chaining micro-actions prevents the paralysis you feel when looking at your enormous list of things to do; it allows you to work in a forward flow that keeps your brain engaged rather than triggering a fight-or-flight response.

Unlock the Power of the 2-Minute Rule to Conquer Procrastination and Get It Done, by John Leoppky (Verywell Mind)

Last thoughts

“Excitement must lead to immediate action, or you will lose the power of momentum. More dreams die because we fail to seize the moment. Do it now!” - Tony Robbins

Big change is never a single leap; it is the quiet accumulation of tiny steps that teach you who you are becoming.

Momentum basically works because tiny, easy steps compound to create huge leaps of movement and compounding effects. This principle applies everywhere, whether it’s the principles of finance, physics, or psychology; it takes significantly less work to keep something moving than to restart something from rest again and again.

Psychologically, within leadership, habits, and team sports, momentum is the catalyst to keep moving towards continued performance success. Small, sustained steps build self-confidence, which in turn builds self-efficacy and then motivation. Studies show that teams that meet delivery targets enter a more favorable psychological state and are more likely to move toward their next task goals.

In The Compound Effect, Darren Hardy draws on both financial compounding and human behavior to argue that success is not defined by massive, overwhelming changes but by tiny actions practiced consistently day after day. These small steps compound into massive, exponential results.

James Clear literally turned his life around after suffering a brain injury, after becoming committed to microscopic habits, and just aiming to be a little better each day, whether by doing a few push-ups or writing one paragraph. It all started with tiny behaviors, building up into something extraordinary, like becoming a best-selling author.

This month, we have covered getting ourselves started on the path to making positive changes. We have explored breaking things down into very small actions and how our habits can rewire our brains.

Tiny steps don’t just move you forward; they change who you believe yourself to be. And once identity shifts, momentum becomes automatic. Next week, we’ll explore how to build a system that keeps that momentum alive without relying on willpower.

Recommended reading

Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones, by James Clear

Progress Principle: Using Small Wins to Ignite Joy, Engagement, and Creativity at Work, by Teresa Amabile and Steven Kramer.

The Compound Effect, by Darren Hardy

Tiny Habits: The Small Changes That Change Everything, by BJ Fogg, Ph.D.

One Small Step Can Change Your Life: The Kaizen Way, by Robert Maurer, Ph.D.

Citations

Photo by A Chosen Soul on Unsplash

Photo by Myles Bloomfield on Unsplash

Photo by Jonathan Kemper on Unsplash

The Power of Tiny Gains, Reference Entry: Clear, J. (2018). Atomic habits: An easy & proven way to build good habits & break bad ones. Avery.

Copilot created the image of a man running upstairs using my prompts.

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The Do Something Principle: Action is the Solution to Overthinking

Time spent thinking about doing something takes away the time you have to actually do it.

“Do something today that your future self will thank you for.”

– Sean Patrick Flanery

A moment when overthinking kept me frozen, when I was thinking about going to the dentist. I hate going to the dentist. My imagination runs wild; I can hear the drill. Is something going to go wrong? Is it going to be painful? However, taking the small action of calling the dentist for an appointment and evaluation helped me get moving. Our thinking can paralyze us.

Overthinking is a psychological habit of repetitive thought that, at times, involves dwelling on the past or catastrophizing an imagined future. Our desire for control guides us, leading us to seek perfect conditions. These repetitive thoughts are strongly linked to anxiety or chronic burnout. They can stop us from moving forward. Let’s stop waiting to feel ready.

This month in the year-long arc, we are looking inward, focusing on the smallest possible action. The one that creates momentum long before motivation shows up. And this is where the Do Something Principle comes in. This month is about small actions that lead to momentum, which then leads to motivation.

The Do Something Principle, popularized by Mark Manson, breaks procrastination by treating action as the spark for motivation, rather than its result. By starting with small steps, regardless of quality, you can generate feedback that creates inspiration. This inspiration can then lead to motivation. Clarity comes from action.

Why does overthinking grip us so tightly?

“Overthinking: the art of creating new problems out of ones that never existed in the first place.” - Anonymous

Overthinking is not a sign that we are lazy or unmotivated. Overthinking happens when we try to analyze the situation. We need to feel safe and in control of our lives. We see an imagined future and try to avoid potential failure, determining which steps will take us down the right path.

We tend to overthink what actions we want to take and how we will tackle something. This can leave us stuck as we wait to be ready. Overthinking dissolves when action begins, not because the action is perfect, but because it breaks the illusion of danger.

We run these what-if scenarios through our minds, often replaying plots on how to avoid negative consequences. And all this overthinking makes us feel anxious.

Our brains favor familiarity over accuracy; we dislike the feeling of uncertainty. We often seek perfection, so we go into an endless loop, where starting feels too risky. Avoiding the unknown is inherent in human nature. So, these endless thoughts give us a false sense of preparation or control over a situation that is uncontrollable.

Overthinking is more about too much fear instead of too much thought. If we keep planning, we can put off taking an action that may present a surprise complication, pain, or failure. You need to ask yourself a few questions. How long are you willing to stay stuck in this place? How important is it to make your plan a reality?

It is time to move forward. Again, what do you want? If you do not move, you will never reach your goals.

It is our human instinct that is wired to anticipate danger and to develop a path to keep ourselves safe. We have difficulty tolerating ambiguity because we do not want to fail.  

6 Strategies to Get Moving When You’re Stuck, by Bandee Selck

The power of doing anything

The basic idea is that action interrupts those thoughts that we keep dwelling on. If we label thoughts as just a thought instead of facts, we can gain more control. Action breaks the illusion that thinking alone will deliver clarity.

“Don’t do nothing because you can’t do everything. Do something!” - Colleen Patrick-Goudreau

If we are stuck in a mental block, we will remain stagnant. Overthinking can be an endless, unproductive cycle of negative thoughts, often focused on problems rather than solutions. Focus on the ‘what’ instead of the ‘why,’ and aim for actionable steps.

Taking action demands mental effort because it compels the brain to interrupt its obsessive thought patterns. Stop analyzing the problems and start doing something.

Action → Inspiration → Motivation.
Not the other way around.

The power of physical movement can change your physiological state and increase blood flow to your brain. Movement creates clarity. So, get up and move, take a walk, clean the house; activity can change your mindset. When you are physically moving, you can find a different perspective.

Movement creates clarity because it enhances our thinking by activating our minds. Part of it is the blood and increased oxygen flow to our brains. But it also involves relaxed attention, which allows our thoughts some freedom. Many great thinkers, from Einstein to Emerson and Nietzsche, have discussed the benefits of movement and thinking. The rhythmic motion of walking helps keep our minds calm and quiets our racing thoughts.

When we complete a tiny, manageable task, dopamine is released, which is referred to as the reward chemical. There is power in small wins. You do not need to wait for motivation to act. Action creates motivation and clarity.

But there is another layer to this work, one that shapes how we relate to our thoughts in the first place.

“Your mind is a powerful thing. When you start to filter it with positive thoughts your life will start to change.”

Buddha

This is where mindfulness enters the conversation. Mindfulness is the ability to notice what is happening in your mind without getting carried away by it. Anxiety pulls your attention into the past and the future; mindfulness brings it back to the present. This is often tied to catastrophizing, which magnifies a moment into something unmanageable; mindfulness brings it back to its true size.

How to use the do something principle

So, let’s start by choosing the smallest possible next step. Act before you start negotiating with yourself. Let the action precede and lead you to thinking. Break an overwhelming project down until the first task takes less than 5 minutes.

Grounding techniques are effective tools for managing overthinking and anxiety. It is about pulling your focus away from your thoughts and back to the present moment. Focus on something in your environment, a tree out the window, a painting on the wall, and look at the details. Or try these grounding tricks.

  • Redirect your thoughts to interrupt overthinking.
  • Listen to music that calms you; hear each instrument as music.
  • The 333 rule for anxiety is an easy technique to remember and use in the moment if something is triggering your anxiety. It involves looking around your environment to identify three objects and three sounds, then moving three body parts.
  • Dedicate a specific 15–20 minutes to worry, helping to confine ruminative thoughts rather than letting them last all day.
  • When the thought of doing something arises, do it immediately before your mind can come up with excuses. Use the 2-minute rule: tell yourself you only have to do the task for two minutes, after which you can stop.

Let action lead your thinking. Stop waiting for inspiration to begin. Act, even if it feels sloppy initially. For example, if you are stuck, just produce something intentionally to get started. The act of doing allows you to see what needs fixing, which sparks ideas.

Motivation is a result of work, not a requirement for it.

How to Get Motivated: The “Do Something” Principle, by Mark Manson

The “Do Something” Principle Will Change Your Life, by Better Ideas (YouTube)

Final thoughts

"If you lack the motivation to make an important change in your life, do something, anything, really - and then harness the reaction to that action as a way to begin motivating yourself. I call this the do something principle." - Mark Manson

The “Do Something” principle presupposes that action is not just the result of motivation, but also its cause. Meaning the best way to get unstuck is to take small micro-actions to build momentum. When you are stuck, don’t wait to feel ready. Take one small step, then let that step lead to the next. The step could be putting on your running shoes, writing one sentence, or clearing one item from the pile; this triggers a positive action feedback loop.

Imperfection is a draft, a starting point. Accept imperfection by intentionally doing the task to get it done. Remember that fear of failure, a vision of negative consequences, and inaction kill motivation.

Small wins build confidence. If we focus only on a massive goal, we become overwhelmed, which causes us to doubt our abilities and to procrastinate. By completing a small, manageable task, dopamine (the reward chemical) is released in our brain. Resulting in a boost in motivation that increases your belief that you can manage larger tasks.

Stop justifying and convincing yourself to delay the task. If you lack motivation, Do Something, anything, and use the reaction to that action to fuel your next step.

Recommended reading

Stop Overthinking: 23 Techniques to Relieve Stress, Stop Negative Spirals, Declutter Your Mind, and Focus on the Present, by Nick Trenton

The 80/20 Principle: The Secret to Achieving More with Less, by Richard Koch

The Do Something Challenge: 6 Life-Changing Questions To Help You Discover Your Life’s Purpose, by Dario Philippe

Micro Habits for Positive Change: Cultivating Daily Success Through Small Actions, by Terry Wynn

Citations

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Photo by Matthew Brodeur on Unsplash

The 2-Minute Rule: The Science of Getting Started

“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then is not an act, but a habit.” - Will Durant

Basically, if it takes less than two minutes, do it now. This rule is a gateway to habit formation. After all, we become what we practice consistently. You will be surprised by how much you can complete in only two minutes.

What is the two-minute rule?

According to the Two-Minute Rule, simplified by David Allen and James Clear, you should scale down new habits into actions that take under two minutes. For example, reading one page instead of reading a book. It helps us overcome procrastination by reducing the energy required to start. This practice makes habit formation easier.

When developing a new habit, start small. You can break down any new habit into two – minute chunks. Take out your yoga mat; take two minutes to prepare. Even if you do not practice yoga on that day, taking the mat out is a starting point. You are mentally getting ready.

Before watching TV or checking social media, read one page. The goal is not only to start with two minutes, but to master showing up consistently. It is a starting point.

When we feel overwhelmed, we often put off taking action. Two minutes is not overwhelming; it is not threatening. However small, easy actions trigger positive feedback, which leads to motivation.

It eliminates the mental conflict of starting a large, overwhelming task. You will find that once you start, it is much easier to continue. If you enjoy the task or activity, you will build momentum and become more motivated to spend more time on it.

Consistency – The Strength of Daily Habits

I’m Fixin To – The Moment Before Movement

Why does the 2-minute rule work?

The 2-minute rule works by shrinking a new habit to a 2-minute version, reducing resistance and building consistency instead of focusing on intensity. It also builds a sustainable starter ritual that is a cue to the habit.

It bypasses procrastination by making the next step too easy to refuse. This helps to strengthen your self-identification as someone who shows up. Breaking a large task into a 2-minute version reduces the mental barrier that causes procrastination. For example, file a document or delete an unnecessary digital file immediately.

Your goal is to eat healthy, so try eating one piece of fruit daily. These small starters can become a ritual; you begin to develop a routine that becomes automatic. Doing a 2-minute action, such as laying out your gym clothes or shoes for the next day helps you stick with a new habit by changing how you view yourself.

I live by routines and rituals, which automate many of my tasks, so I do not have to decide when or how to accomplish them. I have built it into my day and made it a habit. In the morning, I have a hot cup of tea. While I wait for the tea to brew, I perform a set of warm-up exercises. I am standing there, waiting anyway. This way, my body gets a kick-start, with my blood flowing and my limbs moving. It is a win-win scenario. After starting this routine, it just feels normal, like it is a part of making a cup of tea.

The idea is to make it as easy as possible to start building new habits. If the first two minutes are easy, the actions that follow will become a habit.

Motivation fluctuates. Habits don’t. The 2-minute rule helps you create a routine that does not depend on mood.

How Habits Pave the Path to Success

Your Guide to Habit Transformation Reset, Refresh, Renew

How to apply the 2-minute rule

“No behavior happens in isolation. Each action becomes a cue that triggers the next behaviour.” - James Clear (Atomic Habits)

Showing up is a core principle for success. We can rewire our brains and retrain how we see our day and ourselves. Focus on becoming the type of person who doesn’t miss workouts or who doesn’t let the mail pile up over weeks. Focus on showing up consistently rather than just seeing the end goal.

The goal is to master the art of starting, based on the principle that once you start, it is much easier to continue.

By starting with small steps, we build momentum. The momentum builds like a snowball that becomes a snowman. Motivation is not the starting point, but it is what comes after the action. You exercise, feel better, and then the action motivates you to exercise more.

The habit is the action, not the result. So, you don’t get through all the cleaning of a room. You tidied up a corner of the room.

How to Master the Art of Showing Up, by Jenn Masse

The 2-Minute Rule for Productivity: How Small Actions Lead to Big Results!, by R Dilip Kumar

So how do you show up? Consistency is key.

Focus on the action of getting ready. If you are going to go running in the morning, put your shoes out the night before. The aim isn’t to complete the entire task, but to be present and to start the process. You don’t have to run far; you can even run in place for 2 minutes, then build to 10 minutes, and so on.

Focus on the action of writing one sentence. You have a proposal due for school or work, so just get started. Often, once you get started, you can keep going, but it is also okay to work on a sentence or two today and add more tomorrow. If you break it into smaller chunks, it is easier to get started.

Focus on sorting one stack of paper or mail. Try this for a week. You will find that in this short time you can accomplish more than expected. Small changes provide big rewards.

“The Two-Minute Rule states, when you start a new habit, it should take less than two minutes to do.” - James Clear

Actionable insight

Here are 20 two-minute actions you can try this week.

If a task arises (email, dish, paper) and takes under 2 minutes, do it right away rather than listing it.

  1. Fold a couple of shirts instead of doing all the laundry.
  2. If an email requires a quick response, respond immediately. If it requires deeper thought, skip it for later.
  3. If studying, take out a notebook.
  4. Clean one corner of your desk.
  5. Wash your coffee mug immediately after using it.
  6. File or recycle junk mail immediately upon grabbing it.
  7. Write one sentence in your journal.
  8. Read one page of a book.
  9. Close your eyes and meditate for 120 seconds.
  10. Drink a full glass of water.
  11. Add a new word to your vocabulary.
  12. Empty the trash.
  13. Water a plant.
  14. Make the bed.
  15. Clean up a messy shelf.
  16. Put dirty clothes in the laundry basket.
  17. Dust a small area of your house.
  18. Text a friend.
  19. Clean a mirror.
  20. Give the dog clean water.

The core idea is to make starting so easy that you cannot say no, which builds momentum to continue or ensures small tasks never become large burdens.

Final thoughts

“Consistency and discipline births success.” - Unknown

The 2‑Minute Rule is not just about starting; it’s about identity rehearsal.

Just do something. You do not have to tackle the entire task. I believe in continuous improvement incrementally. We can learn to build new habits. These micro-habits then snowball into the habits that will stay with you. Once you learn how to build a new habit, you are on your way to being a person who shows up consistently.

Next week’s blog, May 15, is The Do Something Principle: Action instead of Overthinking. We need to stop waiting to feel ready and do something now. When you are stuck, any action is the right action.

Recommended reading

How to Stop Procrastinating by Using the “2-Minute Rule“, by James Clear

Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones, by James Clear

Micro Habits: Small Changes, Big Impact, by Walter Smith

Micro Habits: 101 Scientific Ways To Enrich Your Life! by Vishwas Raj

The Art of the Start, by Guy Kawasaki

Tiny Experiments: How to Live Freely in a Goal-Obsessed World, by Anne-Laure Le Cunff

Citations

Photos of a man on a mountain generated by Copilot with my prompts

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Why Small Starts Create Big Change

“Never underestimate the power of a moment to contribute to the success of your day. Carpe Momentum!” - LeAura Alderson

Who do you want to become? How are you going to get there?

“Success is the sum of small efforts, repeated day-in and day-out.”

Robert Collier

You need to keep moving forward. Motivation follows action, so how do you keep your motivation going? What is going to motivate you?

Motivation is the emotional desire to act; momentum is the force generated by consistent action that keeps you moving. Small victories are like building blocks that gradually construct confidence, fueling further momentum and drive.

Small starts matter because they bypass emotional resistance, generate momentum, and rewire your identity through consistent action.

The problem with motivation is that it is a temporary emotion, making it an unreliable driver of long-term goals. Action and discipline generate momentum, which acts as a trigger that produces dopamine and encourages further action. Something needs to trigger your motivation. Small starts help you build momentum.

The momentum loop is action – results – energy – repeat.

A familiar feeling of waiting for inspiration that never arrives. Think about changing your eating habits. You set a goal; you start, but our eating habits are so deeply embedded in our lifestyle. We fall back on our comfort food. Motivation is not enough to change any habit. The changes come before motivation shows up. The small starts and wins build momentum; motivation comes when we see the results. Motivation doesn’t always appear after change, but it grows as behaviors become rewarding or easier. Over time, these repeated actions become automatic, replacing old patterns.

Action → small reward → increased motivation → more action → habit formation

“Keep moving ahead because action creates momentum, which in turn creates unanticipated opportunities.” - Nick Vujicic

The myth of motivation

We may have motivation all wrong. Why do we assume motivation must come before anything else? Motivation needs something to set it in motion. It is not something that sits inside you, waiting.

It is the driving force behind action and involves our desire to achieve goals and to fulfill our dreams. Motivation can be driven by internal enjoyment, curiosity, or personal values (intrinsic), or by external factors such as a paycheck, rewards, or the avoidance of punishment (extrinsic).

So, the myth of motivation is the false belief that inspiration, emotional readiness, or confidence arrives before we take action. Motivation is not a prerequisite to starting, but a byproduct of action and momentum.

Motivation: The Spark That Fuels Vision

So why do we believe we need to feel ready first? Feeling ready is not a stage of motivation.

We prefer comfort and certainty. Waiting for the right moment feels like the right step. However, if we keep waiting for the right moment, we fall into procrastination.

Another part of the myth of motivation is that we need confidence to start. But confidence comes from doing, not waiting. Confidence is also a byproduct of action and momentum. It’s essential to take action before having every detail perfectly mapped out. There is no such thing as perfection; waiting will not motivate you.

Our brain’s reward system releases dopamine when it sees progress. We think of motivation as action, and then the result. However, the brain sees result – result – motivation. The result is the reward that triggers motivation.

True motivation follows action, as our brain delivers dopamine that rewards progress, which reinforces the loop to further action. Dopamine is the feel-good chemical that transmits signals in your brain. Your brain could release dopamine as soon as 5 minutes after you start an activity. Small starts and consistency build momentum, and then you are motivated.

If you are waiting until you feel in the mood, you will never be consistent. Motivation is emotional, and it fades, but habits and discipline lead to success. If you continue to wait until the perfect moment, it does not exist and will never arrive. If you wait for motivation to be your inspiration, you will miss opportunities.

We wait for motivation to move us forward. I will update my resume and start looking for a better job. This year, I’ll create a list of New Year’s resolutions and achieve all my goals. Change does not come about by waiting, by wishing.

This brings us to the real engine of change: the psychology of small starts.

“Momentum really is the most important aspect of deliberate creation that you could consciously contemplate. Because what momentum says is: Once you get going in that direction, it is more likely that you will continue in that direction.” - Abraham Hickes

The psychology of small starts

Developing motivation requires setting specific, achievable goals (SMART goals) and breaking large tasks into smaller, manageable steps.

Cultivating motivation requires acting first to build momentum and consistency. A small start in self-care is to take a walk every day; you get exercise and fresh air.

We feel satisfaction that provides the energy to repeat the cycle. Action → Evidence → Emotion → Energy → Repeat.

Action: Take one small step.

Evidence: Record it in a visible location, use checklists, dashboards, and journals.

Emotion: Notice the satisfaction of completion. That’s dopamine doing its job.

Energy: That boost fuels the next action.

Repeat: Each loop strengthens belief and compounds motivation.

My experience with running taught me this long before I understood the neuroscience. I did not step out the door and run a half-marathon. I gradually increased my endurance over the course of a year. First, I jogged in place, then around the block, a mile, five miles. Then I worked on speed and form. I ran for years, starting with small 2- and 5-mile races and building up to 13-mile races. The small steps, the small wins, fueled the desire and motivation to keep moving.

Consistent small wins train the brain to associate an action with safety and competence rather than stress. Every completed task, no matter how small, triggers the brain’s reward system, releasing dopamine and reinforcing the behavior.

Visible proof of progress fuels a positive emotional state, which provides the energy for the next step. Seeing tangible results, like checking off a task, seeing a graph move upward, or finishing a draft, releases dopamine, which improves motivation and confidence. This positive feedback loop turns a long-term goal into a sustainable series of smaller, satisfying steps. As a runner, I had a chart on my wall showing how many miles I ran each week, serving as both a checklist and my inspiration. I had a goal, and I could see that I was achieving it.

When you take action and see results, it boosts your confidence, making future actions feel easier. A sense of daily progress is important.

The Momentum Loop: How Action Fuels Confidence, by Evan Pickett

The Psychology of Momentum: Why Small Wins Create Big Shifts, by Luke Tobin

Why small steps beat big goals

“Consistency is the key to achieving and maintaining momentum.”

Darren Hardy

Small steps beat big goals; they make overwhelming tasks manageable. They help to create immediate momentum and develop consistent habits needed for long-term success.

Small steps make action easy and lower the barrier to starting. This process turns long-term goals into a series of achievable daily wins while supporting long-term success.

When we face a large goal, it can cause anxiety and stress. Often resulting in procrastination. We get an all-or-nothing mindset, which can lead us to quit pursuing that goal.

When I wrote my first book, the process felt overwhelming. I focused on the entire book, the finished book, which made each step intimidating. With my second book, I approached it differently. I divided the work into smaller sections and set a word count limit for each. Each section was about the size of a blog post, manageable and focused. Once I completed the sections, I connected them like puzzle pieces, linking ideas at the end to form a chapter. Those small, steady steps helped me write without feeling overwhelmed and reminded me that progress often comes one piece at a time, small wins.

When we take small steps, we can build consistency by tackling the goal in an easy and sustainable way. Small wins give us proof of progress, something we can see, which boosts our motivation and confidence.

Consistently achieving our small goals rewires our brains, helping us to rewrite our self-perception. I am a person who gets things done; I follow through.

My personal motto is continuous improvement incrementally. If we have small wins every day, they accumulate into progress and generate momentum. We are still working toward the larger goal, but just in smaller blocks of time and energy.

Consistency – The Strength of Daily Habits

Decisions Shape Destiny: How Small Choices Build Powerful Habits

The core idea is that no process is ever perfect, and there is always room to improve, even if it is just 1% every day.

“It’s difficult to change overnight, but if you are persistent and take one step at a time you will see results.” - Jack Lalanne

Key takeaways

Is that readiness is not an emotion; it is a decision. You do not become ready by waiting; you become ready by doing. Key strategies to improve motivation include breaking tasks into smaller steps, improving self-discipline, and focusing on personal growth.

Start small, lower the barrier to action.

Tracking visually creates evidence of progress.

Repeat consistently, let momentum reshape identity.

Along with my personal motto of continuous improvement incrementally. I hold as a truth that out of sight, out of mind, we lose track of our larger goal. Therefore, tracking, journaling, and visual boards help us remember our goals. Write it down in a place that you see every day.

What do you want to do?

What is keeping you from doing it?

What if you could reach that goal?

What small steps can you take today to move yourself forward?  

Here is how you can use micro-habits to fuel continuous improvement.

One-minute tidying. It is not a large cleaning job in your house. It trains you to leave every room slightly better than you found it, which eventually eliminates the need for “marathon” cleaning sessions.

Writing one sentence. The hardest part of writing is the transition from not writing to writing. Once you’ve written one sentence, you’ve broken the seal, and you’ll often write ten more. Ernest Hemingway stated that all you have to do is write one true sentence. Write the truest sentence that you know.

The magic of these “incrementally small steps” is that they focus on starting rather than finishing. Big change begins the moment you choose the smallest possible step and take it.

Recommended reading

The Progress Principle, by Teresa Amabile

Atomic Habits, by James Clear

Tiny Habits, by BJ Fogg

Mini Habits: Smaller Habits, Bigger Results, by Stephen Guise

The Power of Small, by Aisling and Trish Leonard-Curtin

Eat Move Sleep: How Small Choices Lead to Big Changes, by Tom Rath

The Power of Small Incremental Improvements: A Path to Continuous Improvement, by Paul Robertson

Citations

Copilot-generated image Carpe Momentum based on my prompts

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Learning from Life: Navigating the Unknown for Personal Development

“You must always be willing to truly consider evidence that contradicts your beliefs, and admit the possibility that you may be wrong.” - Richard Feynman “Intelligence isn’t knowing everything, it’s the ability to challenge everything you know.” - Unknown

Aligning with the year-long arc of self-discovery and growth, our discussions have so far centered on the aspects of ourselves that remain hidden. Various biases, assumptions, and even habits block parts of the world’s perception by our conscious mind. These are our blind spots. Today, we dive deeper into how to embrace what we cannot see – what is unknown to us. How do we survive and thrive with uncertainty?

Each day is different; life is about change. Think of your life as a journey dedicated to lifelong learning. Let it be a philosophy, not simply a technique. Live life with curiosity instead of certainty.

The superpower of not knowing

Admitting that you don’t know is empowering and important for personal growth. It helps to build humility and adaptability. Tapping into your curiosity becomes a tool for learning.

When you say, “I don’t know,” it might seem small, but it is a strength. It’s how you grow. When you’re able to admit you don’t have all the answers, you remain humble and open. You become more adaptable to situations. Instead of getting stuck or feeling overwhelmed when things are uncertain, rely on curiosity to help you pivot and find new solutions.

Admitting that you don’t know opens the door to accepting your limitations. When we admit we don’t have all the answers, we tend to think it is a sign of weakness, but it’s best to be our authentic selves; that builds confidence. When you don’t know everything, you learn from others. Your focus moves from ego defense to personal growth.

Not having all the answers establishes a growth mindset. Mistakes become lessons that open you to new perspectives.

How curiosity shapes growth

“A creative life is driven more strongly by curiosity than by fear.”

Elizabeth Gilbert

Use your curiosity to shift from absolute certainty and judgment to exploration. Develop skills that help you overcome the fear of the unknown to encourage deeper learning. We fear that people will judge us, compare us, but none of us has all the answers. Being honest is an attractive characteristic.  

Strategies for becoming more curious in life. Curiosity isn’t just a mindset. It is a daily practice that reshapes how we meet the unknown.

Try better questions, or ask them differently, to discover deeper insights.

“The man who asks a question is a fool for a minute; the man who does not ask is a fool for life.” - Confucius

Instead of asking yes/no questions, ask open-ended questions that require a response. “Did you have a good day?” or “What was the most interesting thing that happened?”

When you are uncertain, try asking why five times to dig deeper and determine the root cause. Don’t settle for the superficial explanation.

Explore possibilities by asking “What if?” or “How?” What if you tried a different approach?

What If Self-Authorship Redefines Your Existence?

Or ask someone for a story, such as why they chose a hobby or the job they are currently doing. People like to engage, and stories are our way of connecting.

Living a curious life combats confirmation bias. It shifts the focus from a need to be right to a desire for accuracy. We become less likely to disregard information that opposes our beliefs.

Actively fight confirmation bias

“Confirmation bias is the most effective way to go on living a lie.”

Criss Jami

Confirmation bias is a tendency to support our current beliefs. We look for facts that back up what we already believe, while ignoring anything that contradicts them. 

One way to fight confirmation bias is to develop relationships with people whose ideas differ from yours. This helps you think outside the box, be creative, and consider situations from different angles.

Also, before taking any action, ask yourself what proof would refute your current viewpoint. We tend to blindly believe many things without thinking about whether they are correct. Analyze the information.

We are also influenced by social media, news, books, and the opinions of others. So, it helps to make an effort to expose yourself to media that challenge your political, professional, or personal viewpoints. Reach outside of your bubble or comfort zone for diverse information. Much of our media is driven by algorithms, which learn your biases and give you what you already believe.

Don’t make conversation an argument. Focus on understanding the other person’s point of view. Listen! It might not always be the case that you are right.

Shake up the familiar. Look at a common object or routine activity as if you were seeing it for the first time, and ask yourself how it is made or why it works. Change your routine, walk or drive a different way, try a new hobby. A different perspective could be yours.

When a question comes up, resist the impulse to Google it immediately. Allow yourself to sit with uncertainty for a few minutes to let original thought emerge.

Don’t let yourself get trapped by a fixed personal identity. Curiosity flourishes when we are flexible and can admit that we don’t know. Recognizing when you lack knowledge can free you to learn something new rather than maintaining an image of being right.

We are multi-dimensional, so don’t let a job title or fixed identity limit your potential interests and skills. We have the ability to redefine ourselves, our jobs, our talents, and our behavior. Our opinions are like snapshots of a moment in time, not the ultimate truth. Incorporate flexibility in your thinking.

Four qualities help us navigate the unknown: humility to admit our limits, openness to receive new information, comfort with ambiguity to stay steady in uncertainty, and a commitment to learning to keep evolving.

Humility - Openness - Ambiguity - Learning

Integrating April’s concepts

The Ellsberg Paradox: Why Uncertainty Makes Us Uncomfortable

Epistemic Humility: The Art of Being Wrong Gracefully

The Power of Not Knowing: Growth begins when certainty ends

An excellent approach to self-improvement involves embracing humility, openness, ambiguity, and a spirit of learning. Learn how to turn your fear of the unknown into the driving force for continuous improvement. Such an approach will help you change from a limiting position to one of development.

Not knowing something is completely acceptable and even demonstrates your confidence. It means you are aware of your own limitations and do not put pressure on yourself to be absolutely sure about everything all the time. Intellectual humility, captured by Socrates in his famous quote, “True wisdom is in knowing you know nothing,” is very important here.

Being humble and open to others’ views helps us to let go of our defenses, which we use to protect our pride. We will grow intellectually through our ability to accept and appreciate what others think and say. Humility is important in helping us to learn from others. This gives us leverage to embrace curiosity and develop a willingness to reconsider our opinions.

The ability to feel comfortable with ambiguity comes with a level of open-mindedness. We become less dependent on rigid responses and develop skills that make us comfortable with ambiguity. This level of comfort arises from the willingness of an open and humble person to face situations that might lack an easily identifiable direction. This shows an ability to cope with situations through cognitive flexibility.

 Learning throughout life makes one comfortable with ambiguity. Embracing lifelong learning transforms our lives. Through this kind of thinking, we learn how to adapt and how to unlearn and relearn. We get used to ambiguity and can thus raise questions about situations that seem uncertain or ambiguous.

The Power of Curiosity • Suspending judgment and asking questions • Delighting in discovery • Exploring and experimenting with different tools, materials, and media • Creating in order to learn more about ourselves and everything around us - the Berkeley Carroll School

Final thoughts

Uncertainty is the classroom where wisdom learns to breathe.

Humility lets us admit that we don’t know. Openness allows us to accept new information. Comfort with ambiguity enables us to function in that messy, new space. Lifelong learning ensures we continue to grow faster than the world around us changes. 

Being able to say I don’t know is a superpower; it keeps you adaptable, humble, and growing. By asking better questions, seeing disconfirming evidence, and being open to surprises, we create new narratives; we reframe how we look at uncertainty and ambiguity.

Recommended reading

Beyond Belief: The Science-Backed Way to Stop Limiting Yourself and Achieve Breakthrough Results, by Nir Eyal

Misbelief: What Makes Rational People Believe Irrational Things, by Dan Ariely

Blindspot: Hidden Biases of Good People, by Mahzarin R. Banaji and Anthony G. Greenwald

Thinking, Fast and Slow, Daniel Kahneman

A Curious Life: An Alternative Solution in an All-Knowing World, by Bailey Horn

Citations

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The Ellsberg Paradox: Why Uncertainty Makes Us Uncomfortable

“Everything is paradox. The danger is one-dimensional thinking.” - Lesley Hazleton

“Familiar thoughts feel true fast.”

– Daniel Kahneman

Your brain favors familiarity over accuracy. What feels right goes unquestioned, not because it’s true, but because it’s familiar.

This bias shapes how we face uncertainty, from everyday choices to life-changing decisions.

The psychology of ambiguity: why we avoid the unknown

An experience we all might understand is a trip to the dentist, which reveals ambiguity aversion, our tendency to prefer risks with known probabilities over unknown risks, even when the unknown option might be better.

It is when the unknown feels scarier than the known risk. You are sitting in the waiting room, hearing the drill long before it starts, and feeling the apprehension of not knowing exactly how much it will hurt or what the final bill will be.

You fear the unknown, the what-ifs, or the possibility of a surprise complication, pain, or the unknown severity of the treatment.

Uncertainty and ambiguity are distinct challenges in decision-making. Uncertainty refers to unpredictable outcomes and ambiguity, relating to unclear, open-ended situations that are open to multiple interpretations. It is a lack of clear information or a framework.

Understanding this distinction is essential to the journey this blog explores. This blog is on a year-long arc of seeking clarity → narrative→ truth → humility. It is a journey to uncover some of the hidden biases and assumptions that guide our lives. Our blind spots. We seldom notice the factors influencing our decision-making.

This discomfort with the unknown is precisely what Ellsberg’s experiment revealed.

What is the Ellsberg Paradox

The Ellsberg Paradox shows that when probabilities are unknown, we often make irrational, suboptimal decisions, such as delaying care until a small problem becomes a major emergency. The key question is what is going to happen?

Daniel Ellsberg popularized it in 1961, as it challenges traditional theories that assume rational, consistent decision-making. The Ellsberg paradox illustrates that people’s natural aversion to uncertainty can work against them. 

The paradox states that when given a choice, people consistently prefer situations with calculable risks over those with uncalculable risks, even if the latter might offer better outcomes.

We each exhibit ambiguity aversion, a dislike of missing information, which ties into a dislike of bad outcomes. These decisions occur in our unconscious mind. Our purpose today is to bring your aversion to ambiguity into your conscious awareness and show you its impact on your life decisions. 

You are shopping for a new laptop. You find a model from a new company that offers double the storage and higher speed for a lower price. However, you choose the more expensive, less powerful Dell or Apple computer instead. In marketing, customers prefer known brands to unfamiliar ones, even when the unknown alternative is superior. 

The aversion is that you avoid the unknown quality of the new brand because it feels riskier. We stick with the familiar brand to avoid the fear that the product will fail unexpectedly.

We choose options where we can clearly define the probability of success. The aversion could be as simple as ordering the same safe item at a restaurant instead of trying something new.

We often avoid promising chances simply because we can’t calculate the odds.

Why does ambiguity trigger discomfort?

We feel more comfortable making decisions when we have all the information. Missing information makes the mind focus on possible negative outcomes. It even involves evolutionary safety, since historically, early humans who avoided unknown situations, like unfamiliar berries, were more likely to survive.

Neuroscience shows that risk and ambiguity involve different brain circuits, with ambiguity triggering a more significant emotional response. So, our brains overvalue certainty.

Behavioral Bias Bingo – Ellsberg/Allais paradoxes: choice under uncertainty, by David Foulke

How the Ellsberg Paradox shows up in everyday life

“There is nothing certain, but the uncertain.” Proverb

It shows up in our career decisions, as most of us choose the safer path. For example, choosing between a secure, well-defined corporate job and an opportunity at a promising but unproven startup.

The paradox is that even if a startup offers higher potential growth and equity, many people choose the corporate job because they can assess the risk, such as salary, or they can see a clear path to a promotion.

In relationships, it may show up as staying where it is most familiar. Choosing a comfortable, average relationship over a chance at a new, possibly amazing one.

The paradox is that we tend to overvalue the current situation simply because the risks are known, even if that situation is substandard. It leaves us sticking with what is familiar, what we already know, be it a hobby, travel destination, or learning path, rather than trying something new.

Risk Aversion and the Roots of Anxiety, by John T. Maler, Ph.D. (Psychology Today)

The emotional roots of ambiguity aversion in everyday life

It is a way to bypass discomfort and perceived danger. The primary emotional roots of ambiguity aversion are fear of loss, fear of regret, and fear of identity disruption.

We experience the emotional pain of the fear of loss much more intensely than the pleasure of an equivalent gain. In uncertain situations, we automatically prioritize avoiding harm.

When the probability is unknown, we often assume the worst-case scenario. This ambiguity aversion makes us feel that staying in a known, safe, or even inferior position is better than risking a potential (but unknown) loss.

There is even a neuro-emotional connection. Studies show that the amygdala, a region of the brain, is responsible for processing fear. It is highly active when we make choices in ambiguous situations, suggesting that uncertainty is processed as a threat. 

We also have a fear of regret, or regret aversion. An anticipation of feeling bad if a chosen option turns out to be inferior, especially if that decision can be compared later with what could have been.

The fear of regret is amplified when we know we will learn the outcome of the alternative we didn’t choose. Such as watching a stock you sold continue to rise. 

Fear of identity disruption or identity conflict. Uncertainty and ambiguity are not just financial threats; they are threats to one’s sense of self, competence, and stability. When we are forced to make decisions with unknown outcomes, we fear the result will disrupt our existing identity or undermine our sense of competence.

Navigating uncertainty

“When nothing is sure, everything is possible.” - Margaret Drabble

How did you do during the 2020 pandemic? People responded to the uncertainty of the 2020 pandemic in psychologically revealing ways. The Ellsberg paradox is a perfect lens. When probabilities are unknown, humans gravitate toward whatever restores a sense of familiarity, even if the strategies are imperfect.

The pandemic created exactly that kind of ambiguity, shifting rules, evolving science, and no clear timeline. Individuals coped through a mix of useful, relational, and avoidant behaviors.

Uncertainty during COVID-19 wasn’t just informational; it was existential. Research on uncertainty management during the pandemic highlights several psychological dynamics.

In their book, Uncertainty and Coping During COVID-19, Walid A. Afifi and Tamara D. Afifi looked at how people coped with the pandemic.

  • When outcomes can’t be predicted, the brain interprets this as a sign of danger. COVID-19 created simultaneous uncertainty about health, jobs, relationships, and the future, amplifying stress responses.
  • The Theory of Resilience and Relational Load (TRRL) shows that strong, well-maintained relationships help people better tolerate uncertainty. Couples and families with healthier communication patterns experienced less psychological strain.
  • Communities tried to manage uncertainty collectively, sharing information, checking on loved ones, coordinating resources, and creating shared narratives about what was happening. This communal meaning-making reduced the emotional burden.

The pandemic was a global Ellsberg experiment, with uncertain probabilities, shifting information, and our instinct to cling to the known.

Learning to accept uncertainty means teaching your mind to endure discomfort instead of immediately trying to resolve it. Key practices include slowing the impulse to resolve ambiguity through action or reassurance, naming the unknown without making assumptions, and using sensory grounding techniques to remain present, rather than trapped in future-focused “what if” scenarios. 

Instead of trying to eliminate uncertainty, accept that it is temporary. Allow yourself to sit with discomfort to build resilience. Reframe how you view the situation; replace “what if” scenarios with “I can manage not knowing”. 

We tend to fill the void or the unknown with negative stories. Bring the feeling out of the dark; examine it. Try to label it, give it a name. I am experiencing uncertainty about this situation.

Ask yourself: “Are my thoughts true? Are they helpful?” Separate fact from fiction.

Seven Ways to Cope with Uncertainty, by Christine Carter

30 Grounding Techniques to Quiet Distressing Thoughts, by Crystal Raypole (Healthline)

Conclusion

“The mind is beautiful because of the paradox. It uses itself to understand itself.” - Adam Elenbaas

The pandemic was a real-world demonstration of ambiguity aversion. When probabilities are unclear, we seek psychological certainty through routines, relationships, narratives, and sometimes through avoidance. The discomfort wasn’t just about the virus. It was also about the absence of reliable probabilities, the very condition that makes the Ellsberg paradox so powerful.

The core of the paradox is that humans dislike “unknown risks” more than “known risks,” even if the potential for gain is higher with the unknown. This aversion causes us to avoid potentially beneficial opportunities. Understanding this bias can help individuals manage it, though ambiguity aversion is hard to eliminate. 

Here’s how to retrain your mind to coexist with uncertainty.

During the 2020 pandemic, many people coped by deliberately focusing on what was stable in their lives: family, health, nature, or small daily rituals. This positive thinking strategy reflects a psychological shift to reclaim control when external conditions are unpredictable.

People established new daily patterns, such as walking, cooking, exercising, and pursuing hobbies, to counteract the loss of normalcy. Routines act as mental anchors when the external world feels chaotic.

Crafting projects, cooking, gardening, and home repairs were immersive activities that helped people regulate anxiety by focusing on something controllable and engaging. It was amazing how many people started baking bread; it skyrocketed globally.  

Is your ambiguity aversion holding you back from your full potential?

Next week’s blog, we’ll move to transforming uncertainty into a lifelong learning mindset.

Recommended reading

The Art of Uncertainty: How to Navigate Chance, Ignorance, Risk and Luck, by David Spiegelhalter

Dealing with Uncertainty: The art and science of resilience and decision-making, by Laurie Bowman

How to Fall in Love with Questions: A New Way to Thrive in Times of Uncertainty – Transform from Stuck to Purpose with Behavioral Science and Rilke’s Wisdom, by Elizabeth Weingarten

How to Put Uncertainty—Fear of the Unknown—In Your Control, by Diane N. Solomon, Ph.D.

10 tips for dealing with the stress of uncertainty, American Psychological Association

The science of uncertainty, American Psychological Association

Citations

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