It’s a cliche that the hardest part of doing difficult work is just getting started. But a surprising amount of the time, that cliche is actually true.

Our resistance to doing work is very often all on the “front-end,” meaning that if you can even get started doing just a little bit of work, the resistance will fade and your momentum will keep you focused and moving forward.

One effective little trick to get yourself over the initial hump of procrastination is what I call the 2-Minute Drill.

Here’s how it goes…

When you feel first notice the urge to procrastinate, pause, take a breath, and then repeat this to yourself:

I really don’t feel like doing X, but I’m pretty sure I can do just 2 minutes of X. If after two minutes I’m miserable, I give myself permission to work on something else instead.

The first trick here is that you’re validating your urge to procrastinate, which actually has the effect of lessening its intensity.

You’re also boosting your self-efficacy by making the task smaller. Instead of “I need to write the report” (which is big and daunting) your task is “I need to write for 2 minutes” (which is far less intimidating).

Once you’ve given yourself that little pep talk, set a timer on your phone and dive in, confident that if your resistance is still terrible after two minutes you can switch to something else.