How the 2-minute rule can drastically reduce your administrative tasks…

In David Allen’s “Getting Things Done” book, the author, while explaining his “GTD” concept, establishes a 2-minute rule, saying that if something can be done in less than 2 minutes, do it now. Don’t even write it down, just do it. Seems obvious, right? Well, even though I’ve known about this rule for years, recently I re-discovered it and was amazed at how much it has improved my productivity and reduced the time I spend on administrative tasks to a minimum. If you also feel like you could use that kind of improvement, read on…

• Anything that takes less than 2 minutes… just do it, Nike!
• Why I hate administrative tasks…
• STOP!… and spend 2 minutes putting a thing where it belongs…
• Instead of letting things pile up… STOP… and deal with them right away!
• Technology helps speed things up to under 2 minutes…
• Shortcuts automations boost my 2-minute rule…
• Action button on iPhone 15 Pro and newer to the rescue…
• The 2-minute rule teaches me to STOP and get rid of boring administrative tasks!

Anything that takes less than 2 minutes… just do it, Nike!

I was so inspired by this rule that I included it as a “bonus” in the “Introduction” chapter of my book: “10 Steps to Ultimate Productivity” (page 22):

If there is something that you need to do, and you can do it in less than two minutes, do it! (…) Try to incorporate this rule in your life and you’ll be surprised by just how many things take only two minutes.

This article is precisely about how many times I recently surprised myself that things do — or can — take me less than 2 minutes to complete. Thanks to these insights, I began to look at what I do every day more consciously and started seeing where these 2-minute actions can help me reduce the amount of administrative tasks I perform on a regular basis.

Why I hate administrative tasks…

When you’re a knowledge worker, and especially if you’re a leader of a company, you have many regular tasks you need to do for your company to function properly. Even if you can afford an assistant, many things you do yourself still need to be registered, followed up, reported, or submitted somewhere.

I hate this kind of stuff. I’m a creative person and I love creative tasks where my mind is being challenged. I hate mindless tasks of moving files around, copying and pasting text, or filling out forms. Especially when these things accumulate — which they do, because I usually procrastinate on them — and then I have to dedicate 1 or 2 hours to such tasks… I feel miserable already.

Turns out, if you don’t postpone your admin tasks but follow the 2-minute rule and do them right away as part of your routine, you never end up with a pile of administrative tasks to get back to. Refreshing, right?

But how to get there? For this to happen, you need to simply… STOP.

STOP!… and spend 2 minutes putting a thing where it belongs…

Yes, the first rule is to learn to stop for 2 minutes. Here’s what I mean:

• You just visited a doctor and you’re now at the front desk scheduling a follow-up appointment. You’ve decided on a date and they give you a piece of paper with the date and time on it. STOP. Put it down, open your calendar app, and add this appointment right away to the appropriate calendar. Then throw the paper away.
• You just checked out of the hotel and they give you an invoice. STOP. Open your iPhone’s “Files” app, tap the “…” menu, choose “Scan Documents,” and scan the invoice right there. Tap “Share” and send it to your accountant. Now you can put the physical invoice in your bag — and even if you lose it, you’ve already sent the digital copy.
• Same situation, but they insist on sending you an invoice via email. Once you receive it, STOP, forward it to your accountant right away. Add a note about the context — like “my business trip to NYC” — and send it. Done.
• If you’re on a longer business trip and want to collect all your invoices first, STOP, create a new note in the Notes app and pin it to the top. Now, whenever you get an invoice or bill, STOP, open Notes, tap the attachment icon, choose “Scan Documents,” and add it to the note.
• You have a new idea for a task in one of your projects. STOP. Open your task manager (is it Nozbe?) and tap “+” and type the task name… then spend another 30 seconds putting it in the right project and adding a comment explaining what you actually want to get done. Dictate the comment to speed things up.
• If you download a file from the Internet, save it to the “Downloads” folder and then STOP and figure out where it should go. Is it an app that needs to be installed? A document to be sent or uploaded somewhere? Do it now and move the file to trash.
• When you receive a message and know the answer, STOP and reply right away as briefly as possible. Don’t bother adding “Hello” or “Best regards” — just write the answer and send it. People prefer responsiveness over formality these days.
• Speaking of writing: when your answer feels too long to type, simply dictate the message or use the voice message option in your messaging app. People generally don’t appreciate form over function — if you can reply quickly, that’s what counts.

Instead of letting things pile up… STOP… and deal with them right away!

I used to let things pile up. Hundreds of files in my “Downloads” folder or emails in my inbox, because “I’ll get back to them later.” Now I’m training myself into a new habit of STOPPING and dealing with things quickly and efficiently.

Luckily, our pocket computers (iPhones) and desktop computers (iPads and Macs) are so powerful these days that they can convert what used to be a 10–20 minute chore into a quick 2-minute task that can be dealt with right away.

Technology helps speed things up to under 2 minutes…

As I mentioned, our computers are very powerful — but they also have productivity features that many of us never discover. Apart from the built-in Camera app, most people don’t know about the “Scan Documents” feature in the Files app or Notes app, or the power of the “Share” button, which can help you not only send a document but also upload it directly to your task manager or many other apps.

To speed up writing, I also set up “Text Replacement” in my Keyboard on both iOS and macOS. Very few people know that if you go to Settings → General → Keyboard → Text Replacement (yes, Apple really buried it well!) you can set up shortcuts for things you write often. When people ask for my email, I type “xn” which expands to michael AT nozbe DOT com. When they ask for my website I type “hhn” which expands to https://nozbe.com/. I have many more keyboard shortcuts set up like this.

Speaking of keyboard shortcuts — it’s very useful to learn them in any app you use regularly. Just check the app’s menu or help page. Many Nozbe users are still surprised that when they’re looking at a project in our app, they don’t have to hunt for the “+” button to add a task — they can just hit “N” and start typing the task name right away.

Shortcuts automations boost my 2-minute rule…

In addition to creating big, complex Shortcuts — like the Journaling Shortcut I love so much — I’ve realized there’s real value in building small Shortcuts that reduce something that used to take several minutes into a genuine 2-minute action. Here are some examples:

• 🔗 LinkTitle — fetches a webpage’s official title so I can use it or send it to someone.
• 🎬 Callsheet — creates a TMDB link from a movie or TV series I found in the Callsheet app, and also looks up the official Polish title and Rotten Tomatoes scores.
• 🐘 Toot! — lets me post quickly to my favorite social network. I don’t even need to open a Mastodon client; I can share a photo or thought right away. (Find me at @michael@nozbe.com.)
• 📷 Tinify — compresses an image to the right size so I can post it or send it to someone.
• And many more that I still haven’t published on my blog.

I do encourage you to play with Shortcuts — they help automate many tedious tasks and make many chores much more bearable, and even… fun?!

Action button on iPhone 15 Pro and newer to the rescue…

I also encourage you to switch the Action button on your iPhone 15 Pro or newer from mute/unmute to a button that invokes a Shortcut — and from there you can quickly access a list of actions you perform regularly. For inspiration, check out my Action button template.

The 2-minute rule teaches me to STOP and get rid of boring administrative tasks!

As you can see, a simple rule can really help cultivate new habits. First, the habit of just stopping for a few minutes instead of running everywhere and letting things pile up for later. Second, it forces you to rethink the way you do things, because our computers can help reduce tasks that used to take minutes — if not hours — to just a couple of minutes.

Give it a try. What do you have to lose? 2 minutes?