Ep. 185 – Time Matters, Part 4 | Real-Life Toolkit: 4 Science-Backed Ways to Maximize Your Minutes

 In this final episode of our Time Matters series, we’re bringing together four simple, science-backed tools that help you make the most of the minutes you have. These practices—your Key Three, Ridiculously Small Steps, the 10-Minute Kickstart, and the Two-Minute Rule—create focus and movement even when life doesn’t go as planned. We’ll explore how time can stretch or tighten depending on the story we tell ourselves, and how a small shift in how you value time can reshape how you spend it. This episode is your real-life toolkit for choosing momentum over overwhelm, one practical step at a time. 

Show Notes:

Episode 19 (The 10- Minute Kickstart) - https://youtu.be/-vIE9Z85bhU

Episode 33 (Ridiculously Small Steps) - https://youtu.be/ko-7ODx59oo

Episode 47 (The Key Three Technique) - https://youtu.be/0Wkozg79_qw

Episode 126 (The 2-Minute Rule) - https://youtu.be/5PRD9xcnajc

Transcript

Ep. 185 – Time Matters, Part 4 | Real-Life Toolkit: 4 Science-Backed Ways to Maximize Your Minutes

Welcome back to Fewer Things Better and our special series on time.

Over the past few weeks, we’ve explored time from different angles: how we relate to it, how we measure it, and how we value our own time. We’ve looked at how time can feel elastic, scarce, or even stolen, depending on the story we tell ourselves about it.

This storytelling was especially true for me just last week when I got a text, right as I arrived at the airport, that said my flight was delayed. This happened to a lot of people.
 After the initial annoyance, I thought about this series and I reached into what I call my real-life nerdy toolkit. For the three years of producing and researching this podcast, I’ve collected a lot of science-backed practices that can help me stay grounded when time shifts underneath my feet like it did then.

There isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution for how to always manage time, but there are plenty of tactics to try. The best ones are those that work in real life, and in real time.

Because we all need options for when life goes sideways. Because it will. Life, in all its lifeness of emails, deadlines, and people, rarely slows down to match our schedule or shifts to help us along it. Time stretches, it bends, and it surprises us. And when it does, we have the chance to shift along with it.

Standing there in the terminal, I realized I had exactly that choice. I could put myself on pause for an hour, I could fight the delay with impatience, or I could settle into the unplanned and look for what I could gain. Same sixty minutes, completely different outcomes, all depending on how I chose to use my time toolkit.

The Bottom Line on Top of this episode is that when you shift how you value time, you change how you spend it.

That’s what this final episode in the Time Matters series is about: how to make the most of our relationship with time, in all its forms. It’s about how to move from reacting or resisting time to choosing and creating momentum right in the middle of the real life of it all.

Part of what makes this possible is having some curated tools within reach for when you find yourself in need of focus, flexibility, flow, or even just a reset. So, from our nerd archives, here are a few items to try as you create your own time toolkit.

The first tool comes from Episode 47, called The Key Three.
 I first discovered this tool more than fifteen years ago. I was working at a large global company and one day I was meeting with the CEO. Now he always seemed to be calm even though there was a constant line outside his door and the nonstop nature of the work we were doing.

I had recently been promoted to manage two separate functions, and I asked him on this day how he found focus. He reached over to his computer monitor and pulled off a sticky note. On it were three short lines. “Every day,” he said, “I write down three things. If I get them done, the rest of the day is just a bonus.”

That simple practice became a core compass for me. Clarity can be far more powerful than volume. Involvement in everything makes you busy; focus makes you productive. Each day, define your Key Three. Even if you don’t complete them, the work was already done to clarify what matters from just the work and the noise of the moment.

It’s also closely related to one of my favorite mantras which is: How you start is how you continue. Identifying your Key Three makes time yours and shifts the focus to intentionality instead of the cognitive ping-pong of reacting to the days’ pings and zings.

The next tool comes from Episode 33 and the concept of Ridiculously Small Steps, or RSS.
This is about breaking down tasks into clear, simple steps. This is important because our brains love to admire a problem. They’ll circle around it, they’ll analyze it and get everyone else’s input, and then they’ll try to research it a little bit more before even taking a single step. But it’s the micro-movement that turns thought into traction. RSS helps the brain move from spinning in thought to taking small actions.

It’s more than just breaking a goal into pieces; it’s giving your mind the space to see the steps in the journey, not just the destination or the mile markers. Each small action becomes a bit of a  dopamine high-five, a quiet signal that says, “Okay, cool one done. What’s next?”
 As philosopher and scientist Albert Einstein once said, “Nothing happens until something moves.” And you are the thing that needs to move. And this RSS will help you do just that.

A similar tool builds on this concept of gentle ignition: the 10-Minute Kickstart from Episode 19.
Overwhelm and indecision are common companions, especially when life keeps shifting and the fog of fatigue is rolling in. And then there’s the whisper of perfectionism: “If you can’t do it perfectly, why even start at all?”

The 10-Minute Kickstart is disruption in the form of simple elegance. Ten minutes is enough time to gain progress without the burden of expected completion. When you feel the weight of too much to do, pick one part of it and give it ten minutes. Set a timer for this because your brain will want to come back and say “surely it’s been 10 minutes by now.” This is about beginning, not finishing.. That small burst of effort is the switch needed for momentum.

There will be days, however, when even ten minutes doesn’t feel within reach. That’s where the final tool comes in. The Two-Minute Rule from Episode 126.
For the last decade, I have researched, written, and taught productivity tips and tricks to tens of thousands of people. This is the one tool that helps most people get unstuck.
The concept comes from many places but I center it on David Allen’s book Getting Things Done and The Two-Minute Rule  is simply this: if a task takes less than two minutes to complete, just do it now. Right now.

I’m a girl who loves a good to-do list. I will write things down, color-code them, and delight in having a nice black Sharpie to cross things off. But sometimes I find myself moving the same thing from list to list, and that’s when I know procrastination is sneaking in.

The Two-Minute Rule is now my daily vitamin, my attention-adrenaline infusion. It’s a way to take action instead of planning to take action.

We often overestimate how long something will take. Even reading one email can feel like, “I don’t have the energy for that right now.” But taking a look at the email will probably take less than two minutes. From there, you can decide what, if anything, you have the energy to do next. But you now already know what is needed instead of anticipating what it might be and trying to avoid all those things.

When we do this in a group, I definitely see how things that have been put off for months can really get done in a matter of minutes. It’s rarely the effort that is stopping us; it’s the anticipation of the effort.
 I share this tool intentionally after Ridiculously Small Steps and the 10-Minute Kickstart because The Two-Minute Rule doesn’t work for everything, but it works for a lot more than you think.
Next time you find yourself stuck in a swirl, reach for something small and just go for two minutes.

So, to recap, here are four tools that can help maximize your minutes:
 The Key Three defines what matters most right now.
Ridiculously Small Steps shrinks the resistance and shows you a better map.
The 10-Minute Kickstart powers you past perfectionism and procrastination.
The Two-Minute Rule clears out the quick wins.

For the week ahead, pick one category-one tool that feels especially right now. This isn’t about mastering the art of everything; it’s about finding a few reliable resources as you do the things that you can.

If the ultimate goal is to do fewer things better, the best tool is to simply start by focusing on the fewer.

However time might shift for you this week, feel around for what tools you already have and give one of these new ones a try. Time management isn’t about controlling some big ticking clock; it’s about finding focus along with flexibility, and discovering options as you shift with it.

And if you find yourself in the midst of a delay, see where you can work with the elements instead of against them. Because in the end, that’s usually the fastest way to move forward.

Until next time, use all the tools to help you take care to take the best care.