What Can You Do In Two Minutes?

Two minutes might not seem like much, but appearances can be deceiving. There’s actually quite a lot you can accomplish in a two-minute window if you develop the habit if asking yourself if something takes two minutes or less. This habit was codified by consultant Dean Acheson (not the deceased U.S. senator), and later David Allen, as the Two Minute Rule.

The Logic of the Two Minute Rule

According to the Two Minute Rule, if something occurs to you that you determine can be done in two minutes or less, do it immediately, even if it’s a low priority item. Putting it off means spending more time thinking about the something than doing it, since you’ll either have to mentally remind yourself about it, or enter it on a last, review it, and reevaluate whether or not to do it.

Cluttering your to do list with two minute actions increases the size of your list with each line item. That might seem trivially obvious, but consider that if half of the items on your to do list are two-minute tasks, your perceived workload when scanning your list appears twice as large, despite a vast disparity in time commitments. Items like “Complete April sales report” and “Confirm dinner with Amy” are given equal psychic weight, even though there’s probably a 10-20x difference in time to completion.

Does It Matter a Little or Matter at All?

I’ve seen plenty of critics resist the Two Minute Rule based on untested assumptions, the most common of which goes something like this: “If I spend all of my time doing two-minute items, when will I ever have time to get to the important items?” This question is loaded with two assumptions: (1) that there’s an infinite supply of two-minute tasks to be done, and (2) that short tasks are unimportant.

Completing an under-two-minute action (lest we forget that many will be 30-second or one-minute actions) either leads to another one or a longer task. If the subsequent task is longer, you can put it on your to do list and evaluate it against all of the other items you’ve written down. If, in fact, the subsequent action does take less than two minutes, then you’ve spend a maximum of four minutes completing two items that would have otherwise lingered. Even in the unlikely event that you would have five of these in a row, that would consume a whopping 10 minutes out of your work day.

The notion that short tasks are unimportant is a curious one. Paying a bill online takes less than two minutes, but the consequences of not doing it can be quite serious. Yet many people will sit on a bill the moment it arrives, even when they know they have sufficient funds, because they inflate the task in their head. Sending a “thank you” email may not be serious, but if you’re going to send it at all, it would have more impact if you sent it the moment you thought of it than sending it four days later when you feel mentally pressured to do so.

The real question isn’t whether or not a short task is important enough to do now, but whether or not it should be done at all. If it should be done at all, and it takes essentially no time at all, do it now.

Does It Really Take Two Minutes?

One slightly less untested assumption is that many tasks end up taking longer than assumed. This is actually true, which highlights an important semantic distinction: we’re asking, not assuming. The object is not to assume that a relatively short task will take less than two minutes, then leap into indiscriminate action, but to consciously ask ourselves if it will, and actually think about whether or not it’s likely.

“Will this take two minutes or less?” is a disruptive question, designed not only to get you handle short actions immediately, but to prevent you from getting lured into potentially longer actions. Think of how many people check email without spending enough time to actually answer the messages they get. What’s the point in looking for email that can’t be answered? Why look at messages now that you’ll have to reexamine later? If it takes longer than two minutes, either schedule email processing for an appropriate block of time, or put it on your list.

Two minutes is actually arbitrary. When Acheson coached his early clients, he had them ask themselves, “Is it a short action?” After finding that “short” was too relative for some clients, he changed it to two minutes for clarity’s sake, but don’t get hung up on the length. The point is to discriminate between actions that are too short to put on a list and ones that are too long to start without becoming sidetracked from higher priorities.

During a busy weekday, the two-minute norm is probably ideal. If you happen to have more time — for instance, if you’ve come into the office on a Saturday, you might decide to immediately do anything that takes less than 10 minutes instead of two. The point of the rule is not to follow it blindly, but to make consciously question whether or not you actually have enough time. There’s usually more time available to do things than people assume.

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Clegg promises ‘power revolution’

Nick Clegg

Deputy prime minister Nick Clegg will pledge the "biggest shake-up of our democracy" in 178 years later as he expands on plans for political reform.

The Tory-Lib Dem coalition deal backs plans for fixed-term parliaments, more elected peers and a referendum on changing the voting system.

In a speech, Mr Clegg will pledge to restore faith in politics.

Mr Clegg is also expected to call on the public to nominate laws they think should be repealed.

But in an interview with the Times newspaper, the Liberal Democrat leader defended the Human Rights Act – which the Tories have previously pledged to scrap – saying "any government would tamper with it at its peril".

The government has said a commission will be formed to review the act, having previously promised to replace it with a "British Bill of Rights".

The workings of the act have again been called into question after two terrorist suspects successfully appealed against being deported to Pakistan, after arguing they faced torture or death in their home country.

Mr Clegg, who was made deputy PM in the coalition government and is overseeing political reform plans, will give a speech from 1100 BST.

DNA storage

According to pre-released extracts, he will say the government would "transform our politics so the state has far less control over you, and you have far more control over the state".

This would include scrapping the ID card scheme and accompanying National Identity Register, all future biometric passports and the children’s Contact Point Database and ensuring CCTV was "properly regulated" and restricting the storage of innocent people’s DNA.

Mr Clegg will say: "I’m talking about the most significant programme of empowerment by a British government since the great enfranchisement of the 19th Century.

"The biggest shake up of our democracy since 1832, when the Great Reform Act redrew the boundaries of British democracy, for the first time extending the franchise beyond the landed classes."

He added: "Incremental change will not do. It is time for a wholesale, big bang approach to political reform."

He will also accuse the previous government of "obsessive lawmaking" and pledge to "get rid of the unnecessary laws" and "introduce a mechanism to block pointless new criminal offences".

He will also pledged to ask the public "which laws you think should go" as they "tear through the statute book".

Mr Clegg will add: "This government is going to persuade you to put your faith in politics once again."

In the House of Commons, the newly elected MPs will begin the swearing-in process which is expected to last into Thursday. The most senior MP goes first – MPs can take a religious oath or a secular affirmation of loyalty to the Crown.

They returned to the Commons briefly on Tuesday to elect the Speaker – John Bercow was reappointed to the role without a vote, despite a handful of objections.

The serious business of the Parliament gets under way next week, with the Queen’s Speech – outlining the coalition’s legislative agenda for the year – taking place on Tuesday.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Build an Online Photobooth and Stunning 3d Photowall – Active Premium

Today, we have another Active Premium tutorial exclusively available to Premium members. If you want to take your ActionScript skills to the next level, then we have a super 3D tutorial for you, this time from Gerb Sterrenburg.

This Premium Tutorial is Filled with Creative Tips

In this Premium tutorial we will build a online photobooth and a 3d photowall. This application will let you take a photo using your webcam after which it is sent to a server where it will be stored in a database. Finally, your photo will be viewable in a 3d photo carousel.

We’ll cover a wide range of techniques like flash remoting, AMFPHP, mySQL databases, PHP and the new Away3D lite engine.

Professional and Detailed Instructions Inside

Premium members can Log in and Download! Otherwise, Join Now! Below are some sample images from this tutorial.

Active Premium Membership

We run a Premium membership system which costs $9 a month (or $22 for 3 months!) which periodically gives members access to extra tutorials, like this one! You’ll also get access to Psd Premium, Vector Premium, Audio Premium, Net Premium, Ae Premium and Cg Premium too. If you’re a Premium member, you can log in and download the tutorial. If you’re not a member, you can of course join today!

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