a quick new idea daily from the world's greatest tedex tots I'm your host atosa Leoni and this is tedex shorts we all have to-do lists but there always seems to be some items we just can't seem to get started on maybe it's emptying your in box or figuring out where the superglue is stored in your packed closet Caroline Buchanan is a journalist and author of the 15minute rule how to stop procrastinating and take control of your life today she gives us guidance on how to move these goals from to-do to done I'm here to tell you about my 15 minute rule because it is absolutely lifechanging it has made the most enormous difference to my life it's actually what's brought me here today you can use my 15-minute rule on anything or everything you can use it on to change your career you can use it to sort out your money I invented the the 15-minute rule to do my tax return and I don't like admin and paperwork and it's not really my thing and I would do everything to avoid it everything and oddly enough sock pairing became a big thing I would go to the laundry in the bathroom and I would gather up all the socks and sit and pair them that felt such an important job or I'd clean the kitchen floor anything anything to avoid the tax return and then one day I thought you know what I'll give it 15 minutes so I set my alarm and I started to prepare doing my tax return turned on the computer that counted as seconds in the 15 minutes found some relevant documents went to the filing cabinet got some more documents rushed around looking for my calculator wrote two columns income and expenditure and then suddenly my alarm went the 50 minutes was up and I felt fantastic I can't tell you how good I felt sort of out of all proportion to the task and why of course I felt so good was because I'd started it and I've taken the nightmare out of it and I'd taken the feelings of being overwhelmed out of it I was enjoying it so much I never thought I could enjoy a tax return I tell you uh that I wanted to carry on but something told me no I've got to stop now and trust myself so then the next 15 minutes I did and the same thing and I got much further on than I Poss could possibly have thought I would but again I stopped after 50 minutes and then I thought this you know this really works this really works I started trying to do it on other things I used it to sort out my wardrobe I used it to have a difficult conversation with somebody and and then I thought you know what there's a there's a book in this and there was and there is and I used my 50-minute rule to get it published so this is how you do it so you can use it as I said on anything or everything you can use it to do all those horrible jobs you've left undone but you can also use it to create a wonderful new life for yourself to make those dreams come true true so set that timer on your phone and start your 15 minute rule you are what you do not what you say you'll do the other joys of it are that when you do that 15 minutes it's it's it's like a real safe time frame and you feel contained and you're free to let your imagination run away with you and you don't have to sense yourself you can just get on and do it and you will be amazed because 15 minutes is short enough to be manageable but it's long enough to achieve something very worthwhile now the best way as I say to work it is I suggest you do three lots of 15 minutes over a 3-day period the first two it's very very important that you stop when your alarm goes off even if you're gagging to go on even if you think I'm really into this now it be mad to stop I'm good no no no you have to give yourself the message you trust yourself it's so important from the third 15 minutes you can carry on as long as you like but the minute you get bored tired or fed up you know then stop and just 15 minutes next time I am so passionate about this as as as you can tell and I have as a result of doing this I have become oh so much happier I can't tell you I just want to add the importance of two profoundly important things willingness and enthusiasm think of it as we willingness and enthusiasm they they and if you can't find it if you've lost your willingness and enthusiasm look around for it and or work the 15minute rule on how can I get it back because with willingness and enthusiasm there's so much you can achieve there's a lovely phrase I heard which is God moves mountains but he expects us to have a shovel in our hands well I'm really hoping that I might have inspired you to pick up the 15minute rule today as your [Music] shovel the tedex talk you just listened to was recorded at a tedex event in Venza Italy all tedex events are independently organized by volunteers who believe in Ted's mission of ideas worth spreading special thanks to the organizing team at tedex Venza want to listen to the full talk find Caroline's talk and more at t.com Texs I'm atosa Leoni thanks for listening and see you next time