He would go to the gym, exercise for ve minutes, and leave as soon as his time was up. Aer a few weeks, he looked around and thought, Well, Im always coming here anyway. I might as well start staying a little longer. A few years later, the weight was gone.

Journaling provides another example. Nearly everyone can benet from getting their thoughts out of their head and onto paper, but most people give up aer a few days or avoid it entirely because journaling feels like a chore.* e secret is to always stay below the point where it feels like work. Greg McKeown, a leadership consultant from the United Kingdom, built a daily journaling habit by specically writing less than he felt like. He always stopped journaling before it seemed like a hassle. Ernest Hemingway believed in similar advice for any kind of writing. e best way is to always stop when you are going good, he said.

Strategies like this work for another reason, too: they reinforce the identity you want to build. If you show up at the gym ve days in a row even if its just for two minutesyou are casting votes for your new identity. Youre not worried about getting in shape. Youre focused on becoming the type of person who doesnt miss workouts. Youre taking the smallest action that conrms the type of person you want to be. We rarely think about change this way because everyone is consumed by the end goal. But one push-up is better than not exercising. One minute of guitar practice is better than none at all. One minute of reading is better than never picking up a book. Its better to do less than you hoped than to do nothing at all.

At some point, once youve established the habit and youre showing up each day, you can combine the Two-Minute Rule with a technique we call habit shaping to scale your habit back up toward your ultimate goal. Start by mastering the rst two minutes of the smallest version of the behavior. en, advance to an intermediate step and repeat the processfocusing on just the rst two minutes and mastering that stage before moving on to the next level. Eventually, youll end up with the habit you had originally hoped to build while still keeping your focus where it should be: on the rst two minutes of the behavior. EXAMPLES OF HABIT SHAPING Becoming an Early Riser Phase 1: Be home by 10 p.m. every night. Phase 2: Have all devices (TV, phone, etc.) turned off by 10 p.m. every night. Phase 3: Be in bed by 10 p.m. every night (reading a book, talking with your partner). Phase 4: Lights off by 10 p.m. every night. Phase 5: Wake up at 6 a.m. every day.