1-Page Summary1-Page Book Summary of The 5 Second Rule
Do you feel stuck and dissatisfied with your life? Do you struggle to take steps toward self-improvement, live in the moment, or overcome procrastination? If so, life coach and motivational speaker Mel Robbins offers a solution. In The 5 Second Rule, Robbins explains how you can assert agency over your life using a single method: counting down from five to one over the course of five seconds and acting when you reach one. This practice encourages you to work towards your goals without letting overthinking or hesitation immobilize you.
While Robbins isn’t a licensed therapist or psychologist, her personal experiences with anxiety and ADHD inform her approach to mental health. Robbins uses a combination of her own coping techniques, testimonials from others, and neuroscientific research to support her claims that the 5 Second Rule can help you in every aspect of your life.
A Better Name for The 5 Second Rule?
Arguably, “The 5 Second Rule” isn’t the ideal name for this method for a couple of reasons....
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The 5 Second Rule Summary Part 1: Background on the Rule
The Rule’s Main Uses
According to Robbins, you can use the 5-Second Rule to:
- Jump into action
- Be bold and follow your gut
- Control impulsiveness
Let’s explore each use in detail.
1) Using the Rule to Jump Into Action
Robbins notes that the 5 Second Rule gives you a tool to overcome resistance and complete tasks—especially non-habitual tasks—that previously felt impossible due to anxiety, depression, or lack of motivation.
Mental health struggles and lack of motivation often result in us overthinking our actions. According to Robbins, it takes just five seconds for the brain to convince us not to do something if it isn’t already part of our routine. The brain triggers this overthinking to protect us from possible unknown negative consequences of non-habitual action: When we have the impulse to do something that isn’t part of our routine, the brain generates reasons why that new action may lead to negative outcomes.
For example, let’s say you usually stay home and watch Netflix on your days off work. However, you’ve been feeling stressed lately and know you’d benefit from being active—say, by playing tennis with your friends. You have a gut...
The 5 Second Rule Summary Part 2: Putting the Rule Into Practice
Now that we’ve explored the basics of the Rule and how to use it, we’ll discuss how to put the Rule into practice (in combination with other methods) to stop procrastinating, spend more time on your passions, and manage anxiety.
Stop Procrastinating
In this section, we’ll address how, in conjunction with other methods, the Rule can help you overcome two types of procrastination: procrastinating on daily tasks and procrastinating on life changes.
Procrastinating on Daily Tasks
To understand how the Rule will help you stop procrastinating on daily tasks, it’s useful to first explain why we procrastinate. Robbins argues that we procrastinate to temporarily relieve stress as we avoid a difficult or daunting task and replace it with things that boost our mood for the moment (like scrolling on Buzzfeed instead of washing your car).
Knowing that procrastination is a response to stress, you can stop procrastinating on daily tasks using three strategies:
1) Stop beating yourself up. Robbins points out that feeling shameful over your procrastination only leads to more stress, which will continue the cycle of procrastination because you’ll want to avoid that stress....
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Shortform Exercise: Build a New Habit With the 5 Second Rule
Robbins states that the 5 Second Rule is a tool to help you overcome overthinking when you’re trying to do something that’s not a part of your normal routine. Practice this by identifying a routine you’d like to change and preparing to apply the 5 Second Rule.
Identify a healthy habit you’d like to start or a bad habit you’d like to quit. (For example, perhaps you’d like to get out of bed earlier or learn to code. Alternatively, you might want to stop spending time on Twitter or compulsively working too much). How often do you currently perform that habit, and how often would you like to perform that habit?
