Quote
“If an action will take less than two minutes, it should be done at the moment it is defined.”
— David Allen, in Getting Things Done (2001) · Getting Things Done →
Why it was said
David Allen states the two-minute rule in the part of Getting Things Done that deals with processing the in-tray, where each item is picked up one at a time and you decide what it is and what the next action would be. The rule settles what to do with the smallest of those actions.
What it actually means
The rule is an efficiency cut-off, not a motivational trick. Allen's reasoning is that some actions take less time to do than to track: writing them down, filing them and looking at them again later costs more than simply doing them now. Two minutes is the rough point where that trade flips. The rule applies while you are processing, deciding what each item is, and it is not a licence to spend the day on small tasks. Used properly, it clears a surprising share of the pile in a single pass and keeps your lists for the work that genuinely needs a place to wait.
How to use it
- 1Next time you empty your inbox, time the first few replies. If one takes under two minutes, send it before moving on.
- 2Burak runs a small travel agency in İzmir. Going through his morning messages, he sends a thirty-second 'confirmed, see you Thursday' on the spot, while a quote for a group tour goes on his list.
- 3If a two-minute task starts to grow, stop, write down the next action and go back to processing.