The entrepreneur Took part BetterUp's Uplift summit San Francisco on April 11, where renowned author and public speaker James Clear, who is best known for New York Times The bestselling book, Atomic Habits, talked about the key to building habits that last.

His book, which teaches people the importance of building better habits at a scalable level and finding success with these newly adopted behaviors, is a bestseller. than 15 million copies. However, he knows that when people want to make massive changes, it can feel completely overwhelming.

“We're so focused on optimization that we don't give ourselves permission to show up even if it's just a small way.”

But Clear said there is a technique that only takes two minutes of your time.

Connected: How to develop atomic habits

By using the “two-minute rule,” you can start implementing habits into your daily life, no matter how far-fetched (or big) the new habits may be. The strategy can be applied to any habit you're trying to build, he says, both professionally and personally.

What is the two minute rule?

The two minute rule is when you take a new habit or task you want to accomplish and no matter how big it seems, break it down into a short task that can be done in two minutes or less.

“Take whatever habit you're trying to form and boil it down to something that takes two minutes or less to do,” Clear explained. So 'read 30 books a year' becomes 'read a page' or 'do yoga four days a week' becomes 'get off my yoga mat'.

Clear says critics have taken issue with this strategy because they are aware that they are trying to trick their brains, which makes it harder to implement. But Clear says to take a step back and just start – the hardest step is usually the first.

“This is a deeper truth about habits that people often overlook, which is a habit that needs to be formed before it can be improved,” he said. “There are certain standards in your life before you can grow and optimize it and turn it into something more.”

Clear likened it to going to the gym and knowing that your first step in creating habits can be simply putting on your workout clothes and walking out the front door, not starting with a 5-mile run or an hour of intense exercise.

“At some point, planning becomes a form of procrastination.”

“And I don't know why we do it. But we often take it all or nothing for our habits,” he said. “We're so focused on finding the best training program, the perfect sales strategy, the ideal diet plan—we're so focused on optimizing that we don't give ourselves permission to show up even if it's just a small way. “

Sometimes deciding to start instead of planning to start is the change you need, he said.

“The two-minute rule pushes back perfectionism, fear and this tendency to over-plan or over-research,” he said. “Planning and preparation can be useful. But if you're planning and research and preparation replace the action you need to take, now it's outlived its usefulness and has become a crutch – at some point planning becomes a form of procrastination.”