Increase Productivity with the “10-Minute Rule”

Michelle Bryant wrote a fantastic article where she explains the “10-Minute Rule”. The rule states that everything you do should be broken down into 10 minute segments. Every task that you need to complete should take no more than 10 minutes. If it does, she says, it needs to be broken down into smaller segments. The enforcer of this rule? A timer – Something EVERYBODY has on their phone.

So, through delegating tasks that other people can easily do in 10 minutes or less, finding the easy, 10 minute tasks within larger and more laborious projects, and actually using that 10 minute timer, Bryant argues that you can indeed drastically cut down on the time you spend on tasks that should really take a fraction of your time.

Itching to put this 10 minute rule to the test, our development team decided to try it out in their next meeting. Development meetings typically run over an hour. With so many ideas going back and forth, it’s easy for them to go over their allotted meeting time. This week’s meeting happened to have four agenda items on it. To test out the rule, the team first determined that they would split the full 60 minutes across their agenda items equally. They then broke down each agenda item into smaller areas of discussion that could be managed within two, ten-minute intervals. They decided to leave the remaining twenty minutes as a buffer for any agenda item that required additional time. While the team still used the entire hour, they found that they used their time much more efficiently and were able to determine topics that required more attention versus topics that could be removed from their agenda. The 10 minute timer kept them focused on the task at hand.

Time is a precious commodity. Please reach out to us at [email protected] learn how Cloud Coach can help you make the most of your time!