What is a very useful brain hack that everyone should know?

Answered by Malky McEwan, former Police Inspector, Scotland (1983-2014)

This technique is the most powerful I use. The method takes less than three minutes to read and learn.

As a police officer they bombarded me with paperwork. Getting through it required a lot of determination. It is not the best part of the job.

Then I discovered the three-minute technique. Whatever work I had on my plate I gave it three minutes of my time. Three minutes is nothing. We can gaze out of the window for longer. It takes more time to boil a kettle and make a cup of coffee. Three minutes, that’s it. What happened when I gave three minutes of my time to a piece of work was amazing. It got me started. If what I was doing was important it engaged my brain for longer. It is rare that I stopped after three minutes.

Getting started is key. Tricking my brain into making moves is the catalyst to getting finished.

Getting started is progress. Picking up where I left off gets it done.

It helped me get to the rank of Inspector. At the end of the day I would go back to my desk and do one last piece of work for three minutes. That is three minutes more than everyone else was doing. It was an uninterrupted three minutes. It works because I worked.

I have used it to write three hilarious police books and three lateral thinking question books.

I might not feel in the mood to write so I tell myself I will give it three minutes. Sometimes that three minutes takes three hours. But, oh boy, it has been productive!

I have used the three-minute technique to learn French, improve my golf, run a half marathon, read countless books, vacuum the house, do the ironing, teach my kids good manners, tell my Mum I love her, do fifty press ups, and even answer a Quora question. Views: 81.6k, Upvotes: 2.7k