Eat the Frog | Karmic Ally Coaching

The Twelve Minute Rule

When I sat down to write this post, the title eluded me. I toyed with the idea of Karmic Ally’s Twelve Minute Rule, Vatsala’s Twelve Minute Rule, and Breaking News: Social Media Twelve Minute Tips Work for Time Management.

I even thought along the lines of Twelve Minute Rule Rocks and Awesome Twelve Minute Rule!

The constants were Twelve Minute and Rule and I finally settled on a simple and humble The Twelve Minute Rule.

So, what happened that made me go Twelve Minute happy?

Do you believe in Carl Jung’s concept of Synchronicity? Well, something similar happened when I was thinking about procrastination and the balance between running a practice and business development.

Google search introduced me to an amazing lady Becky Robinson who has created the 31 Days of Twitter Tips.

The Aha moment happened while I was doing the challenge for enhancing my Social Media presence in Twelve Minutes a day.

If you are planning to improve your Twitter presence and have time scarcity, then this guide is a must read and worth every dime.

Coming back to Time Management, I realized that 12 minutes of action or procrastination can make or break our ability to stay on top our game and impact our success rate in meeting targets and goals.

Embracing the habit of setting clear priorities and completing important tasks quickly reduces many time management issues. Eat the frog and then relax knowing that you are cruising on the highway to success.

Here are a few of the ways that I am now applying the Twelve Minute Rule.

Need to get a job done? Spend Twelve Minutes simply going over what you need to achieve, brainstorm the actions required and then choose the best option for action.

You might find that some of the tasks can be delegated – note it down and then allot some time to instructing the person you intend to delegate to.

Got too many emails in the Inbox? Take Twelve Minutes to do an overview and sort them out before opening any.

Delete all spam and unnecessary emails, highlight the ones you need to pay attention to and forward the ones that require other people to action.

We often postpone important tasks with resulting anxiety and stomach aches. Time Management techniques of Chunk, Block and Tackle work well where we break tasks into manageable bytes.

If you follow the 15 Minute Rule, then each actionable step should not take more than 15 minutes. My spin is, reduce the time limit to Twelve Minutes and take the other 3 to either rest or celebrate a task done. Kill two birds with one stone.

Need advice? Book time with a trusted mentor or expert and ask them for insights. Tell them you will not take more than Twelve Minutes of their time.

It beats saying that you will take a minute and will definitely intrigue them enough to allot you the time slot. If you use this tactic, make sure you stay within time limits!

Celebrate a task well done with a Twelve Minute break to do something nice focused at you. Make that cup of coffee, do stretch exercises, call a loved one or take a power nap. “Me time” activities are great rejuvenation.

Love social media but find other important activities get side-lined?

Do what I have been doing for the last 1 month.

Log on to LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and other social media accounts for only Twelve Minutes twice a day. Clock yourself to log off when the time is up.

Do it twice a day and you will find that the sky does not collapse and your day is more productive.

Knowing that you have limited time, you will scan for the good stuff. You’ll have meaningful interactions and actually take away more from the precious time. Think Pareto’s Principle or the 80/20 Rule.

Now that is what I call killing two birds with one stone.

What about you? Any Twelve Minute tips to share?