Revitalize Your Writing with the 5-Minute Rule

It doesn’t matter if you’re a natural-born writer or an award-winning journalist, writer’s block occasionally slips up and pays you a visit—and for some, this can be a really big road block, especially if you don’t know how to approach the situation. Let us give you help you with that! The secret to warding off your writer’s block is the “five minutes of writing” rule. Five measly minutes can seem like a laughably small amount of time. It’s hard to believe it works, but as they say, “consistency starts small.”

How It Works

Pick a few times throughout the day for your five-minute writing sessions. These could be before you eat breakfast, when break for lunch, before go to bed at night, or they could even be spur of the moment, as long as you save a five-minute time frame and commit to it.

By following this practice, you’ve taken away the feeling that you’re being forced to write.  Deciding when to squeeze in your five minutes, which is relatively easier than sitting in front of the computer trying to motivate yourself to write, makes it feel less like an obligation. This procedure also gives you a chance to take a break and think throughout the day, allowing yourself to collect all of your thoughts. Suddenly, during one five-minute session you may have much more to say. In that case, you can make the choice to keep writing—but not so much that you’re at risk of burning out. Make sure you set a writing time limit for yourself, just like a runner would set a distance or time limit.

Another benefit to this setup is that it can completely change your attitude about writing. Instead of the once-felt dread of writing a report, the time investment will help you feel in charge of your writing and, at the end of it all, you’ll feel proud of what you accomplished.

Over time, writing in these small bursts of will turn into a habit, and once you’ve become rooted in that habit you can start to gradually write in longer intervals, but the idea remains the same. Don’t make whatever you have to write about feel like an obligation, or else you’ll find writer’s block creeping back into your brain. Let the information sink in and pick it back up when you’re ready for it.

If you ever struggle with writer’s block, we urge you to try out this five-minute rule process, but remember stick with it for at least four weeks. Who knows, maybe it will end up being part of your daily regimen!