Life hack: 10-second rules for all aspects of your life

Bite-sized changes can tackle anything from a messy home to a job hunt. Experts share easy ways to form good habits.

Ten seconds may be all it takes to improve your life.

Short bursts of action – or inaction – can help with everything from keeping your house clean to maintaining relationships, with the “10 second rule” applying to much more than just food that has touched the floor.

SEEK resident psychologist Sabina Read says that, in general, people benefit from setting bite-sized goals.

“When people want to make any change in their life, it needs to be small habits often,” Read says.

“They create ripples and ripples create significant changes, and that applies whether talking health or careers or any domain in our life.

“I have read stats that say up to 50 per cent of our actions every day are due to habits – and those can work well for us or not, it depends which habits we tend to practise often.”

Psychologist Sabina Read says he key is to form small habits and repeat them often. Picture: Supplied

Read, who works with organisations, groups, individuals, couples and families, says the key is for people to be honest with themselves.

“There is no point maintaining healthy or adaptive habits only on the days we are feeling ready and pumped and capable,” she says.

“We need to maintain these behaviours on the tough days, too.”

She also says it is important to avoid “the Disneyland approach” – a metaphor for saving everything up for one big experience or goal.

“Instead of waiting for the grand ‘Disneyland holiday’, think, ‘What will I do every hour, day, week, month to support the person I want to be and the goals I want to achieve?’ ”

Some popular 10-second rules include:

CLEANING

If you see something that needs cleaning or putting away, just do it – you won’t miss the 10 seconds it takes in between tasks. This can be repeated many times a day and ensures a tidy home or work space.

Break your cleaning up into bite-sized chunks to keep on top of it. Picture: iStock

APPEARANCES

If you feel the need to comment on someone’s appearance, first ask yourself: Can they address the problem in less than 10 seconds?

For example, people want to be told if there is food in their teeth, but don’t want it pointed out that they are missing a tooth.

Ten seconds can save embarrassment and hurt feelings.

MONEY

Whether shopping for clothes, household items or even investing on the stockmarket, count to – at least – 10 before buying.

You could save yourself thousands of dollars, as well as a lot of unwanted items and clutter.

ANGER

Waiting 10 seconds before responding in a tense conversation can provide you time to calm your mind and prevent you saying something you might regret. This applies at home and in the office.

RECRUITMENT

When creating a resume, it’s often recommended to apply the “10-second test”.

Recruiters typically sift through large volumes of job applications so your resume needs to stand out in the first crucial skim.

Recruitment firm Michael Page advises having a compelling hook, such as a strong one-line professional summary after your name and contact details, outlining your elevator pitch for the specific job.

An easy-to-read layout with logical headings and to-the-point information will also help.

Fit some mini meditation sessions into your work day. Picture: iStock

STRESS

Not everyone has time to fit a yoga session into their workday, but you can de-stress in as little as 10 seconds with a mini-meditation.

The Center for Mindful Living co-founder Dr Elisha Goldstein recommends the “Be a PRO” practice.

P for pause: Break the autopilot stress cycle.

R for relax your body: muscles get tight when we stress, sending signals to the brain to fight, flee or freeze, making thoughts more distracted and chaotic.

O for open up to what matters in the moment: allow yourself to be more aware of creative ideas or focus on the task at hand.

HOW TO FORM GOOD HABITS

Source: SEEK resident psychologist Sabina Read

1 Focus on who you want to be, not what you want to do – e.g. if you want to be a kind person, form habits aligned to kindness.

2 Change your environment – e.g. remove the phone from your bedroom if you don’t want to check it as soon as you get up in the morning.

3 Replace habits – e.g. instead of eating chocolate after dinner with your cup of tea, have celery.

4 Pair or stack habits – e.g. if you want to look after your skin, cleanse and moisturise when you brush your teeth as that is something you already do every day.

5 Change your cues – e.g. if you want to go for runs in the mornings, put your clothes, keys and AirPods out at night so you have to trip over them.