5-Minute Rule: The #1 Hack to Overcome Exercise Procrastination

Struggling to find the energy or motivation to work out? You’re not alone. In this short but powerful episode, Healthspan Coach Aaron Shaw breaks down the science-backed 5-Minute Rule—a simple yet effective strategy to overcome procrastination and get moving.

Learn why motivation is overrated, how action creates momentum, and how this small mental shift can transform your healthspan, career span, and overall well-being. Plus, Aaron shares practical tips to implement this rule today—whether for exercise, work, or any habit you’ve been avoiding.

Listen now and take the first step—because five minutes can change everything. 

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Transcript

I want to tell you how a five minute investment will change your lifespan, will change your healthspan, will change your career span in just five minutes. But first I want to talk about coffee and motivation. So what is it about coffee and motivation? Well, I want you to think about that first cup of coffee in the morning. If you're a coffee drinker, I'm a coffee drinker and there is nothing like that.

first sip is nothing like that. Even just the smell of coffee, whether it's brewing or if you're to do a coffee press or a pour over or you get it at the local coffee shop, whatever it is. But for those of us that are coffee drinkers, that first smell is such an amazing experience. And it's a positive experience from the first smell of it, the first sip of it. is immediately or nearly immediately fulfilling. Like as soon as I have that first sip,

It feels great. It tastes great. And then pretty soon after that, the caffeine starts to kick in and I'm waking up more and more. So it's like this nice positive feedback loop and it's beautiful. It's just a beautiful thing. And I do it every morning and it is such a successful experience for me that it's pretty motivating to do it again the next morning, tomorrow morning. I did it this morning. And even by evening time, I look forward to my first cup of coffee the next morning as I prep everything.

So to say that I'm motivated for coffee, motivated from that first sip would be an understatement. Of course I'm motivated for it. And if you're a coffee drinker, I'm sure you're the same way. But what about being motivated to exercise? Do you ever feel that way about exercise? I don't, I don't. I mean, to compare the motivation of having a sip of coffee, the first cup of coffee,

And equating that in any way, or form to going to the gym, for example, and working out, is an alien comparison. There's nothing alike. But for as much as I have a cup of coffee every day, most days of the week, I also find myself exercising in some sort of way. Despite the difference with exercise being is that it's not fun. It is not comfortable. It is not easy. there's no immediate benefits. So don't even get like, get the

buzzes, you know, after those first few sips and your body starts to wake up and you know, your alertness, you know, increases. So there's this great positive feedback loop, if you will, with caffeine. But with, you know, exercise, it's not, it's not nearly as pleasurable any step of the way. And the truth, you know, truth be told, I am very, very rarely motivated to exercise. And people who know me would say, well, you know, it looks like you exercise all the time and I do.

But it's not motivation. is, it is, it is a challenge that I have to overcome every day that I want to do it, especially if I'm going to the gym. I'm definitely not motivated to go to the gym, but I ended up doing it a couple of days a week. I'm definitely not motivated to train on my indoor bike, which I do a couple of days a week as well. If I can't get outside, but I do it anyhow, and it's not fun, but what's the difference? Like why is, why is being motivated to have the coffee? How different is that than being motivated to exercise?

Well, we're going to talk about that, but first let me introduce myself. My name is Aaron Shaw. I am a healthspan coach. And as this episode will show you, have a, forever curiosity on all things healthspan related. Healthspan is the length of time within our lifespan that we are healthy, active, vibrant, disease free, prevent hopefully, hopefully we are free from.

conditions that can be prevented. have a nearly 30 year career in coaching and occupational therapy and strength and conditioning. And I have a business which is coaching people, helping people get changed your life, make better decisions, improve their healthspan. And we focus on the five pillars of healthspan. Those are exercise, nutrition, sleep, emotional wellbeing, and preventative care. And

Part of that, and I would argue the most important part of these pillars or the most important pillar is exercise. It is the hardest thing for most people to overcome because it is such a demanding thing to do. It's on the short term, while engaging in it, it is not a necessarily fulfilling thing to do. Whatever type of rewards there are from exercise are either invisible or they take a long time to even start to really appreciate that.

appreciate the benefits, even though the benefits of exercise, physical exercises, vast, everything from emotional wellbeing and quality of sleep and length of life, quality of life, metabolic health. mean, the list can go on and on and I've done other other episodes on that, but it's tough. It's tough to be motivated to exercise. And I struggle with this all the time. And so I'm going to assume that you're probably like me.

You may like coffee like I do, and you may also struggle with motivation to exercise. So let's talk about that. Motivation is the reason why a person behaves in acts in a certain way. It's the why behind we do things. And as I've just discussed, the why behind being motivated for a cup of coffee, pretty self-explanatory. It's a very fulfilling experience. But the why behind exercise, physical exercise, doing something hard, we really need to kind of dig into that and really figure out

Is there a way to shortcut or a hack to being motivated to starting this route, to starting an exercise session, just a single, single session? Is there a way that we can increase the likelihood of doing this damn thing that is hard to do? That is physically challenging. We're not super motivated or interested in doing it at all was a billion other distractions that we can do, but how do we hack this? How do we.

achieve what we know we need to achieve in doing an exercise, doing a workout to live longer. We're going to break this episode down into three sections. One, I want to talk about why motivation is overrated. want to cover what we call a five minute rule. And we'll dig into the science a little bit behind this five minute rule. And I'm going to give you practical ways to implement this rule into your daily life, specifically to make sure that you have a tool.

that is going to vastly increase the likelihood of you exercising and the same tool. can really increase the likelihood of doing any sort of task, but you're stuck listening to me or you're not stuck. I'm grateful that you weren't listening to me, but we're going to focus specifically on exercise. And I'm to throw in a bonus at the end because once you've mastered this five minute rule, there's another level that you'll get even more amplified benefits. But let's start at the beginning. Why is, why is motivation overrated? Well,

Motivation comes and goes at best. comes and goes. Sometimes I feel like it never comes at all, but we do need to have a sense of getting the ball rolling. We need to do something that's going to get the ball rolling to really give us a positive reinforcement to keep engaging in a task. Even if that task isn't as immediately pleasurable as having a cup of coffee. The reality is that action precedes motivation. And the key is actually starting is getting started as starting.

with the momentum that will make completing or continuing with a certain task that much easier. You know this, you've done this before. I do this and I rely on this just getting started because once I get started, it tends to be a little bit easier to keep going. But the biggest barrier is that it is really the starting. It's not so much the activity itself, it's not so much the workout itself or those series of exercises that you're gonna do. It is starting that.

Research shows that even doing small intentional actions and really override this sense of, let's say apathy, can improve our mood, can improve our actions, but it takes this small, like a small baby step towards a bigger goal that you're going to try to achieve. In this case, a good workout. So taking small steps, tiny steps. And if you've listened to any of my podcasts before, you'll know I mentioned atomic.

habits frequently. And so it's that same concept where it's, and by the way, that's a great book. So if you haven't read Atomic Habits by James Clear, please get it, please read it. It will change your life. You'll be much more productive without feeling overwhelmed, but it's this concept of doing small things that can have a big impact over time, especially when you do one small thing, kind of master a small behavior change or small action. Then you add a second small behavior or action on top of that. And you can kind of keep doing that. And

The same goes for achieving an activity. The same goes for exercising in this case. So starting small and by taking small steps towards this activity that we know is a really high value or we really need to do, we'll actually increase your emotional, increase your positive emotional state towards this activity. So by starting the exercise, you're going to feel more positive about continuing, which brings us to the five minute rule.

The definition of this five minute rule, you may have heard this before. Hopefully you've heard this before, but it's a psychological strategy that helps us overcome procrastination and low motivation, which I have every single time I think about going to the gym. helps us overcome this procrastination and motivation and low motivation by committing to just five minutes of the activity, literally just five minutes. So if after five minutes of engaging in this activity,

If after five minutes of starting your exercise, starting your workout, you feel that not interested, you're not engaged, you can't motivate yourself to do it. You're just absolutely on the emotional struggle bus. Then you stop. That's it. Five minutes, five minutes. You prep yourself, get, get your workout clothes on or whatever you're to do. Get to the gym or go to your home gym or wherever you want it, wherever you plan on this exercise session.

And I know you're going to be standing there thinking, I just don't want to do this. so many other things I want to do. If you're like me, there's a million things I can kind of distract myself with. There's always more stuff to do. But when you are ready to say, I am going to prioritize my self care, my health, my lifespan, my healthspan, my career span, my durability and resilience, I'm going to exercise. How am going to do it? You're going to set a timer for five minutes.

And you're just going to start knowing that you have 100 % permission after five minutes. If you just cannot push through anymore, you stop permission slip. You've got a permission slip. You can stop after five minutes. It won't be held against you. It's still a success. You did something on that day. You did five minutes. You can check the box. It's a win. So that's great. But in doing those five minutes, you've literally

dramatically increase the likelihood of doing 10 minutes of exercise, 15 minutes of exercise, because you've overcome the biggest single barrier to doing an exercise, doing a workout, and that is starting. And if more of us would literally set our timer, set our watch, drag ourselves to where we need to be and just say, oh, damn it, I'm just going to do five minutes of this and then I'm done. The world would be a healthier place, first of all, but you would be

achieving, you would be completing, finishing full workout sessions far more frequently than you are now. Unless you're some sort of savant who just sort of exercises all the time and has no barriers whatsoever. I do this all the time. And for me, the five minute thing that kind of gets me going when I'm in the gym is I tell myself I'm going to get on the treadmill. So I do a brisk walk warmup for all of my workouts. And I set the timer for seven minutes on the treadmill.

But I know if I can get to the gym on the treadmill, of course I'm wearing my workout gear. If I can get those first five minutes where I'm moving and man, I can be grumpy and distracted. I know that if I can get through those first five minutes, I'm good. Now that doesn't mean I'm going to do this crazy, incredible, know, life changing 45 minute workout, but I know I'm going to do a little bit more. So the key is those first five minutes.

And on it's, I'll admit that it's pretty rare, but on those rare occasions where I just cannot get my head in the right spot, which is always the case. mean, the barrier is not anything physical within five minutes, especially if you're just warming up. But if I cannot get myself present in what I'm doing, I'm done. And that's fine. That's perfectly fine thing to do from a scientific perspective. We know that the brain, we experienced decision fatigue.

We all get tired as a million different things to do, especially when it comes to workouts. If you're not sure where to start, you know, whether you go to the place where there are dumbbells, whether you go to, you know, get a yoga mat, whether you'd find a machine to do. We have decision fatigue and it's easy to feel overwhelmed. So we tend to default to doing nothing versus taking an action, starting, just get going. Within those first five minutes, you're going to get a dopamine hit.

And this dopamine hit is, I would say the dopamine hit is similar to those first couple sips of coffee in the morning. You get a positive reinforcement, which will really increase your motivation. It's a, it's a, it's a nice little, neurotransmitter pat on the back, if you will. So if you can get through those first five minutes, literally your chemistry starts to change a little bit saying, Hey, that may have felt really hard to get these first five minutes in.

But the next five minutes, we're going to change your physiology a little bit. So it actually won't be quite so hard to keep going. That's pretty cool. Now you've got some momentum behind you. Now you're actually in the right spot to do exercise. You've got those first five minutes under your belt. Your chemistry changed in a way that makes, you know, whatever that resistance was to getting going, it just chops it down. And now you actually feel, Hey, I feel like I've just had a couple of sips of coffee here. Like things are actually starting to brighten up. The sun's starting to rise and now you're on a path.

So once you get those five minutes underneath your belt, your chance of continuing is gonna be far, far greater. Dopamine is, again, it's a neurotransmitter and it is released when we do pleasurable activities. And it may seem that the idea of lifting weights is not really in the pleasurable bucket, but it is in the success bucket. It's in the success bucket by.

Getting to the place where you're to do an exit, do this workout to take care of yourself, to provide the self care, to invest in yourself as you should be and need to be doing. And your body will reward you for that. So the question is, how do we do this? How do we implement this five minute rule? What's the best, most practical way to do it? So again, I said, I'm a sucker for using timers. have timers on my desk. And so I will literally set the timer, get going, get started, creative, creative writers use the same techniques where.

You may have heard people who need to be creative will set a timer for five minutes and either that will kick them into gear to, you know, write that blog, write that book, write that chapter or whatever, whatever that is. And if after five minutes, they just can't keep going, they pull the plug. But for this five minute rule, applying this to overcome the dread of exercise.

to be really practical on how to apply this five minute rule for your exercise routine looks like this. Step one, you are going to get yourself dressed, get your exercise equipment, your sneakers, your workout shorts, your tights, whatever it is, you're to get yourself geared up. You're going to get your water bottle. You want to get to the place where you were going to do a workout. And I know that you are dragging yourself to get to this place. Once you're there in your home gym,

or your local gym, you're literally just gonna make a promise to yourself that I'm just gonna do this for five minutes. You're gonna set a timer on your phone, on your smartwatch, whatever you have with you, and just tell yourself, commit to yourself, I'm gonna do this for five minutes and then I'm off the hook. And again, literally F after five minutes, you just cannot.

stand to keep going, you can pull the plug. If after five minutes you feel like I think I could do another five minutes, then you stick around and do another five minutes. You do another set. You do another few repetitions.

And if you can, one way I think about this with the internal dialogue that's in my head, the voices in our head is I think of it as a self experiment and I'm curious. if we can be, and if you should, you can be curious as well. Think about what happens during this, what happens during this five minutes? What's, what's, what's changing how I feel. And I'm always asking myself, even though I'm dreading doing this, what happens if I just start doing.

What's the worst that can happen? The worst that can happen is that I've just moved my body for five minutes. That is a win. Not an incredible struggle, not an incredible benefit, but it's a start. So five minutes is a win. Ultimately, it's going to reduce our resistance to doing this and increases the likelihood of doing it again and again and again. But here's an extra credit. Here's a little hack plus a hack. You may have heard of.

a Pomodoro or a Pomodoro technique. This takes this five minute investment in yourself and extends it and extends it to 25 minutes. And you can do these, these, time chunks in different ways. But the idea with a Pomodoro is that it's a 25 minute effort followed by a five minute break. And again, you can kind of divide these up in different ways, but the, you get this five minute.

habit developed and you feel that that helps you oftentimes get over the hump of getting started. You feel like, I can get this five minutes. got that down, but it's kind of hard to get, you know, a full workout in perhaps switch gears, start, set the timer for 25 minutes as opposed to five minutes. Same rules apply. Just get going.

keep on pushing through during those 25 minutes. You may feel a little bit of a bump of motivation. Maybe it's not super high. Maybe it's not super low, but you may start to feel some successes, some dopamine hits that'll help you kind of push through. may feel like you've just got a little shot of espresso halfway through, but keep on pushing through. And then at the 25 minute mark, same rules apply at 25 minutes. If you think, Hey, pretty good, pat yourself on the back. can't do any more. I'm either, I don't have, you know, the,

time or the emotional bandwidth to do it. Fine. Stop. You've just done 25 minutes of self care. You've investing in extending your healthspan. You're investing in being more durable. You're investing in fighting against disease and disability because you are exercising. So this five minute rule, this five minute tactic or the Pomodoro, this 25 minute tactic can obviously be applied to anything. The key, the punchline with all of this

is just starting. And I could wax poetic on the same goals for starting a business, the same goals for starting any sort of healthy habit, same goals for starting a project, something that you're resistant to doing, you can apply it to starting your taxes, can start cleaning the house, anything. Set that five minute timer. It is

If you don't already do this, I promise you it is a game changer because it gives you just enough of a nudge to really, again, it's going to kick in our physiology. It's going to kick in these neurotransmitters in a way that's going to really get the flywheel going. So your chance of success is so much greater than sitting, waiting and hoping for motivation because motivation is just not going to come. not, it doesn't, it's not free flowing. It's not like waking up and pressing a button on a coffee maker.

and you've got yourself a big pot of coffee and you're good to go is not like that. Unfortunately, super unfortunately, nothing like a good cup of coffee. So the one thing you can do, the one thing you can do today to extend your healthspan is to try the five minute hack. Try setting a timer for five minutes when you have a barrier to doing an activity because you don't have motivation.

because you're feeling apathetic, because you're feeling tired, because you're feeling scatterbrained, whatever it is, set the timer for five minutes and press start. Start that timer, make the timer go, realize, hey, this is live. I gotta start doing the thing I want. I have to start exercising. I'm gonna start my exercise routine right now. Clock is ticking. It's down to four minutes and 45 seconds. It's down to four minutes and 30 seconds. I'm gonna keep on pushing through because it's only five minutes. You can do anything for five minutes. But the key is to get started.

If you don't know what to do, you're in a gym, you're at your home or in your home gym, and you have some bands in some ways and you don't know what to do. Worry not. Go to my website. I have free workouts on there. All you need is your body weight, a couple of bands, maybe a dumbbell, a little bit of gravity, which you probably have at your house. So it's all good. There's free resources on my website. There's free resources online. Some of them are dangerous. Don't do anything that looks sketchy.

but just start, set that timer, start something, follow a plan if you can get one. If you don't have one again, I have plenty to choose from. can always reach out to me. I can make a plan for you, but the key is starting. Set the timer, five minutes, and you're off to the races. So tomorrow morning, assuming you're a coffee drinker, embrace that cup of coffee. Maybe you're drinking a cup of coffee right now. Maybe you're starting your day.

by investing in yourself, investing in me by listening to my words, my words of wisdom, my words of experience. School of hard knocks here, which I'm grateful for, but think about that feeling of sipping that coffee. The idea of being motivated sounds silly because it takes no motivation to do, but there's a ritual. There's something that gets you started. You can leverage a habit that you're already doing. Again, if it takes five minutes for your coffee to brew, for example,

Do five minutes of air squats and modified pushups while the coffee is brewing. That's great. Five minutes. Not a lot of time, but a huge impact. If you're looking for more tips on how to hack your way through, if you will, hack your way through habits, develop better habits for your healthspan, exercise, nutrition, your sleep, your emotional wellbeing, preventative care tips.

Let me know if there's a specific topic you want me do a deep dive into. Let me know that as well. Some of these episodes that I do, I'll bring guests on. Sometimes I'll do short, you five and seven minute episodes. Sometimes they run 30 minutes, 40 minutes, depending upon what the topic is. This one is super important. And I could again, speak forever on the science of exercise physiology and the strength training and nutrition and macros, macronutrients and all that stuff. But none of it matters unless we can kind of get started.

and this is where you get to start the five minute hack. So if you have any questions, me a message. I respond to all messages and I appreciate your time. Be healthy.