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Do you want to build a habit? It could be anything from working out to reading to playing chess. Does the act you need to do seem gruelling? If so, here’s what you can do to kickstart the habit.

Make a commitment to do it for 5 minutes. Once you get going, you’ll find that you can do and achieve way more than you initially thought.

The key to making habits stick is making them easy. It’s much easier to commit to doing a task for five minutes than it is for several hours. 

An alternative to this that provides similar results is performing the minimum viable effort.

Here’s how it works regarding working out.

Go to the gym and perform your warm-ups and your first exercise. Your blood will pump, your endorphins will flow, you’ll be listening to your favourite music, and all will be right with the world, so you’ll continue and complete a full workout.

If you’re trying to get in the habit of writing, you might set a small goal of writing 300 words. If you’re trying to get in the habit of reading, you may want to start by reading a couple of pages.

This trick has especially helped me improve my chess skills. Most days, I try to commit to learning one chess lesson and then a five-minute game of speed chess. Now I know how all the pieces work, and I’m starting to win games.

Start small, start easy, and you’ll be surprised with what can add up over the months and years.