Workbook
This Is a Five-Minute Problem
How to Size Problems Accurately and Stop Hyperventilating Over Things That Have Solutions
This workbook teaches problem sizing — the skill of knowing how big this is before deciding how to respond.
For the person who called someone at 3am hyperventilating about something that took 5 minutes to fix. For the person whose first response to a problem is panic instead of triage. This workbook teaches problem sizing: is this a 5-minute problem, a 5-hour problem, a 5-day problem, or a 5-month problem? And what is the appropriate emotional response to each?
The Name It First Experience
The five-minute problem and the five-month problem require different responses — and the only way to give the right one is to know which one you have. This Is a Five-Minute Problem teaches problem sizing: is this a 5-minute fix, a 5-hour project, a 5-day effort, or a 5-month undertaking — and what is the appropriate emotional investment and action for each — so that the 3am phone call about the canceled flight takes 5 minutes instead of two hours of panic. This workbook is for the person whose first response to a problem is panic rather than triage — who has spent enormous energy on things that had a simple answer once they knew where to look. How to Size Problems Accurately and Stop Hyperventilating Over Things That Have Solutions builds the triage skill that makes the first response the right one.
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Sample questions
- What is the most recent situation where your emotional response was significantly larger than the problem required?
- What does a 5-minute problem feel like when you encounter it — and how long does it typically take you to realize that?
- What would change for you if your first response to a new problem was triage instead of reaction?
Research basis
Grounded in procrastination research (Steel, 2007) on task aversion and the role of perceived task size in avoidance behavior / temporal discounting research (Ainslie, 2001) on the psychology of delay and the undervaluation of near-term tractable action / brief intervention literature on task decomposition as an anxiety-reduction tool.
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