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A.J. Jacobs beat a weeks-long writing block with a two-minute timer

Ellsworth Toohey
Apr 10, 2026
∙ Paid

Stopwatch (Dmitriy Prayzel/shutterstock.com)

A.J. Jacobs has a revision of the old thousand-mile proverb. The journey doesn’t start with a step — it starts, he writes, with “putting on your left sock.”

When it comes to outwitting procrastination, I try to make that first action as easy as possible. I try to make that barrier to entry the smallest, smoothe…

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