The Two-Minute Version

A core skill for entrepreneurs (and a mandatory one for entrepreneurs with jobs) is turning a big task or goal or thought into a condensed, “two-minute version” of the thing.

I saw the “two-minute version” idea in James Clear’s Atomic Habits forever ago but a handful of our entrepreneurs have always done it instinctually. It doesn’t come natural to me, so I’ve got to work at it and prompt myself for it.

Here’s an example.

I break my work into Projects + Areas, something I talked about on the last pod. Projects are things with a due date and a list of tasks that when completed allow me to archive the project (”Run 15 interviews by Sunday”). Areas are higher level, ongoing priorities (”Build Systems to Interact with Customers”).

But, my projects tend to balloon.

If my goal is to get customer feedback on the pod to learn what sorts of content I should cover in upcoming episodes, I might start with a project like “Reach out to 10 listeners for feedback.” But, as I’m starting to work on the project I might think “well it’d really be better if these were 10 power listeners,” which might make me think I should say something in the pod to get people to reach out, which just made a week long project at least 2-3 weeks long.

I end up trying to create the “perfect” project rather than prioritizing for speed. And, early on, speed is almost always the variable to optimize for. Learning how to get results fast is the thing.

So, under each project I always write a prompt - “what’s the two-minute version of this?” Basically, what’s the quickest way I can go at this and get valuable data back?

The two-minute version of the feedback project is to open up my email and search for emails from engaged listeners, write out a block of text with a calendly link for a 15-minute interview, and copy and paste that 20 times. It might not take exactly 2 minutes, but you get the spirit of the rule.

Whatever you’ve been planning to do for a few weeks but haven’t got to because it’s big or hairy or scary or intimidating - what’s the two-minute version? What’s the absolute fastest way to get some sort of data back?