The 5-Minute Push: A Midlife Trick for Moving Forward (Even When You Can’t Be Arsed)

If you're anything like me, you'll need all the tools you can find to motivate yourself into taking any kind of action - and they have to be easy...

You’d think that by the time we hit midlife, we’d have this whole productivity thing nailed - realising that to get anything done, we need to do more than just stare, slack-jawed, at the ironing pile, the blank page, the yoga mat…

But no. I’ve found that since my 50s, even though my brain might be bubbling with exciting ideas and shouting “Hell yeah, let’s do this!”, some days, even brushing my hair feels like a mammoth task. (Note the frequent messy bun!)

I’ve always been a bit of a procrastinator. Give me a writing deadline, and even if it’s etched in my brain and haunting my dreams, I’ll still leave it until the very last moment. And since menopause came knocking? Oh, it's levelled up. Some days I feel frozen -not because I don’t want to do things, but because I convince myself I haven’t got the time, energy, or clarity to finish them. So I don’t start at all. Then I feel down on myself for not doing what I set out to do - especially when I know how good I’ll feel after doing it.

Sound familiar?

It’s like standing at the edge of a pool, knowing the water will feel good once you’re in, but hovering because the thought of the initial cold is just too much. Or like being wrapped up in invisible swaddling and not knowing how to wiggle free.

Photo by Johnson Wang on Unsplash

Scrolling Sickness

Along with this ‘stuckness’ often comes the urge to scroll. An avoidance tactic that feels almost productive - but isn’t. It’s as if your brain is playing tricks, rewarding hours of scrolling with sneaky hits of dopamine, convincing you that you’re doing something. But deep down, you know it’s not helping - in fact, it’s making the stuckness worse. Because avoiding the real stuff only adds to the weight of it all.
(Been there far too often!)

Sometimes though - the universe (or perhaps it’s the algorithm?) knows what we’re doing and comes to the rescue with a clear sign to help. Like the time, I was scrolling to avoid a challenging email I had write, and I came across a reminder from James Clear, author of Atomic Habits, and it pinged in my brain like a wake-up call:

“It only takes five minutes to break the cycle.”

jamesclear

A post shared by @jamesclear

Five minutes. That’s it.
Not a full hour-long gym session.
Not 2,000 polished words.
Not an entire room decluttered and Insta-worthy.

Just five minutes:
– Five minutes of writing to break the inertia.
– Five minutes of dancing or walking to remind your body it likes to move.
– Five minutes of connection to reboot a relationship.
– Five minutes of effort to show your brain it’s not so bad after all.

So now, I’ve started doing what I call The 5-Minute Push - or rather, a gentle nudge.
Something to break the spell of stuckness and ease me out of the menopausal fog.
It’s not the caffeine-hit of a bootcamp or the pressure of the hustle - it’s just a kind, encouraging friend whispering, “Come on, Lis - you can do it. Just five minutes.”

Of course, that crafty inner voice still chimes in - as it spots people launching businesses, running marathons, colour-coding their wardrobes - and looks at my chaos and says, “Why even bother?”
That’s when I confidently reply: “We’re only doing five minutes.”

And you know what I’m going to say next, don’t you?
Most of the time, those five minutes turn into ten. Or twenty. Or even a finished thing!
But even when they don’t - it still feels like a win.
I’ve broken the cycle of nothingness and reminded myself: I can.

Today looked like:

Five minutes of writing this newsletter (and I came back to finish it!)
Five minutes of stretching on my mat (which led to a couple of planks and squats!)
Five minutes of sorting the laundry (yeah, the five minutes felt long.)
Five minutes of dreaming (and then journalling for another 5!)

So if you’re reading this today, caught in the cosy (but confidence-crushing) comfort zone of not starting - let this be your sign.

Set a timer.
Pick one thing.
Give it just five minutes.

You win!