This One-Minute Life Hack Will Make You Do Everything Better Than Before

We all want quick fixes. We search for the fastest way to lose 10 pounds, a shortcut to riches, and the easiest way to find the perfect relationship. Harry Potter wielded his magic wand, why can’t we? While there may not be a magic spell to aid us in our ailments, what if there was an easy life hack that would only take a minute of your time and could help you do everything better than before?

No, this is not a super drug like Bradley Cooper swallowed in the movie Limitless, but an easy life hack according to writer Rishabh Singh at Quora ^[1] to help make you able to do everything better than before, and all you need is a pen and a minute of your time.

Easy One Minute Life Hack that Can Rock Your World

One minute is all it takes to improve your memory, boost your self-esteem, help you to be more productive and happier.

Take a pen and hold it up to your face, about 30 centimeters from your eyes, then focus your gaze on the point of the pen for one minute. Don’t let yourself think about unpaid bills, cleaning the garage, the report due at the office, or even who Taylor Swift is dating. Stop the inner chatter of your mind, hold your focus on the point of the pen, and just breathe. One minute is all it takes, in fact setting a timer will help prevent worrying about the passing time as well. Focus your eyes on the pen for only a minute. Singh also cautions that doing this for more than a minute may cause eye strain.

Why this Works

Yes, you may feel silly at first, but one minute staring at the pen can help you increase your focus and concentration. According to studies,^[2] due to technology and over-stimuli of our hectic, multi-tasking lives, the average person has an 8.25-second attention, that’s a little less than a goldfish. However, this pen life hack trick is the equivalent to a minute of deep focus meditation, the perfect antidote to this over-stimulated life.

Usually associated with Buddhist monks and Eastern practices, meditation has been embraced by modern successful entrepreneurs of our time like Arianna Huffington, Richard Branson and Michael Jordan, to aid them in their productivity, generating ideas and focus.

One minute of deep focus on a daily basis can calm your “monkey mind,” as life coach Tony Robbins likes to call the incessant mental chatter and worry that dances around our brains all the time. Once you tame your monkey mind, you are better able to concentrate on the tasks before you.

One minute of pure focus can make you feel more relaxed, more productive, less stressed and even happier. Researcher Catherine Kerr of the Osher Research Center stated that meditation helps to improve rapid memory recall ^[3] by tuning out the outside distractions around you. One minute of meditation can boost your immune system, decrease pain and make you feel more compassionate.^[4] You can learn faster, learn more, get better grades, stay more focused and become calmer at the same time. Tasks that once seemed daunting no longer feel that way. The task did not change, you did. Your reaction to the situation changes the situation.This quick life hack changes you for the better.

Using this easy life hack trick on a regular daily basis can help you do anything more focused and better than before. One minute, one easy life hack and one pen. What do you have to lose?