The 2-Hour Rule Is a Secret Einstein Used, and Here’s How You Can Start Practicing It Today

Nowadays, some people consider time spent “doing nothing” to be unproductive, but the experience of great minds and studies prove the opposite. Albert Einstein liked to daydream and imagined surfing a light wave with speed, and to him, the wave seemed frozen, which ultimately led him to create the famous theory of relativity. Charles Darwin also practiced this method and used his so-called “thinking path” to dive into his own thoughts and reflect.

Here at Bright Side, we love effective self-development techniques, and what we love even more is sharing them with you. At the end of the article, you’ll find out how in just 2 hours a week, you can make a drastic change in your life.

Einstein came up with “thought experiments.”

Albert Einstein had lots of thought experiments. For example, for his general relativity theory, he conducted imaginary experiments that consisted of a person falling off a roof and accelerating elevators. His most famous theories, which established the foundation of modern physics, were just a part of his imagination!

We can follow Einstein’s example and conduct experiments in our own heads, like imagining all possible options and outcomes of a certain situation and asking yourself, “If I do that, what will happen?”

Let your mind wander.

Make more time to stop, think, and analyze where you are in life, understand if you’re satisfied with your goals, and identify what your future plans are — then just let yourself daydream. It can make you more productive when you’re forced to deal with non-standard situations or generate creative ideas, according to Fiona Kerr from the University of Adelaide.

Ask yourself questions.

For some people, spending 2 hours on Facebook seems normal, but carving out 2 hours in the day for reflection is just too much. If you agree with this notion, this might help. You can take a pen and a notebook and answer a few questions like: “What goals have or haven’t I achieved?”, “Can I speed up the process of achieving my goals?”, “Do I feel inspired?” or “Where do I see myself in the next 6 months?”

Go for a walk and enjoy nature.

A walk alone in a park is a great way to think thoroughly about things we usually don’t have time for. According to a research, spending time in nature is also great for one’s mental health, it increases creativity and boosts problem solving.

Write yourself a letter.

Writing letters is very therapeutic. It’s a great tool for introspection since you can have the opportunity to observe your own thoughts and feelings (both as a storyteller and as a listener), make new non-obvious conclusions, and look at the past and into the future.

Research from Northwestern University has shown that writing down your thoughts about the distant future is much more helpful than not writing them down. It can push you to see what needs to be done in order to reach your goals and stick with it.

Bonus: 2 hours per week is a worthy investment.

Zat Rana, a journalist, held an experiment doing the “2-hour rule” based on the habits of successful scientists and philosophers, and he confessed that it gave him great results.

Every week, he spent 2 hours ruminating. He later shared that it sharpened his mind and that just 2 hours a week was a humble price to pay for such a consistent reward. And it’s definitely a better time investment than scrolling through social media!

Do you have any secret techniques you use to be more productive?