Have you ever tried taking a cold shower? Apparently, it’s all the rage these days. If you want to spend a couple of hours going down a rabbit hole, hop onto YouTube and watch a few videos where people experiment with taking cold showers and talking about the positive effects, such as helping them wake up fast or having more energy. I can tell you that it does work, even though I don’t take a cold shower very often.

If you watch any of these videos or decide to experiment with it yourself, you will find that just jumping into the cold shower, and being all-in, is a lot more effective than gradually sticking one body part in the shower at a time. It’s better just to get the discomfort over with as soon as possible and get on with the cold shower so you can experience the benefits.

The same is true for writing. Writing takes mental energy and we sometimes have trouble starting. We piddle around for a few minutes, have a few false starts, then decide the effort isn’t worth it.

Instead, treat writing like you would treat a cold shower. I like the follow the 30-Second Rule when I don’t feel motivated. The idea is just to write for 30 seconds without stopping. 30 seconds is enough time to switch your mental focus and get you into the groove a bit.

It doesn’t work to just write when you feel like it. There are a million things to distract us, a million excuses we can offer for avoiding writing. So try writing for 30 seconds to give yourself a little jumpstart when you don’t feel motivated.