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Take 10 minutes to finally check the financial task you’ve been avoiding off of your to-do list

We all have something we know we should do but keep putting off, especially when it comes to our finances. Maybe it’s opening a high-yield savings account, increasing your retirement contributions or calling the bank about an annoying ATM fee.

Whatever it is, take 10 minutes to finally get it done today. You’ll benefit from whatever the task is and have one less thing to worry about this week.

Typically if there is something you’re putting off, it’s not because you don’t have the capability to accomplish it, writes leadership coach Peter Bregman for the Harvard Business Review. It’s usually because it’s difficult to build up the momentum to actually start the task.

He suggests identifying what transition you need to get started. Is it picking up the phone to call your bank? Or finding your brokerage account password and logging in? Once you’ve identified it, schedule a time and place to get started on that transition. Acknowledging it will make it easier to overcome your inertia and complete the chore.

If a certain task doesn’t immediately come to mind for you to accomplish, here are a few examples of things you may be putting off, intentionally or not:

Going forward, you can implement the OHIO productivity hack championed by Bob Pozen, senior lecturer at the MIT Sloan School of Management and author of “Extreme Productivity.”

OHIO, which stands for Only Handle It Once, means that as soon as there is a mundane task to accomplish, rather than putting it off, you should just do it and move on. That way, you won’t waste time and mental energy worrying about it, and it will be less of a distraction in your life.