The Last 3 Minutes Effect
Why do we push harder when closer to the finish line
I had a plan to run 5km this morning. It's been a while since I timed myself. But I knew roughly it takes me 35 minutes.
Once the run started, I had my usual
First few mins of motivation with F1-movie's soundtrack in my ears
Followed by a 180bpm heart rate
Followed by questioning why I wanted to do this today.
That’s how most of my runs go anyways. So this was nothing new.
I would skip to the next song on the playlist and promise myself that I will continue running for the entirety of the song. That’s anywhere from 3-4 minutes. But every time, I would transition to a walk because my stamina would give out.
My current workout playlist:
However, after a few rounds of switching between running and walking, I was approaching 32 minutes.
It slowly came back to me that my aim was to finish the run in under 35 mins. So I picked up one last bout of running, and decided not to stop for the next 3 minutes.
The interesting thing is, I did NOT stop in these 3 minutes! Why! Why was I not able to do that for the first 32 minutes, but only when the goalpost was in sight; only when there was urgency!
Some of us might have heard of the Parkinson's law.
Work expands to fill the time available for its completion.
This law states that the variable is the amount of time you have to complete the task, not the amount of work required to finish the task. This rings true for:
Students completing an assignment.
Corporate employees finishing a work report, or
Your weekend plans around the house that you promised your wife about.
However, I think this applies in other domains of our lives too. It doesn’t just apply to a 9-5 job or a school assignment. This applies to our energy, effort, and discipline as well.
In those final 3 minutes of my run, the urgency of the finish line compressed the effort. My body hadn’t magically gotten fitter in the last stretch — but my mind narrowed the window of effort into something manageable. I could push harder because the end was clear.
Isn’t that the same with so many areas of life?
Conversations: When you have all day to catch up with a friend, you wander. But when you only have 5 minutes before they board a flight, suddenly you say the most important things.
Workouts: If you give yourself “an hour at the gym,” you’ll fill it. But if you only have 30 minutes, you’ll be shocked at how effective you can be.
Meetings: Ever notice how the last 10 minutes of a meeting get more done than the first 50?
The law isn’t really about time — it’s about focus.
So ask yourself!
What if you gave yourself 20 minutes to write instead of an open afternoon?
What if you wrapped your next meeting in 15 minutes instead of 60?
What if you treated the last stretch of your day like the final 3 minutes of a run?
Every time you pick up a task, imagine flipping an hourglass. The sand is already slipping. You have to finish before it runs out.
If we start designing our day around shorter and sharper windows of effort, how much more can we achieve before the day wraps up.
We don’t need more time.
We need urgency.