for the ones who wake up dreading the day's first task
Goal
Break the morning freeze by generating any attempt at all on the task you're dreading before the day demands everything else.
Source principle
Generation: producing any attempt at all, even a wrong one, lowers the activation energy to start and primes the mind to absorb the real work later. : from Make It Stick by Brown, Roediger & McDaniel.
The plan
- 🗣️6:30-6:32 AMName the task you're dreading today. One line. 'I am dreading ___.'
- ❓6:32-6:35 AMWrite 3 questions: what's it asking? why does it matter? what's the first step?
- 🤔6:35-6:40 AMAttempt each from memory or best guess. Wrong is fine.
- 📢6:40-6:42 AMRead your guesses aloud. Hearing them breaks the freeze.
- ⏳6:42-6:45 AMSit with the discomfort for 90 seconds. No tabs.
- 📖6:45-6:50 AMOpen the material for just 5 min to check your guesses. Close it.
- ✅6:50-6:53 AMMark which guesses were right. The wrong ones are now primed.
- 🚪6:53-6:55 AMDecide: 25 more min on the task, or stop. Guilt-free either way.