for the ones frozen at the start of a dreaded task
Goal
Write a 3-question quiz about the task you're avoiding and attempt it cold to break the freeze.
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. : from Make It Stick by Brown, Roediger & McDaniel.
The plan
- 🗣️0:00-0:02Name the task you're avoiding in one line. 'I am avoiding the chem lab report.'
- ❓0:02-0:05Write 3 questions about it: what is it asking? why does it matter? what's the first step?
- 🤔0:05-0:10Attempt each from memory or best guess. Wrong is fine. Generation is the point.
- 📢0:10-0:12Read your guesses aloud. Hearing them breaks the freeze.
- 🌊0:12-0:15Sit with the discomfort for 90 seconds. Don't open a tab. The freeze is data.
- 📖0:15-0:20Open the material for just 5 min to check your guesses. Close it.
- ✏️0:20-0:25Mark which guesses were right. The wrong ones are now primed to absorb the answer.
- ✅0:25-0:30Decide: 25 more min on the task, or stop. Guilt-free either way.