Lesson 03 · 11 min
Make the First Move Smaller
Not smaller as encouragement. Smaller until it is almost insultingly easy — that is the actual threshold.
Listen first
Before you read: how small is small enough
Spoken introduction · read aloud in your browser
People are told to break tasks down all the time, and it rarely helps, because they break them into pieces that are still too big to start.
'Write the introduction' is not a small step. 'Open the document and type the working title' is.
The test is not whether a step sounds reasonable. It is whether it requires any decisions.
The mechanism
Decisions are the expensive part
A large, undefined task bundles many small decisions together and asks working memory to hold them all at once while also beginning. Under that load, the most common outcome is nothing at all.
Shrinking the step does not make the task less work. It removes the decisions from the moment of initiation, which is the moment least able to carry them.
This is why 'open the file' works and 'do the report' doesn't. One is an instruction; the other is a project brief.
The threshold
If the step needs a decision, it is still too big.
Course tool · Lesson 03
Make It Smaller
Empty the task out into its pieces, then choose the one that needs no decision at all.
Choose the smallest — under two minutes, no thinking
- Add a few pieces and they'll appear here.
Try this
The physical-first rule
The first step should involve your hands, not your judgement.
- Plan the presentationOpen a blank slide deck
- Tidy the kitchenPut five things in the dishwasher
- Start the assignmentType the title and the due date
- Sort the paperworkMove the pile to the table
Every one of these counts as started. Started is the whole objective of this lesson.
Quick win · 3 min
Leave the first step out
Before you finish today, physically set up tomorrow's first move where you will see it: the book open, the form on the table, the app already loaded. Removing setup friction removes the search that usually kills the start.
Research says
Working memory and the wall
Work on working memory in ADHD suggests that performance degrades sharply as the amount of information that must be held and manipulated increases. A task described in one vague phrase is a heavy working-memory load; the same task written as one concrete action is a light one.
Kofler et al., working-memory research in ADHD
Notice
Which of these have you called 'a small step' that actually wasn't?
Reframe
I'll do it properly when I have a proper block of time.
I'll do the smallest visible piece now, and let the block of time be optional.
Use an ADHDier tool
Make It Smaller
Run any task through the ADHDier version and save the output.
Open the toolUse an ADHDier tool
What's the Actual First Step?
For tasks where the first move genuinely isn't obvious.
Open the toolKeep this
Three things to take.
- 01A step that needs a decision is not yet a small step.
- 02First moves should be physical, not evaluative.
- 03Setting the first step up in advance removes the friction that usually stops you.