Lesson 03 · 12 min
Make the First Move Smaller
You do not need a plan for the whole assignment. You need one move so small it does not require a decision.
Listen first
How small is small enough
Spoken introduction · read aloud in your browser
Most homework advice tells you to break the task into steps. That is right, and it is usually not small enough.
The target is not a step. It is a move you could do while half-asleep and mildly annoyed.
What's happening
Big tasks are bundles of small decisions
A task like 'do the history essay' is not one thing. It is: find the question, find your notes, decide an argument, decide an order, write an opening, keep writing. Six decisions minimum, all bundled into one word.
Working memory has to hold that bundle open while you start. When holding it is the expensive part, the brain often solves the problem by doing nothing at all.
Shrinking the first move does not make you weaker. It removes the decision load from exactly the moment where load is most costly.
Test it against this
If your first step still needs thinking, it isn't the first step yet.
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
Cut until it's stupid
Keep halving the first move until it feels almost too small to count. That is the correct size.
- 01Write the task as you currently think of it.
- 02Write what the first twenty minutes would contain.
- 03Now write the first two minutes.
- 04Cut that in half. Do that.
Feeling slightly silly about how small it is means you have found the right entry point.
Quick win · 5 min
Write the worst first sentence
Open the document and write a deliberately terrible opening line. Nobody sees it, it gets deleted, and the page is no longer blank — which was the actual obstacle.
Use an ADHDier tool
Make It Smaller
The standalone ADHDier tool, if you want it outside the course.
Open the tool“Nothing is particularly hard if you divide it into small jobs.”
Keep this
Three things to take.
- 01One word like 'essay' can hide six separate decisions.
- 02The right first move requires no thinking at all.
- 03A bad first sentence solves the blank page, which was the real barrier.