Prompts · Planning
Break a project into a first step you can do today
A vague thing you've been avoiding, turned into one job you can finish tonight.
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Updates as you typeHere's something I've been putting off: I want to turn the spare room into somewhere I can actually work, it's full of boxes from the move and there's no desk and the wifi doesn't reach Done looks like: I can shut the door and work in there for a full day without going downstairs Why I haven't started: every time I go in there I don't know what to pick up first Time I have today: an hour Give me one first step. Just one. It has to be something I can finish today in an hour, using only things I already have. If your first step needs me to buy something, measure something or decide something big, it's the wrong step. Pick an easier one. Then: 1. The step, in one sentence, starting with a verb. 2. How I'll know it's done, so I can stop. 3. The next three steps after it, one line each, so I can see the shape. Don't expand them. 4. The part of this project that's genuinely hard, named plainly. Not the boxes. The bit I'm actually avoiding. Keep it under half a page. No encouragement, no preamble.
What you get: One job you can finish tonight, plus a name for the bit you're really avoiding.
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The step has to be finishable today
The trap with any project breakdown is that step one turns out to be "decide on a layout", which is the same avoidable decision in a smaller font. Ruling out anything that needs a purchase or a big decision forces a step your hands can do.
Point 4 is the one people quote back. Usually the boxes aren't the problem.
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