The report is still on your list. You have checked messages, tidied a folder and opened the document twice. The trouble is often in the words “write the report”: where to begin, what to include and what counts as done are all still undecided. Faced with a pile of open decisions, the easiest move is to do something else.

Replace the project with an action

A good first step is something another person could watch you do, and it takes a few minutes at most:

  • “Work on the report” → open last month’s report and add three headings to a new file
  • “Reply to that difficult email” → write down the one question you need answered
  • “Study for the exam” → do the first exercise at the end of chapter one

Name what is actually blocking you

If you still don’t want to start once the step is small, it is usually one of three things, and each needs a different fix:

  • Missing information: write down who to ask and what, and send the question first.
  • Not sure how: find a worked example or template and adapt it.
  • No room for it: a smaller step won’t help. Drop something else, or renegotiate the deadline.

Pick a moment, then try five minutes

Put the material in front of you and choose a specific start cue, such as “back at my desk after lunch, before opening messages”. Then work for five minutes; you can stop when they end. Five minutes isn’t magic. It is just short enough that it is hard to say no to.

Leave a sentence you can pick up from

Before you stop, write one line about where to start next time, such as “Check the figures in section two.” With that line you can pick up where you left off instead of starting from scratch. If nothing moved, note what blocked you and change something before the next try. Restarting the timer without dealing with the obstacle just keeps you going in circles.

Try one round with the timer

  1. Before pressing Start, write down the action, for example “open the document and add three headings”.
  2. For five minutes, do only that. If information is missing, write the question down instead of searching aimlessly.
  3. When time is up, choose: keep going, ask for help, or leave a one-line next step.

A rough outline or a clearly named obstacle both count as a result.

Next

To keep these steps as a checklist you can tick off, copy the start-one-small-step checklist. For a full-screen timer, open the 5-minute task starter. If messages and small jobs interrupt you as soon as you sit down, read how to prepare for a focus session first.

Sources

Partly adapted from HowToLiveBetter by eternity4719 and contributors (14 October 2026 snapshot), licensed under CC BY 4.0. Todo & Timer rewrote the steps and examples.

Book entries used: chapter 4, “Don’t waste time”: 4.1 · 4.7 · 4.9 · 4.10 · 4.12.