Started This Mess
Okay so last Tuesday night, felt totally burned out after another 12-hour workday. Saw this Vietnamese title scrolling Facebook – “5 steps blah blah master muon thanh cong fast” or whatever. Looked like some quick productivity hack. Desperate, thought “why the hell not” and clicked.
The Plan Looked Simple Enough
Copied the steps onto a sticky note like an idiot:
- Step 1: Write down the ONE big scary thing you gotta do. Just one.
- Step 2: Break that monster into 3 tiny, stupid-easy parts.
- Step 3: Do ONLY the first micro-step. Force yourself for just 2 minutes.
- Step 4: When (not if) your brain screams STOP after 6 minutes? Fine, quit. Seriously.
- Step 5: Feel less crappy because you started. Repeat tomorrow.
Sounded too simple to be real. Figured I’d test it next morning on my damn tax forms – been avoiding them for weeks.
Morning Hit Like a Truck
Woke up Wednesday, instant dread. Coffee barely kicked in. Saw the sticky note mocking me. Ugh. Okay fine, Step 1: Do the damn taxes. Easy. Wrote it down. Felt heavy already.
Step 2: Broke it into 3 laughably small chunks:
- Chunk 1: Find the pile of papers stuffed under the printer. Seriously, that’s it.
- Chunk 2: Separate income papers from deduction junk. Two piles.
- Chunk 3: Just enter the first number on the stupid online form. One number.
Way smaller than usual. Usually tell myself “do the whole damn thing today!” Yeah right.
Okay, Time for Step 3
Stared at the printer. Brain yelling about emails, breakfast, literally anything else. Set my phone timer for 2 minutes. Forced myself to kneel down… grabbed the paper stack. Took maybe 45 seconds. Felt ridiculous. Timer beeped. Stopped. Not dead. Weird.
Brain felt less panicky seeing that one pathetic pile organized. Almost… calmer? Weird. Kept going without the timer. Separated papers (Chunk 2) – took maybe 3 minutes. Then sat at the computer. Only allowed myself Step 3 again for Chunk 3: Type one number.
Step 4 Saved My Sanity
Started typing the first number from the pile. Brain started its usual “This is taking foreverrrr we hate thiiiiis!” whining around minute 4. My phone timer from the next Chunk 3 (typing the number) hit its 6-minute mark. Ding! Stopped cold. Closed the tax website browser tab. Stood up. Done.
Felt… lighter? Didn’t finish the taxes, obviously. But I started! Actually looked at the papers! Didn’t wallow in guilt the rest of the morning. Had breakfast kinda normally. Wild.
Why This Crap Actually Stuck
Did the same damn thing Thursday morning. 2 minutes finding the papers? Done before coffee finished brewing. Six minutes sorting? Ding! Stopped. Another 2 minutes typing the first number? Stopped at the timer. By Friday noon? The damn taxes were filed. Not a soul-crushing marathon. Just grinding through my self-allotted tiny bits of suckiness.
Trick is the forced stops. You brain throws less of a tantrum starting if it knows it can escape soon. Stopping at Step 4’s 6 minutes feels like winning, not quitting. Builds weird momentum. Kept doing it on smaller work tasks all week. Less dread hanging around.
Turns out sometimes doing almost nothing is better than doing nothing at all. Who knew? Still feels stupidly simple though.
