ESEN
Start here

Strategies / Habits

Habits6 min

The smallest possible task

A way of getting something you have long postponed moving again, without depending on feeling like it.

The idea

Procrastination is rarely a problem of time. It is almost always a response to what the task makes us feel: confusion, fear of doing it badly, or the sense that it is too large. When we shrink the size of what has to be done, we also shrink the emotional weight blocking it. This is not about demanding more of yourself, but about asking for something it is realistic to begin.

Where it comes from

From the conversation “Procrastination: why we know what to do and still do not do it”, episode 02 of the first season.

What Rolando observed

In sessions, people who come out of a long stretch of avoidance almost never do it because they found discipline. They do it because, at some point, the task stopped being enormous. Often it is enough for someone to ask out loud what the smallest thing that could be done today would be: the answer is usually absurdly small, and usually sufficient.

Sample content. This observation was written to show the format. It does not come from Rolando López.

The strategy

  1. NoticeCatch the exact moment you decide not to do it. What were you feeling a second before?
  2. NamePut one word to that feeling. Not to analyse it, but to stop treating it as laziness.
  3. ShrinkRewrite the task until it fits in two minutes. If it does not fit, it is still a subject, not a task.
  4. StartDo only that minimum version. Finishing the rest is not today’s goal.
  5. ReviewThe next day, ask what changed: the task, the feeling, or both?

Questions to sit with

  • Which task have you postponed longest without anyone chasing you for it?
  • What do you think would happen if you did it badly?
  • What would the two-minute version of that task be?
  • What do you normally do instead of doing it?

One practical action

Pick one thing you are postponing and write, in a single line, the smallest action you could take today. Do it before deciding whether it works.

Note. Enlace Mental publishes educational content. It is not a substitute for professional psychological care. This framework is a presentation example written for the prototype. It does not correspond to any method of Rolando López’s own.