Brain dump

1. Write down everything you need to do, one per line. Don't sort it yet.
2. Pick one task. If you can't choose, let chance pick. Put anything that isn't for today under Not today.
3. Write the very first step, small enough that it's easy to begin.
4. Start a short timer and work on just that. When it ends, tick it off, keep going, or stop for now.

Too much on your mind for tasks? Worry parking is for worries. Need a break after? Try a two-minute movement break.

Unfinished tasks tend to keep popping into your head. In a set of lab experiments, people with an unfinished goal had more stray thoughts about it while doing something else. Making a specific plan for the goal removed that effect, even before they did the task (Masicampo & Baumeister, 2011 (opens in a new tab)). That's the idea behind writing it all down and naming a first step.

A plan that says exactly when and how you'll start is called an implementation intention. A 2026 review of 42 studies with children found a small-to-medium benefit for reaching goals, larger in younger children and, in some analyses, in children with ADHD. The studies varied a lot, and they were not of adults (Breitwieser & Reinelt, 2026 (opens in a new tab)).

The timer is just a way to make starting concrete. Studies of timed work blocks, like "Pomodoro", are small and disagree, so there's no best length (Smits et al., 2025 (opens in a new tab)). Pick one that feels easy to begin.

• When your to-do list feels so big you can't start anything.
• At the start of a work or study session, or after a break when it's hard to get going again.
• Before bed, to get tomorrow's tasks out of your head: write them down, then stop.

This is a self-help tool for everyday planning, not medical advice. If getting started is hard all the time, and it's affecting school, work or home, talk to a doctor.