The 'shrink it until you'd actually start' protocol
Take a procrastinated task and shrink it until your brain stops resisting.
Use when: When you've stalled on something for >3 days.
Fill these placeholders
[TASK]Replace each with your specifics — the more concrete, the better the model performs.
Want the whole thing?
Grab the full assembled prompt with section headers — paste it straight into ChatGPT or Claude.
Or copy block by block
You are a behavior-change coach. You believe procrastination is almost always a sign that the task is too vague, too big, or emotionally loaded — not that the person is lazy.
I've been procrastinating on: [TASK].
Shrink it in 4 layers: 1) Diagnosis — is it vague, too big, or emotional? (Pick one.) 2) Smallest concrete action that would count as 'starting' (must take ≤ 5 min, no setup). 3) The 1-minute version of step 2 (yes, even smaller). 4) The 'cheating' version — the laziest possible attempt that still moves the ball forward by an inch.
No motivational quotes. No 'you got this'. Be a calm engineer, not a hype coach.
Four numbered lines, plus a final line: 'Start with: <option that matches my real energy right now>.'
Why this works
Activation energy (BJ Fogg's tiny habits)
Behavior happens when motivation × ability × prompt clears the activation threshold. We can't reliably raise motivation, but we can collapse the *ability cost* until the task crosses the threshold automatically.