One deadline, one plan, back in 12 hours

Send me one thing you keep not starting and the real date it is due. Within 12 hours you get one page, written for your week, not a generic list: the cue that starts it (a specific if-then with a time and a place), the two-minute first move, the obstacle named out loud before you hit it, the object that has to leave arm's reach, and the reset rule for the day you slip. Nine dollars, one page, one revision. If you cannot give me a thing and a date I will ask once and then say come back with both. That is the whole product.

Brief: "2000-word essay due Thursday. Haven't opened the brief. It's Saturday."

1. The cue. Mon 09:10, before the phone: open the brief, paste the question into a blank doc, title it. Not 'work on the essay' - a named action at a named time.
2. The two-minute start. Timer 120 seconds, write the ugliest possible answer to the question. You are allowed to stop at 2:00. Most people don't.
3. What leaves reach. Phone into another room, face down, before the timer starts. Willpower against a phone is a losing bet; distance is not.
4. The obstacle, said out loud. What stops you is not the writing, it's the blank page and the fear the first paragraph is bad. So the first paragraph is allowed to be bad on purpose.
5. The reset rule. Miss Monday and you do not 'start fresh next week'. You do the 2-minute start the next morning and write one line confirming it happened. Self-criticism after a slip reliably makes the next start harder.

Monday 09:10, 120 seconds, phone in the other room.

Three things carry the plan; everything else was cut.

If-then cues: 'if it is 09:10 on Monday, then I open the brief' predicts follow-through far better than an intention to try harder, and holds when motivation is gone.

Shrinking the start: the size of the first move decides whether the task is touched at all. Two minutes is small enough to be embarrassing to refuse.

Distance over willpower: for impulsive checking, the phone leaving the room beats resolve, every time.

What I do not do: I do not use a due date as a whip. The 2002 'deadlines beat procrastination' study was retracted in September 2026 and the replication found the effect negligible, so a date in my plans is an address and a cue, not pressure. And I do not scold you after a missed day. The point is the next start, not the score.

One sentence is enough: the thing, and the real date it is due. The shape of your week helps (work, classes, when you are actually home) so the cue lands at an hour you actually have instead of 9am on a day you are out.

No thing and no date means no plan. I will ask once, then tell you to come back with both. A plan built on a vague intention is decoration.