3-2-1 Method

The 3-2-1 method is a six-minute start ritual for when you know you should begin and your body or head will not. It is three timed steps in order.

3 — Move. Three minutes of movement that stimulates the body: walking, dancing or anything else that gets you going. The point is to enter motion before you sit down to work.

2 — Braindump. Two minutes of writing down everything currently in your head, including unrelated thoughts, ideas and open loops. Dump them so they are not forgotten and so they stop occupying working memory. Open loops otherwise linger (Zeigarnik effect) and compete with focus (attention residue).

1 — Plan. One minute to write the goal for the next session, the definition of done and a choice of how that session is bounded:

• Content: what you want to finish
• Time: how long it should take, which pairs with time boxing

Use it before a focus block, after a stall or when starting feels heavier than the work itself. The first action is physical and the next session is explicit, which lowers procrastination without a long warmup.