Starting small and breaking things down
Big plans are easy to make and hard to start. Clean the house, get back in shape, or catch up on everything can feel so large that nothing happens.
Smaller works better. Clear one counter. Walk for ten minutes. Answer one email. If even that feels like too much, go smaller again.
Every activity in the planner and the app can have a smallest version, the least you could do that still counts. On a hard day, doing the smaller version is a real result.
You can also break a larger activity into steps and plan each one on its own. Many people start with the easier activities on their list and work toward harder ones over a few weeks.
Graded tasks
Breaking a hard task into small steps is one of the oldest tools in therapy for depression. Aaron Beck and his colleagues called it graded task assignment. Martell’s behavioral activation manual keeps it, and the brief treatment by Lejuez and colleagues ranks activities from easiest to hardest and starts at the easy end.
The reasoning is practical. A step you actually take does more than a big plan that sits on a list. Each finished step is also a small piece of evidence against the voice that says you can’t get anything done, and low mood repeats that voice a lot.
How small is small enough
One quick check many therapists use is to ask how sure you are, from 0 to 10, that you’ll do it. If the answer is below 7 or so, make it smaller or easier to start until the number goes up.
Some other signs a plan is still too big:
- It has “all,” “finally,” or “properly” in it.
- You can’t picture the first minute.
- It’s been moved more than once.
- Thinking about it makes you tired before you’ve started.
Breaking it down
Say “deal with the paperwork” has been sitting on a list for a month. Broken into steps, it might look like this.
- Find the pile and put it on the table.
- Sort it into bills, forms, and everything else.
- Pay the one bill that’s due soonest.
- Recycle the junk.
- Fill out one form.
Each step can be its own plan, on its own day. The first might take two minutes. That’s fine. Often it’s the step that’s been in the way the whole time.
The smallest version, in practice
When you plan an activity, you can write down its smallest version. A walk to the park becomes a walk to the corner. Cleaning the kitchen becomes the dishes in the sink. Reading a chapter becomes reading a page. Calling a friend becomes texting them.
If the day goes badly, the smallest version is still there. How it went has its own answer for it, and the look back at the week counts it among the plans that happened, not as falling short.
Easier to harder, over weeks
Over a few weeks, most people move from the easier activities on their list toward harder ones. In the app, you mark each activity Easier, In between, or Harder, and the easier ones come first.
Here’s what that might look like for someone who has been avoiding friends. Week one, text one friend back. Week two, a short phone call. Week three, coffee for half an hour. Week four, dinner.
There’s no schedule to keep. Staying at one level for a while is fine, and dropping back down during a hard week is normal.
Common snags
“It’s too small to count.” It counts. The whole point of a small step is that it happens. Sometimes one step leads to the next, but the plan doesn’t depend on it.
“I did the small version and stopped.” That’s the plan working. Doing more is welcome. It’s never required.
“I keep doing far more than I planned, then crash for days.” Some people swing between all and nothing. For them, the skill to practice is stopping at the planned amount even on a good day, so the next day isn’t lost. Planning rest helps too.
References
- Beck, A. T., Rush, A. J., Shaw, B. F., & Emery, G. (1979). Cognitive therapy of depression. Guilford Press.
- Martell, C. R., Dimidjian, S., & Herman-Dunn, R. (2021). Behavioral activation for depression: A clinician’s guide (2nd ed.). Guilford Press.
- Lejuez, C. W., Hopko, D. R., Acierno, R., Daughters, S. B., & Pagoto, S. L. (2011). Ten year revision of the brief behavioral activation treatment for depression: Revised treatment manual. Behavior Modification, 35(2), 111–161. doi.org/10.1177/0145445510390929
Helpful links
- Psychology Tools: Behavioral activation
- Centre for Clinical Interventions: Back from the Bluez, a self-help workbook for depression
Everyday Insight’s tools are for education and personal reflection. They are not therapy or medical care, and they are not for emergencies. In an emergency, call 911. If you are in crisis in the United States, call or text 988. Mental health resources