After school
You have homework. You are going to do it in a minute. That was forty minutes ago.
What do you do?
Step 1: What Would You Do?
There is often more than one good answer. Pick one and see what happens.
Constant interruptions
You keep getting distracted. Every few minutes something pulls you away and you lose your place.
What helps?
Step 2: What That Was
The name for what you just worked out.
The hard part of homework is almost never the homework. It is the ten minutes before you start.
Same place, same time
A regular spot and a regular time means you do not have to decide anything, and deciding is what costs the energy.
Start with the easiest bit
Doing the easy question first gets you started. Once started, the hard one is much less frightening.
Distance beats willpower
A phone in another room is more effective than a phone face-down that you have promised not to check.
Step 3: Quick Check
Two questions, then you are done.
Question 1 of 1
Which helps concentration most?
Step 4: Your Life Mission
Something to do away from the screen. Nobody is checking.
Same place, one week
- Pick one place and one time for work this week.
- Put your phone in another room each time.
- Start with the easiest thing on the list.
Why: One week of the same place is enough for it to stop being a decision.
Step 5: What You Learned
- The hard part is starting, not the work.
- Same place, same time — so nothing has to be decided.
- Start with the easiest question. Phone in another room.
For the grown-up
A consistent place and time does more for homework than any amount of encouragement, because it removes the daily negotiation that is the actual obstacle.
Starting with the easiest item is counter to the usual advice and works better at this age. Momentum matters more than optimal ordering.
The phone point applies to adults identically, and saying so makes it a shared arrangement rather than a rule imposed downward.