Coming back after a gap
The hardest session is the first one after a gap, and most of the difficulty is not the work. It is everything the gap now seems to say. Start with something small, start today, and do not pay back the missed days first.
Why the first day back is the hard one
After a few days away, the work has usually grown and so has the story about it. Opening the plan means seeing what did not happen, which is uncomfortable enough that it is easier to put it off for one more day. The longer the gap, the more that one more day seems to cost, and the easier it becomes to take it.
The useful thing to know is that the gap itself did less damage than it feels like. In research on forming new habits, missing an occasional day did not measurably slow the habit down. What stops people is usually the return, not the absence.
Lally et al., 2010. European Journal of Social Psychology 40(6)
Start again in four steps
- Pick one thing that takes about ten minutes: not the most urgent and not the biggest.
- Do it today, before you look at everything that piled up.
- Then look only at what is due in the next few days, and put those in order.
- Let the rest move to later days, or drop what no longer matters. Do not try to pay back the missed days on the first day.
Do not try to catch up all at once
A plan that tries to fit last week's work into today makes today impossible, and an impossible day is a good reason to stop again. It is more useful to accept that some work moved, plan again from today, and say plainly if something no longer fits before its deadline.
People also tend to find it easier to start again at a natural new beginning, such as a Monday or the first of a month. That can help, but there is no need to wait for one: today is a perfectly good first day.
Dai, Milkman & Riis, 2014. Management Science 60(10)
What you tell yourself about the gap
It sounds soft, but it has been measured: in a study of students who had put off revising, those who forgave themselves for it procrastinated less before the next exam. Treating the gap as information rather than as a verdict makes the next start cheaper.
Wohl, Pychyl & Bennett, 2010. Personality and Individual Differences 48(7)
How Sailyn handles a return
Sailyn is built so that nothing is waiting to punish you. There are no streaks to have broken, and coins, the harbour and the time you logged are all still there. After three or more days away it opens on a short screen that says how long it has been and offers ten minutes on anything, and coming back after two or more days pays one and a half times an ordinary start.
Work from days that have passed is moved to today without being marked as late, and the week is planned again from where you are, so the first thing you see is one task, not a list of what was missed.
Sailyn is a planner and a focus timer. It is not a medical device, it treats nothing, and nothing on these pages is advice about a condition.
Know what you need to do, but can't get started? Sailyn gives you one next step, a plan that adapts, and no penalty for difficult days.