Each Trial is a strategy a real species uses, turned into something you can run yourself in about ten minutes. Each card says what to do and why it helps.
What each Trial asks you to do, and what it does for you. Reading a Trial needs no account. 3,017 Trials across 2,325 species. Showing 1,201–1,260.
The Trial
Name the three layers your work has, the detail, the middle and the overview. Do something real in each of the three today, and do not let any one of them take the whole day.
Why it helps
Living in one layer of your work means the other two decay until you cannot operate in them at all. Touching all three in a day keeps every level available when the useful one changes.
2 minDifficulty 2
The Trial
Make one identifying mark of yours work by contrast rather than detail today, so it reads in poor conditions.
Why it helps
Identifying marks that rely on detail vanish the moment conditions get poor, which is when you need them. Contrast still reads at distance.
2 minDifficulty 2
The Trial
Find two objects at home that look almost identical, such as two similar keys, two black pens or two plain mugs. Examine them until you find one small, permanent feature that tells them apart every time, then point to it on each object and say what it is.
Why it helps
Judging by outline alone is how you mix up keys, files and sometimes people. Learning to find the small fixed detail that really separates two things makes you quicker and far less likely to get it wrong.
2 minDifficulty 2
The Trial
Note which of your arrangements someone else has seen today, relocate only those, and leave the unobserved ones exactly where they are.
Why it helps
Treating everything as compromised means you redo arrangements that were fine and run out of time. Moving only what was actually seen is the cheap version that works.
2 minDifficulty 2
The Trial
Decide the distance at which you will commit to something today, and if you reach the moment and are not there, abandon it rather than pushing on.
Why it helps
Turning a bad starting position into a chase is how you spend a week and lose anyway. Abandoning costs you nothing and leaves you in position for the next one.
1 minDifficulty 4
The Trial
Preserve one thing today in a usable state rather than completing it and then having to prevent it degrading.
Why it helps
Finishing something and then fighting its decay costs you more than the work did. Leaving it paralysed but usable means it keeps for weeks.
2 minDifficulty 2
The Trial
Choose one ordinary task, object or routine you will genuinely use today and make one concrete improvement to it without expanding the job.
Why it helps
One thing you use daily is measurably better, for about five minutes of work.
10 minDifficulty 2
The Trial
Do one thing today in perfect synchrony with others rather than trying to stand out: match the timing, the wording and the movement exactly, so no individual contribution is separable from the rest.
Why it helps
Standing out alone makes you the one that gets picked, in a crisis as much as in a market. Moving identically with others means nothing can single you out.
1 minDifficulty 5
The Trial
Make one decorative thing of yours do actual functional work today, and name the function rather than the appearance.
Why it helps
Decoration that does nothing invites people to ask you what it is for. Making it do real work means the question never comes up.
2 minDifficulty 2
The Trial
Spend today on getting into position rather than on the move itself, holding station somewhere things pass you closely.
Why it helps
Attempting a close-range move from a distance fails and warns everyone about you. Spending your day on position means the move takes milliseconds.
2 minDifficulty 1
The Trial
Put one thing that needs protecting today inside something genuinely awkward to get into, and stop whatever watching or checking you were doing to protect it.
Why it helps
Protecting something by watching it means the protection stops the moment you look away, and you look away. Putting it somewhere awkward to reach holds while you sleep.
2 minDifficulty 1
The Trial
Sit on a chair in a clear space while a helper stands about three metres away and tosses five scrunched paper balls at moments they choose, each landing a step or two from the chair. Spring up, catch each ball before it touches the floor and sit straight back down before the next toss.
Why it helps
A quick reaction game that sharpens timing and gets you laughing with someone else.
4 minDifficulty 4
The Trial
With one other person, do something today where each of you holds a different part that does not work without the other, and run it through once together.
Why it helps
Working side by side on the same thing means either of you could do it alone and neither feels needed. Parts that only fit together is what actually binds a working pair.
2 minDifficulty 2
The Trial
With one other person, split a shared task into two genuinely different parts rather than both doing the same thing, and run it through once together. Agree who does which part before you start.
Why it helps
Splitting work into identical halves means you both do the easy parts and neither does the join. Taking genuinely different parts and rehearsing the handover is what makes two people faster than one.
2 minDifficulty 2
The Trial
When activated, have a partner play a repeating sound or visual cue while you rapidly introduce a second harmless pattern for 30 seconds, then identify which original cues you could still detect.
Why it helps
Thirty seconds that show how hard it is to hold a pattern once something competes with it.
6 minDifficulty 4
The Trial
Cross something that looks impossible today by finding only the next small available purchase, and moving to it, repeatedly.
Why it helps
Looking at the whole impossible face is why you never start. Finding only the next small purchase gets you across without ever seeing the route.
2 minDifficulty 2
The Trial
Take something distinctive about how you work that has been drifting back to the standard way, and isolate it today: protect the time for it, separate it from the default process, stop letting it be merged.
Why it helps
Whatever is distinctive about your work gets averaged away by the default process unless something keeps it apart. One real separation stops the drift that would otherwise finish it.
2 minDifficulty 1
The Trial
Take one small dose of a difficult thing today and add it to a running record of previous doses, keeping the dose small rather than making it a session.
Why it helps
Waiting for one big effort to make you resistant means it never arrives and you quit. Small doses that accumulate reach the same place without a day you dread.
2 minDifficulty 1
The Trial
Shrink your working range today to one small patch, and establish that your protection travels with you so you do not need to leave it.
Why it helps
Ranging widely because safety is elsewhere costs you most of your day in transit. Protection that travels with you makes one small patch enough.
2 minDifficulty 1
The Trial
Build one effect today out of an arrangement you can collapse at will, and demonstrate switching it off and on.
Why it helps
An effect built into fixed material is there whether it suits you or not. Building it out of spacing you control means you decide when it shows.
2 minDifficulty 2
The Trial
Build one alarm today that can only fire when something real has actually happened, and remove any way of triggering it manually.
Why it helps
An alarm anyone can trigger gets ignored within a month, including by you. One that only fires on real damage is still believed years later.
2 minDifficulty 2
The Trial
Accept today that you cannot open one thing, wait for someone else to, and take the parts their tool cannot reach.
Why it helps
Trying to open what your tool cannot open wastes your whole day and damages the tool. Taking the parts the openers cannot reach is uncontested.
2 minDifficulty 2
The Trial
Take one behaviour of yours you already have an explanation for and test today whether that explanation is the real driver.
Why it helps
An explanation you accepted long ago shapes decisions you are still making, and may be wrong. One test tells you whether to keep acting on it.
2 minDifficulty 1
The Trial
Remove one tether entirely today rather than reducing how often you have to return to it, and name what that opens.
Why it helps
Reducing how often you must return to something still means returning. Removing the tether entirely opens ground you could never reach before.
2 minDifficulty 1
The Trial
Sweep slowly across a whole area today sampling as you go, rather than waiting at one point for something to come to you.
Why it helps
Waiting at one point means only what passes you is ever found. A slow sweep covers the whole area for the same time spent.
2 minDifficulty 2
The Trial
Stop one thing completely today for a defined cold period rather than running it slowly, and compare what each would have cost.
Why it helps
Running something slowly through months of poor conditions costs you more in total than stopping would. Comparing the two is usually enough to decide.
2 minDifficulty 1
The Trial
Make one contact today that keeps working after you stop, then follow up from a distance rather than trying to finish it then.
Why it helps
Trying to finish something much bigger than you in one go is how you get hurt. A contact that keeps working lets you follow at no risk.
1 minDifficulty 3
The Trial
Pick one situation of yours that works better than it should. Trace what is actually supplying it today, name that source out loud, and do one thing that protects the supply rather than the situation.
Why it helps
When something of yours is working you tend to credit the thing itself and protect the wrong part. Finding the supply underneath tells you what would actually kill it, and what to defend.
2 minDifficulty 3
The Trial
Align one presentation of yours today with something nobody can afford to misidentify, and let the resemblance do the work.
Why it helps
Making claims about yourself invites testing, and you may not survive the test. Resembling something nobody can afford to misidentify means nobody tries.
2 minDifficulty 1
The Trial
Identify one thing you depend on that also damages you today, and manage where or when it happens rather than trying to remove it.
Why it helps
Trying to remove something that also sustains you destroys the supply with it. Managing where and when it happens is the only version that works.
2 minDifficulty 2
The Trial
Choose one area that has quietly filled up, a shelf, a calendar week or a list. Clear a deliberate gap in it today and leave that gap empty rather than refilling it with something better.
Why it helps
A space that fills up looks productive right up until nothing new can land in it. Clearing a gap on purpose is cheaper than waiting for something to force the clearing for you.
2 minDifficulty 2
The Trial
Name your one strongest advantage and the exact conditions under which it works. Put yourself on that surface today and do one thing there, and decline a request that would use the advantage somewhere it does not apply.
Why it helps
Using your strongest advantage on the wrong surface makes you look ordinary and teaches you to doubt it. Naming the exact conditions lets you spend it where it is overwhelming instead.
2 minDifficulty 2
The Trial
Schedule the replacement of the thing you use hardest today, put the date in writing, and accept the downtime it will cost rather than planning around it.
Why it helps
Running the thing you depend on most until it breaks means losing it without warning and at the worst moment. A scheduled replacement costs you a planned quiet week.
2 minDifficulty 1
The Trial
Restate one requirement structurally today rather than by example, then count how many things already satisfy it.
Why it helps
Stating a requirement by example means only the examples qualify and you wait. Stating it structurally usually reveals options you already have.
2 minDifficulty 2
The Trial
Work through your cheaper responses in order today before anything drastic, and acknowledge that the last one will not be a choice.
Why it helps
Skipping to the drastic response means reaching the one you cannot control. Working through the cheap ones first usually means you never get there.
2 minDifficulty 2
The Trial
Commit fully today to the artificial or man-made version of your environment rather than treating it as a lesser substitute.
Why it helps
Treating the artificial version as a compromise means you half-commit and do it badly. Committing fully makes it a niche nobody else has taken.
2 minDifficulty 2
The Trial
Set two identical timers or metronomes close together, then add a third competing rhythm and try to follow only one target for 30 seconds. Record the attempt.
Why it helps
Trains selective attention by experiencing how competing signals make a normally easy trail harder to follow.
5 minDifficulty 2
The Trial
Fill one gap completely today so nothing can be got hold of around the edges: the full schedule, the complete document, the closed loop.
Why it helps
Partly occupying a space leaves edges someone can work on, and they will do it while you are elsewhere. Filling it completely removes that entirely.
2 minDifficulty 2
The Trial
Build one reach that extends out from where you are today, rather than improving your ability to move toward things.
Why it helps
Improving how well you move means spending energy you do not have in a scarce environment. An extension reaches past your position for almost nothing.
1 minDifficulty 3
The Trial
Move one thing today without gripping it at all, using support, flow or containment instead, and do not attempt to hold it.
Why it helps
Trying to grip something when you cannot means dropping it repeatedly and blaming yourself. Moving it by support or containment works the first time.
2 minDifficulty 2
The Trial
Find a shared job already underway and join it for ten minutes, doing the same work everyone else is doing. Do not redirect it or suggest a better way.
Why it helps
A job that was dragging finishes, and you learn how much faster things move when nobody renegotiates them.
12 minDifficulty 2
The Trial
Put out one signal today calibrated to draw interest and no more, holding back the full explanation rather than giving everything at once.
Why it helps
Explaining everything up front gives people enough to decide against it before they are interested. A signal calibrated to draw interest gets you the conversation.
2 minDifficulty 1
The Trial
Identify somewhere you have been pushing to close a gap faster than the structure allows, and deliberately hold one step back today: let someone else go first, delay the ask, take the smaller role. Hold the position rather than advancing.
Why it helps
Pushing to close a gap faster than the structure allows is how people get quietly removed from it. Holding one deliberate step costs you a little time and keeps you in the queue that eventually pays.
2 minDifficulty 2
The Trial
Deliberately add one borrowed phrase, technique or move to your own repertoire today, taken from someone outside your field, and use it once in real work.
Why it helps
Your range stopped growing when you stopped borrowing, and nobody told you. One deliberate addition a time compounds into the thing people hire you for.
2 minDifficulty 2
The Trial
Keep raising one thing today at intervals for far longer than feels comfortable, rather than mentioning it once and letting it drop.
Why it helps
Mentioning something once and letting it go is why nothing changes and you feel ignored. Three repetitions past comfort is usually what ends it.
2 minDifficulty 2
The Trial
Pick one person you are spread out from today. Send a short contact signal now, and another one later, with no agenda and nothing asked for in either.
Why it helps
Only reaching out when you need something teaches people that hearing from you means work. Two contact signals with nothing attached keep the line open for the day you do need it.
1 minDifficulty 3
The Trial
While you work separately from others today, keep a low continuous signal going, short status notes at regular intervals, and send them without being asked and without stopping your work.
Why it helps
Working out of sight and silent means people assume the worst and come looking, which costs you far more than updating would have. A low signal running in the background prevents all of it.
2 minDifficulty 2
The Trial
Take a problem you have been hitting from the same direction and deliberately approach it from three different angles today, one after another, without repeating any.
Why it helps
Hitting the same armoured side repeatedly is why your problem has not moved in weeks. Three different angles in one sitting usually finds the one that was never defended.
1 minDifficulty 3
The Trial
Do not stop at the first result today: the moment one thing lands, keep going straight into what it opened, without pausing to register that it worked.
Why it helps
Stopping to enjoy the first result means the opening closes while you are admiring it. Continuing straight through doubles what the same effort gets you.
1 minDifficulty 5
The Trial
Plan what you will do immediately after your next big move today, assuming it does not land cleanly, and have that second phase ready before you go.
Why it helps
Planning only your big move means freezing when it does not land, which is most of the time. A prepared second phase turns that into a continuation.
2 minDifficulty 2
The Trial
Leave one escape or fallback fully set up today while you do ordinary work, and stop the preparation step you were doing only when things went wrong.
Why it helps
A fallback you have to set up when things go wrong is never ready at the moment it matters. Leaving it loaded during ordinary work costs you nothing and is always there.
2 minDifficulty 1
The Trial
Sit on something that moves under you — a swivel chair, a soft cushion, a gym ball — and hold a part-filled cup level for two minutes without your feet touching the floor. Let the seat move; keep the cup still.
Why it helps
Two minutes that quietly improve how steady your hands are when the ground is not.
4 minDifficulty 3
The Trial
Before your next head-down stretch, name the single intake you will keep open, the one person, the one alert, the one check, and close everything else. Name it before you start.
Why it helps
Going fully dark means you miss the one thing that genuinely needed you and people stop trusting the arrangement. One named open intake lets you bury everything else without that risk.
2 minDifficulty 1
The Trial
While doing your own work today, keep continuous light contact with the people around it rather than going heads-down and reporting afterwards.
Why it helps
Going heads-down and reporting afterwards means your work drifts from everyone else's and you redo it. Light continuous contact costs minutes and prevents that.
2 minDifficulty 2
The Trial
Keep working one problem today past the point you would normally abandon it, and then show whatever you found to at least one other person.
Why it helps
Quitting at your usual point means you never find what sits just past it. Going further once and telling someone makes it permanent for everyone.
2 minDifficulty 2
The Trial
Pick one thing you will have to respond to fast today. Get it fully loaded now, the words drafted or the kit laid out, then wait and release it in one go when the moment comes.
Why it helps
Preparing a fast response at the moment you need it means you are still getting ready while the chance closes. Loading it beforehand means the moment only has to trigger something already built.
1 minDifficulty 4
The Trial
In your next disagreement or negotiation, deliberately hold back your strongest point rather than opening with it. Make the weaker case first, and only produce the strong one if it is actually needed.
Why it helps
Opening with your best argument leaves you nothing when it does not land. Holding it back means you still have somewhere to go, and often you never need to spend it at all.
2 minDifficulty 1
The Trial
Pick someone you only contact when you want something, and make contact today with nothing to ask for. Say something about them rather than about your need. Do it again before the week ends.
Why it helps
If you only make contact when you need something, every approach costs goodwill. Keeping a low-level signal running means the relationship is already warm when you do need it.
2 minDifficulty 2
The Trial
Count out loud how many things are currently crowding one space of yours: tabs, objects on a desk, commitments this week. Then remove enough that the remaining ones are not touching. Show the crowded before, the count, and the spaced after.
Why it helps
Crowding does not just slow you, it changes how you behave, and you adapt to it without noticing. Thinning one space before it reaches that point is far cheaper than recovering afterwards.
2 minDifficulty 1
The Trial
Keep what you cannot replace out of the exposed part of one task today and do the work entirely with what you could lose, naming which is which first.
Why it helps
Putting the irreplaceable part of something into the exposed work means one bad day takes all of it. Naming what you can afford to lose first keeps the loss survivable.
2 minDifficulty 1
