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 781–840.
The Trial
Pick one opportunity you have been taking in small pieces. Commit something today on the scale of your whole capacity for it, in one action, and do not spread it across several attempts.
Why it helps
Taking a real opportunity in small pieces means each piece is too small to change anything and the window closes. One commitment at full scale is the only version that produces a result you notice.
1 minDifficulty 3
The Trial
Within one hour today, do both a high-level piece of work and a hands-on low-level one on the same problem, switching between them at least twice.
Why it helps
Staying at one level on a problem means you either understand it without being able to fix it or fix the wrong part skilfully. Switching twice in an hour is where the two actually meet.
1 minDifficulty 4
The Trial
Cut a fish shape from card and hold or tape it about 30 cm below a bright ceiling light or an overcast window, then photograph it from underneath: it shows as a dark outline. Tape a small battery light or a phone torch dimmed with tissue to its underside, adjust the brightness, and photograph it again from the same spot.
Why it helps
A neat piece of optics you can show anyone in two clips.
20 minDifficulty 2
The Trial
Make one thing match the background behind it today rather than making it darker or quieter, and check it from the direction it will actually be seen from.
Why it helps
Making something darker or quieter still leaves an outline, and the outline is what anyone looking notices about your work. Matching the background behind it removes the shape.
2 minDifficulty 2
The Trial
Pick one pressure on you today. Instead of moving away from it, move toward the harder, more demanding option that whoever is pressuring you cannot follow into, and take one step up it.
Why it helps
Moving away from pressure sideways keeps you on the same ground the pressure moves well on. Going up into the harder option is uncomfortable and is the one place it cannot reach you.
1 minDifficulty 4
The Trial
Take one thing you cannot remove today and change its shape or orientation so it shows as little as possible, rather than trying to hide it.
Why it helps
Trying to hide something that cannot be hidden wastes your effort and draws attention to the attempt. Reshaping it so it presents almost nothing actually works.
2 minDifficulty 1
The Trial
Start recording one thing today as it happens rather than reconstructing it afterwards: the time, the number, the condition, logged at the moment.
Why it helps
Reconstructing what happened afterwards gives you a version you cannot trust and neither can anyone else. Logging at the moment costs you seconds.
2 minDifficulty 1
The Trial
Accept today that one role you want is only reachable after the role you are in, and do the current one properly rather than skipping ahead.
Why it helps
Trying to skip to the later role means doing it badly without the first one behind you. Doing the current one properly is what makes the next available.
2 minDifficulty 2
The Trial
Take one disagreement or difference you are stuck in today. Work out the single shared origin underneath it, state that origin to the other person, and start from there instead of from the difference.
Why it helps
Arguing from the difference makes both of you defend positions neither of you chose. Naming the origin you actually share moves the conversation to the only place it can be settled.
2 minDifficulty 1
The Trial
Pick one thing only you can currently do and teach one specific person enough to do it badly today. Not documentation, an actual handover where they do it while you watch.
Why it helps
Being the only one who can do something feels like security and is actually a cage, because you can never be away. One person taught badly today is the difference between a holiday and a phone call.
2 minDifficulty 1
The Trial
Deliberately time something you were going to do alone so it lands at the same moment as others doing the same thing, rather than going first or waiting.
Why it helps
Going alone makes you the only target and standing out costs you. Landing in the same week as everyone else means the attention is spread too thin to hurt.
1 minDifficulty 3
The Trial
Find out today what the current version of something you do is, the current format, standard or expectation, and switch to it rather than continuing with yours.
Why it helps
Continuing with the version you learned means your work reads as dated and nobody tells you. One check and a switch costs you an hour.
2 minDifficulty 1
The Trial
Spend nothing on one thing today until the information is in, then commit everything in a single move.
Why it helps
Spending while you are still gathering information means being out of resources when you finally know. Holding until it is in means one move does it.
1 minDifficulty 4
The Trial
Pick one small area you intend to stay in - one neighbourhood, one team, one subject. For today, take everything you need from inside it and nothing from outside: the food, the help, the information, the work. When something is missing, find a substitute within that area rather than going out for the usual version.
Why it helps
Constantly going outside your own patch for the standard option is why you never learn what is actually in it. A day of taking only what is local shows you how much was already there.
2 minDifficulty 2
The Trial
Finish one warm-season job now rather than deferring it, on the explicit basis that the dormant half cannot absorb anything.
Why it helps
Deferring work into a period that cannot absorb it means it simply does not happen. Stating the constraint makes you finish it while you can.
2 minDifficulty 2
The Trial
Name the single event that would take out most of what you depend on at once, then do one concrete thing today to make that event survivable rather than hoping it does not happen.
Why it helps
The single event that would take out everything at once is usually obvious to you and never named, which is why nothing is done. Naming it makes one cheap mitigation obvious.
2 minDifficulty 1
The Trial
Improve the interface between you and the surface you work on today, the footing, the contact, the handoff, rather than anything further in.
Why it helps
Improving things further in while your contact surface is wrong means every step still costs you. Fixing the interface changes all of them at once.
2 minDifficulty 2
The Trial
Before you begin today, write down the three things this day's energy is for, then spend it only on those. Anything else that arrives goes on tomorrow's list rather than into today.
Why it helps
Treating your day as if more energy will arrive is why it goes on whatever shouted loudest. Naming three things first means the budget goes where you decided rather than where it drained.
1 minDifficulty 4
The Trial
Count how many genuinely independent places your income, your work or your social life actually rests on right now. If the real answer is one, start a second today with one concrete step.
Why it helps
Having once been in many places tells you nothing about today, and a single remaining source feels stable right up until it is cut. Counting honestly takes ten minutes and usually surprises you.
2 minDifficulty 1
The Trial
Build one standing filter today that everything of a certain kind must pass, the form, the criteria, the required step, so you stop judging case by case.
Why it helps
Judging each thing as it arrives costs you a decision every time and you will be inconsistent. One standing filter makes all of those decisions at once.
2 minDifficulty 2
The Trial
Position yourself today so the one thing you are waiting for will arrive directly in front of you, then take it with a single straight move and no turning.
Why it helps
Having to turn and reorient when something arrives is time you do not have, and it is why you miss. Being aimed correctly before it comes makes one straight move enough.
1 minDifficulty 3
The Trial
Run every exchange about one thing today through a single agreed channel, and refuse to widen it when something feels awkward to pass through.
Why it helps
Letting exchanges happen through whichever route is convenient means things get lost and you do not know where to look. One narrow channel is harder and nothing falls out of it.
2 minDifficulty 2
The Trial
The night before, pack damp sand around five small plastic toys in a small lidded tub of about half a litre (a margarine or yoghurt tub), spread through the sand, and freeze it with the lid on. Turn the block out onto a tray and dig in with a sturdy metal spoon and gloved fingers, working the edges and cracks and keeping your other hand clear of the spoon's path, until all five toys are free.
Why it helps
A satisfying dig with a guaranteed haul at the end.
20 minDifficulty 3
The Trial
Identify the hours your own judgement is weakest today and arrange to be somewhere safe before they begin.
Why it helps
Working through the hours your judgement is weakest is where your worst decisions come from. Being settled before they start costs you nothing.
2 minDifficulty 2
The Trial
Reduce one thing today to the smallest form that could restart it, stop maintaining it entirely, and record what would bring it back.
Why it helps
Keeping a weak version of something alive all year costs you attention every week and it is never good enough to use. Seed form plus a written trigger costs nothing.
2 minDifficulty 1
The Trial
Take something you have been building alone and get one other person genuinely involved today, doing a real part of it rather than advising. Hand over one actual piece.
Why it helps
The solo phase is where almost everything you start dies, and it feels like a test of commitment rather than a structural risk. One person doing a real piece changes the odds more than months of extra effort.
1 minDifficulty 4
The Trial
Hold absolutely still on one thing today and take it with a single change rather than any approach or pursuit.
Why it helps
Approaching or pursuing tells whatever you want that you are coming. Staying still and taking it in one change means it never knew.
2 minDifficulty 1
The Trial
Increase what one trip can carry today rather than making more trips, and go somewhere further and better with the larger load.
Why it helps
Making more trips to cover the same ground means the travel eats your day and you stay close to home. A bigger load per trip puts better ground within reach.
2 minDifficulty 2
The Trial
When one situation breaks today, leave immediately on a route you did not plan and do not straighten, changing direction at least twice.
Why it helps
Leaving on the obvious route means whoever is following you is already waiting on it. An unplanned path with real turns cannot be anticipated, because you did not know it either.
1 minDifficulty 3
The Trial
Choose one small area you normally pass over and document three details found only by inspecting that area closely.
Why it helps
Rewards deep exploration of a limited space instead of assuming variety requires covering more ground.
8 minDifficulty 1
The Trial
Arrange one thing today so that only what genuinely must be visible is, and everything else sits below the line without being hidden by effort.
Why it helps
Hiding things by effort means it slips the moment you are busy. Arranging what shows structurally means it stays right without you maintaining it.
2 minDifficulty 1
The Trial
Approach one thing today presenting the smallest profile you have, and move without the gesture or motion that normally announces you are coming.
Why it helps
Approaching something at your full width with your usual announcement means it has adjusted before you arrive. Your narrowest aspect and no signal gets you within reach.
2 minDifficulty 2
The Trial
Take one message, letter or request that is waiting for your answer. Turn away from everything else and put any other screen face down. Read it once from start to finish out loud. Only then say your reply out loud in one or two sentences, and send or give it.
Why it helps
Answering from a quick glance is how you reply to the wrong question and spend three more messages fixing it. Reading the whole thing first means your first answer is usually the one that settles it.
2 minDifficulty 1
The Trial
Identify one situation where your instinct is to move or react and where moving would actually cost you. Face away from it today, stay still, and let the pressure pass without any response.
Why it helps
Reacting on instinct in a situation where movement is what harms you means your fastest response is the wrong one. Holding still once teaches you which situations those are.
2 minDifficulty 1
The Trial
Tear a small fish shape from white card and tape it to a straw or stick. Hold it up against a ceiling light, a bright window or an overcast sky so it shows as a dark silhouette, never looking toward the sun, then shine a torch onto its underside, adjusting the distance until the shape nearly disappears.
Why it helps
A striking optical trick that explains how counter-lighting works.
15 minDifficulty 2
The Trial
Take a task you have been powering through and let the momentum you already have carry the middle, spending your effort only on the handovers: start, hand off, catch, continue. Do it once today.
Why it helps
Pushing continuously through a task means you are tired before the hard parts arrive. Spending effort only at the transitions gets the same distance covered and leaves you able to do the next one.
2 minDifficulty 2
The Trial
Position yourself today so your fallback is directly beneath whatever you are doing, requiring no travel to reach it.
Why it helps
A fallback you have to travel to is one you will not reach in time. Working directly above it means escaping costs you nothing.
2 minDifficulty 1
The Trial
Pick one thing you built and then left to run. Do the maintenance on it today, then set the shortest interval at which it genuinely needs doing again and do it at that interval, not when you remember.
Why it helps
Treating something as finished once it is built is how good things quietly die while you are proud of having made them. Naming the real upkeep interval is the difference between owning it and having owned it.
2 minDifficulty 2
The Trial
A helper hides ten dried beans under a layer of shredded paper in a long tray. Move from one end of the tray to the other, sweeping a paper fan horizontally side to side to blow the paper aside, and pick each bean the moment it shows.
Why it helps
A breezy search game that is surprisingly satisfying to finish.
10 minDifficulty 2
The Trial
Before committing to something today, check whether your method requires you to hold on throughout, and prepare for that rather than for a quick release.
Why it helps
Committing with a method that cannot release leaves you stuck in whatever follows, unprepared. One check beforehand tells you what preparation it needs.
2 minDifficulty 2
The Trial
Set one process up today so it recycles its own energy between cycles, then increase the rate and check the cost barely rises.
Why it helps
A process that spends fresh effort each cycle costs you more every time you speed it up. One that recycles means speed is nearly free.
2 minDifficulty 3
The Trial
Pick the part of your week everyone treats as the worst bit - the admin, the early start, the awkward call, the wet walk. Today, go into it deliberately equipped: the right boots, the right list, the right hour. Do it faster and better than you ever have, and note how little competition there was for it.
Why it helps
The thing everyone avoids is usually uncontested, and you are spending your effort where ten others are already pushing. Getting good at the bad ground gives you an advantage nobody is competing for.
2 minDifficulty 2
The Trial
Find one task today that clearly belongs to someone else and is not yours to do. Do a real piece of it without being asked and without taking it over, then tell them it is done.
Why it helps
Staying strictly inside your own work keeps things fair and keeps everyone slightly stuck. Doing one real piece of someone else's load moves them forward at a cost you barely feel.
2 minDifficulty 2
The Trial
Pick one thing you want that everybody around you is chasing in exactly the same way. Spend ten minutes listing where they all look. Then go one level above that list - earlier, higher, or through a door nobody uses - and get one real result from there before the day ends.
Why it helps
Competing where everyone competes means you win rarely and pay full price when you do. Looking one level above the crowd's reach gives you the same thing at a fraction of the effort.
2 minDifficulty 2
The Trial
Identify your two cheapest hours of the day for real work and the hours that cost you most. Move one demanding task into a cheap hour today, and deliberately rest through an expensive one.
Why it helps
Doing demanding work in your expensive hours costs several times what it should and leaves you unable to use the cheap ones. Moving one task and resting once resets the whole day's cost.
2 minDifficulty 2
The Trial
Pick one risky opportunity you want some of. Take only the part of it you can reach while keeping your existing safe position intact today, and refuse the part that would require letting go of it.
Why it helps
Taking the whole of a risky opportunity means you give up the position that would let you survive it going wrong. Taking the edge of it gets you most of the upside with your exit still there.
2 minDifficulty 3
The Trial
Separate where you do the work from where you are safe today and commute between them, rather than compromising on one place for both.
Why it helps
Choosing one place that is adequate for both work and safety means it is poor at each. Commuting costs you the trip and both are good.
2 minDifficulty 2
The Trial
Schedule one activity today around the cycle that actually makes it possible rather than around when you feel like it, and state the cycle.
Why it helps
Working on something when you feel like it means arriving while it is still closed and giving up. Following the cycle that opens it means every attempt lands.
2 minDifficulty 2
The Trial
Stop visiting many small sources today and find one concentrated one instead, then stay with it for the whole session: the one long document, the one deep conversation, the one rich dataset.
Why it helps
Touring many small sources feels thorough and leaves you with fragments from each. One concentrated source worked properly gives you something whole.
2 minDifficulty 2
The Trial
Work the layer underneath one situation today rather than its surface, and establish that it is available when the surface is not.
Why it helps
Working the surface means your supply disappears every time the season turns. The layer underneath is there all year and nobody else reaches it.
2 minDifficulty 2
The Trial
Name the one person, practice or place that actually keeps you going - not what you would list publicly, the real one. Then put something into it today: an hour of your time, a message that says what it does for you, or the maintenance you have been postponing on it. One thing, delivered, not planned.
Why it helps
The things that keep you functioning quietly degrade while you take them for granted, and you only notice when the light goes out. Putting something back in today is cheaper than rebuilding later.
2 minDifficulty 1
The Trial
Spend today maintaining the system that produces your results, the team, the tool, the process, rather than producing results yourself.
Why it helps
Producing results yourself while the system that produces them degrades is why output keeps dropping. One day on maintenance returns more than the day of output would.
2 minDifficulty 2
The Trial
Arrange today so your supply and your cover are the same thing, so you never have to leave cover to take anything.
Why it helps
Leaving cover to take what you need exposes you every single time. Making your supply and your cover the same thing removes all of those trips.
2 minDifficulty 1
The Trial
Take your second supply route today, the backup source, the other channel, and use it to work in one place that is unusable without it.
Why it helps
A backup route you never use is just reassurance. Working somewhere that needs it puts you where nobody can follow you.
1 minDifficulty 4
The Trial
Gather information about one thing today without changing anything visible about your position or activity, moving only the part doing the sampling.
Why it helps
Visibly going to find something out tells everyone you are looking and changes what you find. Gathering it without moving means you learn it before anyone adjusts.
2 minDifficulty 1
The Trial
Merge one access step and one value step today so they become a single activity rather than two, and do it that way.
Why it helps
Treating access and value as separate steps means you pay for the access twice over. Merging them means getting there is already getting you paid.
2 minDifficulty 1
The Trial
Find one thing today by feel or another sense rather than by looking, keeping the rest of you still while only the probing part moves.
Why it helps
Looking harder for something that was never visible burns your day and tells you nothing. Switching to the sense that can actually reach it finds it on the first pass.
2 minDifficulty 2
The Trial
A helper hides five buttons under a towel laid flat on the floor, within an area of about half a metre. Blindfold yourself, kneel close, tuck your elbows against your ribs and probe through the towel with your fingertips until you have found and pulled out all five.
Why it helps
A calm touch puzzle that sharpens fingertip sensitivity.
8 minDifficulty 2
The Trial
Convert part of what normally carries your work today into something that senses ahead of it instead, and accept the reduced capacity.
Why it helps
Using all your capacity to carry means advancing blind into everything. Converting a quarter of it into sensing means you stop walking into things.
2 minDifficulty 2
The Trial
Arrange one entry today so you can leave again immediately, and check the exit before you go in.
Why it helps
Arranging a good entry without checking the exit means getting in and being unable to leave. One check before you go in costs seconds.
1 minDifficulty 5
