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 2.041–2.100.
The Trial
Mix oats, a nut or seed butter, honey and chopped dried fruit in a bowl until it holds together. Roll twelve balls of equal size and pack them snugly into one tin or box so they fill it with no wasted space.
Why it helps
Ready-made snacks for a long day, made in twenty minutes.
20 minDifficulty 2
The Trial
When something presses today, fold the vulnerable part of one situation inward and present only the protected surface, rather than defending it where it stands.
Why it helps
Defending the soft part of something where it stands means it stays exposed the whole time you argue. Folding it inside means there is nothing left to get at.
1 minDifficulty 3
The Trial
Before doing something you expect pushback on, prepare for the pushback rather than for avoiding it: the written reason, the agreed fallback, the person who already knows. Then do the thing today.
Why it helps
Planning to avoid objections means you delay until the plan is perfect, which is never. Preparing to survive them lets you go today and take the objection on the chin.
2 minDifficulty 2
The Trial
Top up one reserve you have been assuming is full today, and schedule the repeat so it happens again without you remembering.
Why it helps
Reserves you assume are full are the ones that fail you. Topping it up once and scheduling the repeat means you never have to think about it again.
2 minDifficulty 2
The Trial
Create a motion today that brings one thing up to where your actual tools can reach it, instead of straining your tools towards it.
Why it helps
Straining your tools past what they were built for breaks them and gets you nothing. Making the thing come up means ordinary tools are suddenly sufficient.
2 minDifficulty 2
The Trial
Where you cannot get in front of a problem today, change the geometry of how you reach it rather than pushing harder from where you are.
Why it helps
Pushing harder when you cannot face something means spending everything on the wrong angle. Changing the geometry lets the same force reach it.
2 minDifficulty 2
The Trial
Get two other people on one physically or mentally demanding task and run it for ten minutes without the pace ever dropping. Rotate who leads every two minutes, with the person in front setting the tempo and the others matching it. Nobody rests; the leader changes instead.
Why it helps
Taking turns at the front is how a group keeps a pace none of you could hold alone, and most of your group efforts collapse because nobody organises the rotation. Ten minutes shows you the difference.
1 minDifficulty 4
The Trial
Pick one charger or lamp cable that crosses the floor and re-route it from socket to device along skirting boards, table legs and furniture edges, fixing it with adhesive clips or tape only so no part touches the floor. Never staple or nail through the cable, and keep it slack and out of doorways and walkways.
Why it helps
One fewer thing to trip over and one tidier corner of the room.
15 minDifficulty 2
The Trial
Transfer one route or procedure into the group today so at least two others hold it, rather than it living with you alone.
Why it helps
A route that lives only with you means you are called every time and it dies when you go. Two others holding it frees you permanently.
2 minDifficulty 2
The Trial
Use a tree in your own garden or in a public space where this is allowed. Hold a sheet of paper against the trunk and rub over it with the side of a grey or brown crayon until the bark texture covers the page. Tear an upright owl shape with two ear tufts out of the rubbing and hold it against the same trunk with a loop of string or removable tape, then remove it afterwards.
Why it helps
A calm outdoor craft that shows how matching texture hides a shape.
15 minDifficulty 1
The Trial
Lay a fresh, soft green leaf on a piece of white cotton or thick paper and fold the cloth over it. Rub firmly and slowly over the whole leaf with the back of a spoon until its green outline and veins show through.
Why it helps
A quiet, lovely print made from one leaf and a spoon.
15 minDifficulty 1
The Trial
Mark one boundary today using whatever medium is already present rather than installing anything, and make sure it registers.
Why it helps
Waiting for something to install a marker on means your boundary stays unmarked. Using what is already there registers it today for nothing.
2 minDifficulty 2
The Trial
Take something you have been avoiding because it comes with a problem and add one processing step today that removes the problem, then use it.
Why it helps
Avoiding things that come with problems means everything you use is also available to everyone else. One processing step makes the awkward supply yours.
2 minDifficulty 2
The Trial
Offer one small clear service today that people can come to you for, and say plainly what it is and where: the review, the look-over, the quick fix. Make the offer specific enough to act on.
Why it helps
General offers of help get ignored because nobody knows what to ask you for. One narrow clearly stated service brings people to you, and it is how most useful work starts arriving.
2 minDifficulty 1
The Trial
Make the next thing entirely out of what your last thing left over, with absolutely nothing new brought in: yesterday's leftovers into today's meal, offcuts into a second object, old notes into a new page. Show the leftovers, the build, and the finished second thing.
Why it helps
Starting the next thing by acquiring more is what makes it never start. Building it only from what the last thing left over means you can begin immediately and nothing goes to waste.
2 minDifficulty 2
The Trial
Look at one fixed recurring cost in your life, in money, time or attention. Cut it today rather than trying to earn more to cover it, and name what the lower baseline now makes possible.
Why it helps
Covering a high baseline by earning more means every option you have must be large enough to pay for it. Cutting the baseline instead makes small opportunities viable again.
2 minDifficulty 1
The Trial
Go under one obstacle today rather than over it, staying covered for the entire distance rather than exposing yourself at each step.
Why it helps
Going over obstacles exposes you at every stride and someone sees each one. Going under keeps you covered for the whole distance.
2 minDifficulty 2
The Trial
Name one standard you keep running at full regardless of conditions. Deliberately drop it to a lower acceptable level for the rest of today, and note what the drop freed up.
Why it helps
Defending every standard at full strength costs you the reserves you need for the one that matters, and you usually drop that one instead. Lowering a baseline on purpose decides which thing suffers.
2 minDifficulty 1
The Trial
Pursue one thing today by the slow direct method you have been avoiding, on foot and in person, and fund it by cutting one expensive habit for the day so the energy comes from savings rather than extra effort.
Why it helps
Paying for new effort with extra hours leaves you worse off than before you started. Funding it by cutting something costly keeps you level while the pursuit still happens.
2 minDifficulty 3
The Trial
Mark three small visible targets around one room and collect them in order while staying in a low stance. Keep the route clear and stay off furniture.
Why it helps
You get a concrete, memorable result while practising scavenger efficiency as a real human action.
6 minDifficulty 1
The Trial
Scatter twenty paper tokens and race to sort them into categories using rapid general-purpose hand movements.
Why it helps
Twenty scattered things are sorted in the time it normally takes to decide how to sort them.
5 minDifficulty 4
The Trial
Complete one ordinary active circuit—walk, stairs, or bodyweight movement—at a sustainable pace while breathing normally. Record a short video segment.
Why it helps
A circuit at a pace you could genuinely hold, which is the only pace that gets repeated.
6 minDifficulty 2
The Trial
Something has changed and your usual method no longer fits. Deliberately use a completely different method for one task today rather than your normal one at reduced capacity: different tool, different time, different order, different person.
Why it helps
Running your normal method at half power in changed conditions gets you half results and full frustration. Switching to a method actually suited to the new conditions usually works first time.
2 minDifficulty 2
The Trial
Write the fixed order you will work through your recurring tasks, then follow it today without deciding at each step. Same sequence, no reconsidering.
Why it helps
Deciding what to do next at every step spends your best attention on triage rather than work. A written order followed without reconsidering gets the same list done in noticeably less time.
2 minDifficulty 2
The Trial
Run the same short route or check three times today rather than covering new ground, and note what the second and third passes showed that the first did not.
Why it helps
Covering new ground each time means you only ever see any of it once and badly. Three passes over the same short route shows you what a single look never could.
2 minDifficulty 2
The Trial
Mix about two cups of cornflour with one cup of water in a shallow tray until it is thick but pourable. On go, run two fingertips like legs across the tray from edge to edge three times within ten seconds without them sinking in, then press slowly to show them sink. Afterwards, scrape the slime into the bin, never down the sink or drain.
Why it helps
A strange, delightful burst of speed that you can feel working under your fingers.
8 minDifficulty 3
The Trial
Set one boundary today that is easy to pass for the people it should be and costly for everyone else, using the same single arrangement for both.
Why it helps
A boundary with hand-made exceptions for the right people becomes a list you maintain and eventually get wrong. One arrangement that distinguishes them itself holds on its own.
2 minDifficulty 1
The Trial
Move onto ground today that supplies your safety structurally, and then deliberately stop investing in being quick.
Why it helps
Investing in speed to stay safe means you must stay fast forever. Ground that supplies the safety lets you stop paying for that entirely.
2 minDifficulty 2
The Trial
Put an open shoebox on the floor three metres from a tape mark. On go, stand at the mark and launch a flat postcard or playing card with a smooth flick from shoulder height so it glides into the box, landing it within ten attempts and two minutes.
Why it helps
A quick, maddening, deeply satisfying aim challenge.
3 minDifficulty 3
The Trial
Take a skill you use in one setting and apply it unchanged somewhere completely different today: the work technique at home, the hobby method at work. Use it for real, not as an analogy.
Why it helps
You assume a new setting needs a new skill, so you start from scratch and are bad at it. Taking a skill you already have somewhere it is unusual makes you immediately good there.
2 minDifficulty 2
The Trial
Take the thing you have been hedging, softening or burying in qualifiers and say it once, clearly and at full volume, without stopping. No preamble, no 'just', no trailing off. One sentence if that is all it needs.
Why it helps
Hedging feels safer and leaves everyone guessing what you meant, so the thing comes back round again. Saying it once at full clarity settles it, and you stop carrying the unsaid version.
2 minDifficulty 1
The Trial
Spend one quiet hour after dark today somewhere you can hear yourself, with nothing playing, and say out loud the one thing you have been meaning to say to someone. Then send it.
Why it helps
Carrying something unsaid means it keeps costing you attention and nobody can act on it. One quiet hour and one sent message clears it for good.
2 minDifficulty 1
The Trial
Say out loud today that you have noticed the thing nobody is naming, to the person doing it, calmly and more than once if needed. Say only that you have noticed, and nothing else.
Why it helps
Pretending not to notice something means it continues and you carry it quietly. Saying plainly that you have seen it usually stops it without any confrontation for you.
2 minDifficulty 1
The Trial
While others are working head-down today, send one short all-clear signal at a regular interval, saying nothing is wrong, rather than only speaking up when something is.
Why it helps
Only speaking up when something is wrong means your silence reads as risk and people keep looking up. A repeated all-clear lets them stay down and get it done.
2 minDifficulty 2
The Trial
List what you have been treating as competition and rank each by how much it genuinely overlaps with you. Then stop reacting to the bottom half entirely, starting today.
Why it helps
Treating everything as a rival means spending your attention on things that were never competing with you. Ranking by real overlap usually lets you ignore most of the list.
2 minDifficulty 2
The Trial
For one hour today, deliberately scan above your normal eye level everywhere you go - ceilings, tops of shelves, upper branches, signage. Note five things you have never noticed that are above head height in places you pass every day, and write them down.
Why it helps
You scan at eye level and so you have never seen a third of every room you use. One hour of looking up shows you storage, damage and detail you have walked under for years.
2 minDifficulty 1
The Trial
Pause a ground-level task and move to one safe ordinary step or curb to scan the whole area before returning.
Why it helps
You turn plain watch into one concrete, visible experience instead of an abstract idea.
10 minDifficulty 2
The Trial
Scan broadly today from a position where you cannot be observed doing it, and only convert that position into action at the end.
Why it helps
Scanning where you can be seen means everyone adjusts before you move. Doing it unobserved means your one action arrives at full speed.
1 minDifficulty 3
The Trial
Look through a small paper viewing window and scan a detailed scene in five deliberate shifts, naming one new detail after each shift.
Why it helps
Shows how a small high-detail field can build a rich picture through controlled scanning instead of requiring one huge field of view.
6 minDifficulty 4
The Trial
Take something you keep all in one place, savings, files, contacts, supplies, and split it across at least three separate locations today.
Why it helps
Keeping everything in one place means one bad event takes all of it, and you will not get a warning. Three locations makes the same event survivable.
2 minDifficulty 2
The Trial
Break your own pattern today in one thing you do at a fixed time by a fixed route: change the time, change the route and change the order, and do not repeat yesterday's sequence at any point.
Why it helps
Running one predictable line makes you easy to intercept, at work as much as anywhere. Breaking the pattern deliberately costs you nothing and makes you much harder to pin down.
1 minDifficulty 5
The Trial
On grass or carpet, lay out hoops or cushions as burrow entrances four to six steps from a middle spot, one for each player plus one spare, and have everyone graze around the middle. A caller gives a sharp alarm call at a random moment; everyone sprints to a free burrow (first to touch it keeps it, no pushing), pauses there to look back, then crouches down, and the whole colony must be crouched within five seconds of the call or you replay the round.
Why it helps
A shrieking, fast group game that gets everyone moving.
5 minDifficulty 3
The Trial
Arrange one thing today so a quick glance categorises it as the wrong kind of object entirely, and leave it that way.
Why it helps
Hiding something invites a second look from anyone suspicious of you. Being categorised as the wrong kind of thing means nobody looks twice at all.
2 minDifficulty 1
The Trial
Sit in a doorway blindfolded, with headphones playing quiet music. A consenting helper fills three identical cups with coffee grounds, orange peel and a mint tea bag, rolls a die to set the order, and carries one cup at a time slowly past your nose while you name each scent.
Why it helps
A calm game that shows how much your nose knows.
10 minDifficulty 2
The Trial
Take one thing you have only ever addressed at the surface. Work through the covering layer today, go through records or ask the second question, and bring out one thing that was underneath it.
Why it helps
Addressing something at the surface means you keep solving the visible version while the real one continues underneath. One pass through the covering layer usually finds what has actually been happening.
2 minDifficulty 2
The Trial
Fill a baking tray with a thick layer of rice, sand or lentils. Using only a teaspoon, scoop grains from the centre and drop them on a circle around it until you have a round crater with a clear, raised rim, then place one small object in the middle as your stage.
Why it helps
A tactile, absorbing bit of making with a satisfying finished shape.
15 minDifficulty 2
The Trial
Set ten small green tokens, such as green pompoms, bottle caps or folded paper birds, on an open table beside a heap of green leaves, a leafy houseplant or a crumpled green towel. A helper claps at a moment you do not know, or a random-interval timer sounds, and within three seconds of the alarm you sweep all ten into the green cover so none can be seen, three rounds in a row.
Why it helps
A sharp reaction burst that makes you laugh and wakes you up.
5 minDifficulty 3
The Trial
In a clear space, a helper tosses twenty soft pompoms or scrunched paper balls high and in unpredictable directions over thirty seconds. Hold a pillowcase open by its mouth with both hands and dart, swerve and sweep it through the air to scoop them before they land; if fewer than eight end in the bag, gather them up and play a fresh round of twenty.
Why it helps
Thirty seconds of wild, laughing movement that sharpens tracking and agility.
3 minDifficulty 3
The Trial
Start from a safe seated or sheltered base, make one short two-minute survey of the immediate area for a useful item or detail, then return to the same base.
Why it helps
Practises controlled exploration: gather value outside without turning a brief sortie into open-ended wandering.
5 minDifficulty 2
The Trial
Take a jar that looks finished, such as peanut butter, jam or honey, and use a flexible spatula in steady overlapping passes around the walls and base until it is clean, spreading what you gather onto toast or crackers.
Why it helps
A surprisingly generous last helping from a jar you nearly threw away.
5 minDifficulty 2
The Trial
Cook a globe artichoke ahead, steaming it or microwaving it covered with a splash of water for about eight to ten minutes (cooking time is extra), until a leaf pulls away easily, and let it cool a little. Pull off one leaf at a time, scrape the soft base between your teeth, stack the stripped leaves, rest with your hands in your lap for a minute after every ten leaves, and when they are done remove the fuzzy choke and eat the heart.
Why it helps
A slow, mindful meal that makes you eat at a calmer pace.
20 minDifficulty 1
The Trial
Tie one end of a cord or shoelace to a chair leg and thread ten beads, buttons or metal nuts whose holes are only just wider than the cord onto the last metre, over a tray to catch them. On go, tie a loose overhand knot in the cord on the chair side of the beads and slide it towards the free end so it shoves every bead off the end, all ten within thirty seconds.
Why it helps
A fast, fiddly burst of hand skill that turns out to be weirdly addictive.
3 minDifficulty 4
The Trial
Name the unglamorous reliable source that carries you through lean stretches. Build or set up one dedicated tool for it today, and use that tool on it once.
Why it helps
Handling your reliable boring source with whatever is to hand means it takes far longer than it should and you resent it. A dedicated tool makes the thing that actually carries you cheap to work.
2 minDifficulty 2
The Trial
Spread a thin layer of rice across a baking tray and scatter one handful of seeds or lentils over it. Scratch backwards with one hand from the same side while slowly rotating the tray, until one round patch about a hand wide shows the tray floor, with a raised rim of rice and seeds around it.
Why it helps
A tactile, absorbing search that ends with a neat pattern.
10 minDifficulty 2
The Trial
While you are out of the room, a helper buries five dried beans at different depths in a baking tray of shredded paper or dry leaves and slides it under a table. Kneeling beside it, rake the litter backward with the fingers of one hand, pause to look after each stroke, and pick up each bean you expose with thumb and finger, finding all five within twenty scratches.
Why it helps
A small, absorbing search that rewards a steady rhythm over grabbing.
8 minDifficulty 3
The Trial
Use one piece of outside feedback today to change something about yourself rather than to respond to the source of the feedback.
Why it helps
Responding to the source of feedback means arguing instead of changing anything. Using it on yourself is the only version that improves something.
2 minDifficulty 2
The Trial
Take one situation today where you are being pulled out of your protected position. Say clearly that you object, and then actually return to the protected position rather than staying out to argue.
Why it helps
Objecting and then staying out in the open to argue it means you spend the day on the argument and lose the position anyway. Saying it once and going back is what keeps the position.
1 minDifficulty 3
The Trial
Tape a clean drinks carton shut to make a rigid hull. Fix two pencils to the back, stretch a rubber band between them and slot a small card paddle into the band, then wind the paddle and let its small strokes push the boat from one end of a bath or basin holding a few centimetres of water to the other, rewinding as often as needed.
Why it helps
A satisfying build that turns a piece of rubbish into a working boat.
20 minDifficulty 2
The Trial
Choose a sponge, a knobbly rug or a patterned cushion as the reef. Shape a small fish from playdough or clay using only colours found in that surface, press texture into its skin with a pencil tip to match it, and push a short piece of pipe cleaner or thin florist wire into its head with a tiny bright bead or tuft on the tip as its lure; then tap the surface beside it so the lure twitches.
Why it helps
A slow, satisfying model that trains the eye for colour and texture.
18 minDifficulty 2
The Trial
Take a sheet of paper and an envelope. On the paper put a few lines about one slow thing you are building: a skill, a garden, savings, a friendship. Fold it into the envelope and seal it. On the front put today's date and the date ten years from today, and the words 'open then'. Put it somewhere safe.
Why it helps
Measuring slow work by this month's results makes you quit things that would have mattered. Naming one long project and dating it a decade out reminds you to judge it on its own timescale.
2 minDifficulty 1
