9 Ways to Make School Work Easier
Spoiler alert: it’s not because “you’re lazy”
Last week, a parent called me in tears. Her daughter, bright, capable, deeply motivated, had spent three hours at her desk and hadn't written a single word of her essay. "She's just staring at the screen," the mama said. "I don't understand…she wants to do well. Why won't she just start?"
I told her: “Your daughter isn't avoiding the work, she's facing work that isn't doable yet.”
There's a massive difference between those two things.
The doability gap
In learning strategy world, we talk a lot about the space between wanting to do something and being able to actually do it. I think of that space as the doability gap. You might’ve seen my recent Insta post about this.
This isn't about laziness. This isn't about caring too little or trying too hard. A student might have the skills to write an essay, the time to write an essay, and the genuine desire to write an essay, but if the task as it currently exists doesn't match what their brain and being can handle right now, they're stuck. Not because something's wrong with them, but because the work hasn't been made doable yet.
Our approach to learning strategies asks a different question. We don't ask, "What's wrong with this learner?" We ask, "What needs to shift to make this work accessible right now?"
Nine pathways to doability
These aren't “steps” or some kind of hierarchical. They're nine legit ways in to bridge that gap between "I need to do this" and "I can actually begin." Different moments call for different approaches. The skill is learning to recognize which pathway your brain is asking for.
Make it more purposeful
Connect the task with a bigger 'why,' and I don't mean the external why of grades or graduation requirements. I mean your actual why.
When my university students are drowning in readings, I ask them what in this chapter might actually matter to them. A nursing student found her way into a dense anatomy text by thinking about her grandmother's arthritis. A business student connected to marketing theory by thinking about his favourite sneaker brand.
For parents: Ask your child what one thing in this assignment might connect to something they already care about. Even the smallest thread of genuine interest can become a lifeline.
For educators: Build in moments where learners can articulate their own connection to material. Before diving in, have them talk to a partner about one reason this might matter to them personally.
Make it more easeful
Our bodies are part of our learning systems. A student who's cold, hungry, uncomfortable, or in a chaotic environment is using cognitive resources just to regulate their physical state. Those are resources that aren't available for learning.
Easeful might mean getting a snack first, making tea, putting on comfortable clothes, finding a quieter space, adjusting the lighting, or simply taking five minutes to settle before beginning.
I once worked with a student who couldn't focus until she'd organized her desk. For years, she'd been told this was procrastination. But once we renamed it as "creating conditions for focus," she stopped fighting it and started actually getting to work faster.
For parents: Notice what helps your child settle into work. Honour those needs as legitimate, not as delays.
For educators: Consider what conditions in your classroom might be making focus harder than it needs to be. Temperature, lighting, seating arrangements aren't luxuries.
Try starting imperfectly
Perfectionism is one of the biggest barriers to beginning. When the first sentence has to be brilliant, the first sentence never gets written.
I tell students to write the worst opening sentence they can possibly imagine. Make it deliberately terrible. Give yourself explicit permission to be gloriously bad at this for exactly three minutes.
The terrible sentence gets written. And then it gets revised. And suddenly, they're working.
For parents: "Let's write the worst version first" can be incredibly freeing for kids who freeze up trying to get it right from the start.
For educators: Model imperfect starts. Show your thinking process, including the messy parts. Let students see you cross things out and begin again.
Try starting quickly
Sixty-second sprints. That’s it. Do only 60 seconds of work, then stop.
This interrupts the overwhelm response. Sixty seconds isn't threatening. Often, once learners start, they keep going. But even if they don't, they did 60 seconds. That's real work.
For parents: Set a timer. "Let's do just one minute." The relief on kids' faces when you truly mean "just one minute" is remarkable.
For educators: Try Pomodoro-ish variations in class. Even short bursts of focused time, followed by breaks, can be more productive than long, unfocused stretches.
Try starting incrementally
Find the absolute smallest possible entry point. Not the "first step," the smallest imaginable piece.
Open the document. Read one sentence of the instructions. Write one word. Put the date at the top of the page.
I worked with a student who couldn't start her thesis. We found her smallest possible part: opening the document and changing the font to one she liked. That's it. That's all she had to do that day. The next day, she wrote a sentence. The day after, she wrote three more.
Small isn't ‘lesser.’ Small is…strategic.
For parents: Break tasks down far more than you think you need to. "Can you just read the first question?" is infinitely more doable than "Can you start your homework?"
For educators: Scaffold the entry points. Provide the smallest first step explicitly, especially for big projects.
Do something worse
Start with a more dreaded task first.
When students have been avoiding a big assignment, I sometimes ask what they've been avoiding even more than that. Start there. Suddenly, the original task doesn't feel quite as impossible.
Your brain recalibrates what "hard" means.
For parents: If your child is stuck on math homework, maybe they tackle cleaning their room first, the thing they've been avoiding even longer, taking a very chilly shower, or reading the chapter that they’re dreading even more than that math homework.
For educators: This won't always apply in classroom time, but it's worth naming as a legitimate strategy students can use independently.
Do something creative
Bring art, beauty, or creativity to any aspect of the work.
This engages different parts of the brain, parts that might be more accessible right now than the analytical, linear parts we usually demand for academic work.
Use coloured pens. Make a mind map instead of an outline. Add music. Create visual notes. Turn key concepts into a comic strip.
One of my students couldn't engage with historical texts until she started creating illustrated timelines. Another started colour-coding his notes by theme. Neither was "wasting time"; they were making the work neurologically accessible.
For parents: If your child loves art, let them bring that to their learning. It's a pathway, not a detour.
For educators: Offer choice in how students demonstrate understanding. The medium matters less than the learning.
Do something playful
Lower the stakes through silliness, fun, or joy.
Study in a ridiculous location. Make up songs about your subject. Turn flashcards into a game. Work with stuffed animals arranged as an audience. Create absurd mnemonics.
Play isn't frivolous. Play is how humans learn best. When we're playful, our threat response quiets down and our prefrontal cortex comes back online.
For parents: Let learning be weird and fun. Your kid studying while standing on one foot? Quizzing themselves in funny voices? That's legitimate learning.
For educators: Build in moments of levity. Humour and play create the psychological safety that makes risk-taking (which learning always is) feel possible.
The Strategic Question
When your child, your student, or you yourself sit down to work and nothing happens, ask: "What would make this doable right now?"
That shift moves us from pathologizing to strategizing, from stuck to experimenting, from "I can't" to exploring what might work.
Doability isn't one-size-fits-all. What works today might not work tomorrow. What works for one learner might not work for another. We're building a responsive, flexible relationship with our own learning needs.
Practise This Week
When you or a learner you care about hits that wall of "I can't start," pause. Scan through these nine pathways. Ask which one might create the conditions for beginning.
Then trust that trying something, anything, is more productive than sitting in stuckness.
There's no wrong way to make work doable. The best strategy is the one you'll actually use.
