LifeSketch
Job Search Accelerator
Productivity is doing what you intend to do.
The strategy is built — your targets, your value, your assets, your search plan. This is the system that runs it: in the moment when you've drifted, and once a week when you sit down.
Two minutes when you drift. Twenty minutes once a week. That's the whole operating load — everything else waits until the system sends you there.
Tap the wheel, or pick a door below.
I've drifted — or I can't start.
Fourteen tabs and the block half gone. Or a step you named days ago and still haven't taken. Both start here.
It's my sit-down. Run the Pass.
Same four steps, same order — whether last week happened or not.
Start here. Draw your Sketch.
The one-page picture your whole search points at.
Been away a week — or a month? There's nothing to make up. First, put down the story about the missed time, on purpose. Then run the pass from today. It gets the same tally mark as every other one. We don't count streaks here. We count returns.
Everything you type stays in this browser, on this device, saved automatically. Print any page to keep a paper copy. · ·
Decide to Do
Two faces, one question. The reStart Rep — Aware → Aim → Act — is for when you were going and drifted. What's Next? is for when you haven't started, because the step you named isn't actually next. You cannot fail this by wandering; only by not coming back.
Aware
First just notice: where are you, and what were you meaning to be doing? No fixing yet — naming the drift is the whole step.
Aim
Point yourself back at the target you just named. This isn't the moment to redesign the plan — it's the moment to get back to it.
Act
You can't start the next thing while the last one is still open. End it first — actually close it.
You can't fail this by drifting. Only by not coming back.
What am I trying to do?
The thing itself, in one line. Not the whole project, not your career — the piece sitting in front of you right now.
What have I been calling the next step?
Write down the step you've been telling yourself to take. Most stalls live right here: what you named isn't actually next — it's four moves down the road, and you can't start something that isn't next yet.
Back it up
One question, asked as many times as it takes: what has to happen before that? Stop when you land on something you could do right now — with what you already have, from where you're sitting.
Landed on something you could do and still won't? That's not a planning problem — take it to The Gap. Keeps branching into more work? It's a project — take it to Goals.
Willing and able
Two tests, both required. Able — you have everything you need to do it. Willing — you'd actually do it in the next hour. Fails either one? Make it smaller. Obnoxiously smaller is fine; that's the point.
Decide
Say it out loud. Yes, actually out loud.
Not the right step. The actual next one.
LifeSketch
The Sketch is the picture — draw it once a season, on a calm day. The Pass is the engine — twenty minutes, once a week. If you only ever run the Pass, the system works.
This season is for
One line. A season is real — a search, a semester, a quarter, a chapter. What is this one actually about?
Your roles — pick about five
The parts you play that matter right now. Focus on three or four this season — the rest can sit on the page until their turn. Self is one role. Job Seeker is probably another.
| Role | What it's for · what success looks like | Seasonal goals (1–3) | Next step |
|---|
e.g. Job Seeker · a search I run instead of dread · 5 tailored applications a week, 2 coffee chats a month · send the Denton application
That's the whole page. Not a life plan — a drawing you can hold in your head, and change. If a seasonal goal is still a blob, take that one piece to Goals. Redraw whenever it's wrong. Authors revise.
Look back
~5 minAt last week — or at wherever you've been. What did I intend? What actually happened? Don't solve anything here — anything stuck drops to the Gap List in step 2. That's the rule that keeps twenty minutes at twenty.
Pick one
~5 minThe Gap List — the stuck things, the avoided things, the "still bugging me" things. Add to it any time something nags you. Then, once a week, pick one. Not three. Open its tool.
| The stuck thing | Where it routes |
|---|
Routing: a project that needs a plan → Goals · a decision you can't make → Decisions · you know the step and won't take it → The Gap · the same fight every week → Structure
Look ahead
~8 minWhich roles get this week — three or four? One next step each, small enough to do tired. Big commitments go on the calendar first, including the rest and the fun. (The calendar work lives in Time.)
| Role this week | Its next step — one move, filmable |
|---|
Close
~2 minSay your next steps out loud. Yes, actually out loud.
Missed weeks? Nothing to catch up on. The pass always starts from today. Short on time? One role, one line, one change — five minutes still counts.
Goals
One project at a time — a tailored application, an interview prep, a portfolio piece. Five steps, and you're done when the orange box holds a real next step.
Goal
Contemplate
Brainstorm for this one project. Get everything out first — judging comes second.
Recipe — break it down
Work backwards from done, and from what you just wrote. e.g. "don't know what to say" → Do: write the script. "No target job" → Know: choose the target.
Sketch — your concrete plan
Break it into 3–5 action steps, then put dated tasks under each. Plan just the next layer — you don't need the whole tree mapped before you start.
| Action step | Tasks + date |
|---|
Decide to Do
Shippable, not perfect.
Tasks
Three moves: get everything out of your head, turn each line into a goal, and start one. This is a sorting table — but you don't leave it holding a list.
Externalize — save all the stuff
Raw and unfiltered — don't refine while you dump. What's on your mind · what's already written down · what's sitting on your devices · what someone just asked you. Tasks and worries both — the worries count.
Refine — make it a goal
Take one line at a time and ask: what do I actually want here? A noun on a list isn't doable — "fireplace" doesn't tell you what to do. A goal does. e.g. "fireplace" → protect the floor → buy a fire-retardant mat. "Job stuff" → name the target role → list three titles.
| Goal — outcome + purpose | Time, if needed | Next step | Decide |
|---|
If it has multiple steps, it's a project — take that line to Goals. Don't plan it here. And a line that keeps reappearing with its step untaken? That belongs on the Gap List in your Weekly Pass.
Start one
The table is sorted — don't leave it a tidy list. One of your Steps begins now, before you close this page.
Say it out loud. Yes, actually out loud.
One trusted place. Decide, and it stops circling.
Time
Your time gets spent either way. This is how you spend it on purpose. Plan the week calm; run the day tired.
The calendar ruling
What goes on a calendar: events with a time and place · reminders · time blocks. Never a to-do list, never wishes. If the calendar says it, it's real — that's what makes it worth checking.
Already spoken for
Put these in before anything else — including the rest and the fun you actually intend to have. Sometimes the block is the commitment: "Job Seeker, Tue/Thu 9:30–11:30."
The week, sketched
Rough it in here, then move it to wherever you actually keep your calendar. Either this page is your calendar, or it feeds your real one — pick one, so there's a single place you trust.
Look ahead
What's coming this month or season that this week should know about? Drop the reminder where it'll surface.
Other people
Let people see when you're taken. And never say yes to time on the spot — "let me check my calendar and get back to you" moves the decision to a calm moment.
Scan, then staff
Look in three places — your week, your calendar, your lists — then build the day. Fixed things first, then blocks, then a first task inside each block so the block starts itself. Look at your lists to choose from — don't copy them onto the day wholesale. Pick what today can actually hold.
An alarm marks a moment you'd otherwise blow past. A timer builds a container: twenty minutes, then you're done — and twenty minutes counts.
Which time today is likely to get interrupted — or avoided? How will you protect it?
Work backward from the fixed point. How long did it actually take last time? Then pad it.
When the day moves — it will
Move the block — don't delete it. Slide it the moment you know you won't do it then, not at bedtime. If it's genuinely dead, delete it on purpose and take the time back. Moving a block is running the system, not breaking it.
Your time gets spent either way. This is how you spend it on purpose.
Structure
Some parts of your search go the same way over and over — and you keep trying to out-effort them in the moment. Different move: figure it out once, while you're calm, and store it outside your head.
Name it
Situation — when and where does it happen?
Pin it down. Can't say when? Watch for it for two days and come back — you can't fix a thing you can't find.
What kind of thing is this?
What do you want?
Before you look at what happens — name what you're going for. Realistic: "a block that starts itself by 9:35," not "become a machine."
Map it — what's really happening now?
Be honest — nobody's grading this. Every place this map differs from what you want is a place the structure goes. A photo of the desk is a legitimate map.
Design it — build the better version
Fix each column of the map right below it: messy steps get new steps, unhelpful rules get new rules, broken setup gets new setup. Fill only what applies.
Set it up
Do the first one before you leave this page. Then copy the finished version onto the Protocol card and post it where it runs.
Built once on the Designer. This card runs on any day — fill only the parts this one needs.
Fix the plan, not yourself.
Decisions
For the decision you can't make — torn between options, or circling the same question for weeks. The way through is to look at the decision from above, instead of standing inside one option arguing with the others. Most picks are picks-for-now: you can change them later, and knowing that is what lets you choose.
Say it out loud
Why am I stuck?
What was I going for?
Smallest move I can undo
Make it a test you can walk back: a draft you don't send, a search filter you try for one week, a five-minute experiment. If you can't think of a small reversible move, this decision is bigger than this page — use the full pass.
Pick one, for now
Start
Name it
What am I going for?
What can I do about it?
List paths without filtering — include the bad ideas. Then cross out anything that isn't actually yours to decide. Keep 3–5: only two options is usually a false choice.
| Path | A season from now, this looks like… | Next step I can undo |
|---|
Assess & process
What's next? — say it out loud, cost and all
Stay on top of the decision — not inside an option.
The Gap
You know what to do. That was never the problem. This is where we work on the rest.
What are you not doing?
An action — not a feeling, not a wish. "Send the Denton application," not "stop procrastinating."
What do you call this?
Your word beats ours.
What is it doing for you?
It has a job — protecting you from something, or getting you something. Say what, even if it sounds bad out loud. e.g. "If I don't apply, I can't get rejected."
Can't say the job? Then you don't actually know this resistance yet. Stop here and run the Map — that's what it's for.
Build the bridge
Match the job to a move. These pairs show the shape — the real one is yours to write.
Too big → break off one piece. · Too risky → shrink it to a move you can undo. · Too exposed → do it first with someone you trust. · Too vague → name the target before the task. · Too boring → put a clock on it. · Keeps coming back → build it into a protocol — decide once.
Decide
Now say the whole thing out loud. Yes, actually out loud.
The problem is in your head, where you can't see it. The whole method on this page is one move: get it onto paper, where you can look at it. You won't finish in one sitting — you're not supposed to. Date your passes. Coming back is the tool working.
Name the gap
Read your sentence. Does the stuck feeling actually match it? If it's about something further back — run Backtrack (D) first.
Understand it
Four ways to look at the same resistance. Run the one that fits — one at a time, on purpose. Opening one closes the others.
AWeigh it
when part of you wants this and part of you doesn't — you keep arguing with yourself and nobody wins
Both lists are true at the same time. That's the stall — a foot on each pedal, not a broken engine.
BMap the loop
when the same pattern keeps running you — you can watch yourself do it and can't seem to stop
CMeet the part
when the payoff is hard to admit, or the pattern feels older than this task
The resistance is a part of you with a job. It's not trying to ruin your life — it's trying to protect you, with a method that made sense once and costs too much now.
DBacktrack
when the problem you named doesn't feel like the real one
One question, repeated: "What's the worst part about that?" Ask it into each answer until the answer stops changing. Where it stops is the real problem.
Stopped somewhere new? Go back and rewrite the problem sentence. Hit a choice you've been avoiding? That's an unmade decision — take it to Decisions.
Bridge it
Two passes: dump first, judge second. Then mark how much of each item is yours, and attach the action it points to. Can't attach an action? Cross it off — that's not quitting, it's putting the thing down on purpose so it stops running in the background. Some of the heaviest items should end that way.
Choose
Say the choosing sentence out loud. Then watch the next few days: if it settles, it was a real choice. If it keeps nagging, the map missed something — come back and run another pass.
It's doing something for you, or you'd have stopped years ago.
LifeSketch · Job Search Accelerator — lifesketch.co