"Do the laundry" had been on my list for three days. Every time I walked past the hamper, I kept walking. Not because it was hard. But "do the laundry" is vague enough that my brain couldn't grab onto it.
Then I asked: "What's the actual first step?"
Gather the dirty clothes. Start the washer.
Suddenly there was something concrete to do.
The Problem with Vague Tasks
Our to-do lists are full of abstract items. "Learn Spanish." "Get in shape." "Clean the house." These aren't tasks. They're directions. They describe where we want to go without showing us what to actually do.
The brain struggles with undefined work. It needs concrete actions: open the app, pick up the weight, grab the sponge. When we write "Do the laundry" instead of "Gather clothes and start the washer," we're asking ourselves to figure out the approach before we can begin.
This lack of clarity is one reason items linger on our lists. The fix isn't more willpower. It's more specificity.
What Are Core Steps?
Core steps are the essential phases that make up any task. Not every possible action, just the fundamental ones that define the structure.
Think of cooking a meal. You could list dozens of techniques, but the core steps might be: gather ingredients, prep everything, cook, plate. Every recipe moves through these same phases. Once you see that structure, cooking stops feeling mysterious.
Or take writing an article: identify the question, gather material, draft, refine. Understanding these phases helps you know where you are and what comes next.
Core steps reveal the structure hidden inside vague goals. They answer: "What are the few essential phases I'll move through?"
The power isn't in having more items to track. It's in seeing the shape of the work clearly enough that you can prepare for each phase and always know your next move.
Finding the Phases
How do you identify core steps? Watch yourself do something, or imagine doing it in detail.
When I finally did that laundry, I noticed the actual phases:
- Gather: Collect dirty clothes into the hamper
- Wash: Load the machine, add soap, run the cycle
- Dry: Transfer to dryer or hang to air dry
- Put away: Fold and return everything to its place
Four phases. That's the whole process. Here's what surprised me: laundry isn't a 45-minute block. It's four separate 5-10 minute tasks spread across the day. I can gather clothes in 3 minutes, start the wash before I leave, move it to the dryer when I get back, and fold while watching TV that evening. Same task, but now it fits into my life instead of demanding a chunk of it.
This works for recurring activities too. Take a guitar practice session:
- Setup: Get the guitar out, tune it, set up your space
- Warm up: Play scales or finger exercises
- Work: Practice the specific song or technique you're learning
- Review: Play through what you've learned, note what needs more work
Knowing the phases lets you prepare. You can have your guitar out and tuned before you sit down. The setup phase happens in advance, so when it's time to play, you just play.
Core Steps vs. Checklists
Core steps and checklists are related but different. Core steps identify the phases of a process. A checklist is one way to organize tasks within those phases.
A checklist says: "Buy milk, email Sarah, schedule dentist." These are discrete items to complete.
Core steps say: "When I do laundry, I move through gather → wash → dry → put away." These are stages that repeat every time.
The distinction matters because phases are reusable. Once you've identified the core steps of doing laundry, that structure works forever. Next week's laundry will flow through the same phases, even if the specific clothes change. You can create a checklist for any phase, but the phases themselves are the deeper pattern.
Tasks are one-time items. Phases are reusable structures. Learn the phases, and you'll never face that task as a stranger again.
Applying This to Bigger Goals
The real power shows up with goals that feel impossible to start. "Get healthier." "Be more creative." "Improve my finances."
These aren't tasks. They're directions. To make them actionable, find the core steps hidden inside.
"Start a morning run habit" might break into:
- Lay out clothes and shoes the night before
- Wake up and get dressed immediately
- Run your route
- Stretch and shower
Notice that the first step happens the night before. That's the key insight: once you know the phases, you can prepare for them ahead of time. When you wake up, there are no decisions to make. You handled the setup the night before.
"Write a blog post" could become:
- Pick one specific topic or question
- Brain-dump everything you know about it
- Organize into sections with a clear flow
- Edit for clarity and publish
"Get monthly expenses under control" might look like:
- Export last month's transactions
- Categorize each expense
- Identify one category to reduce
- Set up an automatic savings transfer
These are specific actions, and knowing them lets you prepare. You can export your transactions on Sunday so the analysis is ready for Monday. You can keep a running list of blog ideas so when it's time to write, you skip the "what should I write about?" paralysis.
Why Clarity Reduces Friction
When a task keeps getting postponed, we're often trying to hold the whole thing at once. Core steps let you zoom in to just the current phase and prepare for upcoming ones.
You don't have to think about your entire fitness journey. You just need to know: tonight, I lay out my clothes. Tomorrow morning, I run. Each phase gets its own moment.
This is why identifying core steps before you need them matters. In the moment, you won't have energy to analyze. But if you've already mapped the phases, you can prepare in advance and execute without thinking. The planning is done. You just move.
A Practice for This Week
Pick one item that's been sitting on your to-do list. Something you keep avoiding.
Instead of trying to do it, just map it:
- What are the 3-5 phases this task moves through?
- Which phase can you prepare for today?
- Where in your week does each phase actually fit?
Write it down. Then do that one preparation step.
I find that mapping alone often gets me moving. And preparing for the first phase? That makes starting feel almost inevitable.
The Deeper Pattern
There's something clarifying about identifying core steps. It forces you to look at how things actually work, not how you vaguely picture them in your head.
Most tasks aren't as complicated as they seem. They just haven't been examined. The complexity lives in the vagueness, in the gap between "I should do this" and "here's exactly what doing it looks like."
That laundry taught me something useful. Not a productivity hack, but a way of seeing: look at what's in front of you and ask, what are the core steps here? Where do they fit? What can I prepare now?
The answer is usually simpler than you'd expect.