Cook dinner, broken into 6 small steps
At 7 p.m. after a long day, cooking feels like a project, even when the recipe is simple. The hard part isn't the cooking; it's the deciding and the setup.
Decide quickly, set everything out before you turn on the stove, and keep it to one pan or one pot.
Start here · under 2 minutes
Fill a glass of water and turn on the kitchen light.
Under a minute. You're in the kitchen now, which is half the battle.
The rest of the steps
- Step 2:
Pick one of three default meals.
Keep a short list of meals you can make tired: pasta, eggs and toast, rice bowl.
- Step 3:
Set out every ingredient on the counter.
Before cooking anything. If something's missing, swap now, not halfway through.
- Step 4:
Start the slowest part first.
Boil the water or start the rice. Prep the rest while it cooks.
- Step 5:
Cook in one pan or pot.
Fewer dishes means you'll do it again tomorrow.
- Step 6:
Put the leftovers in a container right after eating.
Tomorrow's lunch is now done.
Why this one stalls
You're hungry, tired and out of decisions, so the easiest option wins. Making cooking the easiest option is the whole trick.
If you get stuck
A "good enough" dinner counts: toast with eggs, a bagged salad with canned beans. Eating something at home is the goal, not a recipe.
What “done” looks like
A meal eaten at home and leftovers in the fridge.
These steps follow the same rules as the method in our task breakdown guide: the first step is physical and takes under two minutes, and every step after it is something you can see yourself doing. Got a head full of other things too? Start with a brain dump.