Why I made thisI've never lost track of a deadline in my life. I know exactly what's due and when. What I couldn't do — what nobody had actually built a planner for — was open the laptop and start.Every planner I tried did the same thing: track what you owe, remind you, color-code it, sort it by date. None of them touched the actual moment things fall apart, which isn't the deadline. It's five seconds earlier, staring at "write the essay" as one enormous grey block your brain won't pick up.So First Step does one thing differently. Every task gets a first step — not "write the essay," but "open a blank doc and type the title." Not "study for the midterm," but "skim the syllabus for what it covers." Small enough to be almost embarrassing. Small enough that you can actually do it.Open the dashboard and instead of a task name, you see that sentence. "Open the PDF and read one paragraph." That's the whole trick. It's not motivation, it's not a system — it's just handing you something small enough to start.A few other things I built on purposeStarted counts as its own stage. Most planners only track done, so the hardest part — actually crossing the line and beginning — gets you nothing. Here it's one click from the dashboard, and once something's underway it stops nagging you from zero. It just says "keep going, you already started."Nothing turns red. Late work reads "still open," not overdue, no angry badge. A late assignment doesn't need a reminder that you're behind — you already know that. It needs a next step.Capture takes about three seconds. Something your professor mentioned in passing, an email you owe someone — type the name in Brain dump and move on. No course, no date, no deciding what it "is" yet. You sort it later, right there, one click. Deciding what a thing is the moment you think of it is exactly what makes people stop writing things down at all.What's actually in itOne dashboard — what to start, what to dump, what's further out, and a timer, all on one screen, no endless scroll.Ten views, built for different moods: Pick one thing (your default), Brain dump, Got 15 minutes?, Pair light + heavy (bracket the hard thing with two easy ones), a pipeline board, recently done, plus the usual by-course, calendar, due-next and full-table views.A page for every course — its own assignment list, a table with the stuff you'd otherwise dig through a syllabus for (room, office hours, exam dates, grading breakdown), links, and its own notes.A notes database tagged by type — lecture, reading, exam prep, question — that shows up automatically on the right course page. There's a dedicated view for questions to bring to office hours and one for exam prep when finals roll around.A focus timer built right into the dashboard, next to whatever you just picked.A real guide, including a section for when you inevitably fall off for two weeks.A weekly reset that takes about ten minutes and has both of its lists built into the page — you don't go hunting for anything, you just clear two tables and you're done.What I left out on purposeNo streaks. No daily checkboxes. Nothing that punishes a gap.No grade calculator — it's a starting tool, not a GPA spreadsheet, and every field like that is one more thing you'd have to keep updated.No widgets tied to some third party's account that could vanish and break your whole dashboard for no reason.No automations to configure. Everything in here runs off fields you were already filling in.Who it's forStudents who've tried planners before and watched themselves quietly stop opening them by week four. It assumes that's going to happen again, and it's built so coming back only costs one click.It's probably not for you if you want something that looks nice sitting open on a second monitor, or a full life-management system, or grade tracking. Those exist and some of them are genuinely great. This does one smaller thing, on purpose.Works on the free Notion plan. No paid tier required, nothing to install, no browser extensions. Duplicate it and it works.Feature bullets ("What you get") The First step field — every task carries its own tiny opening action Next move column that shows you the action, not the assignment "Started" tracked as its own stage, one click from the dashboard Past-due work reads Still open — nothing turns red, ever Three-second capture with zero required fields, and one-click sorting ⏱ Got 15 minutes? — filtered by how much time you actually have ⚖️ Pair light + heavy — by executive load, not by difficulty 10 pre-built views across table, board and calendar A page per course — assignments, key info, links and lecture notes Lecture notes tagged by type, with a Questions-to-ask view for office hours A focus timer on the dashboard, next to what you just picked Live per-course counts of open work and work still missing a first step Built-in How this works guide and a Weekly reset you can do without leaving the page Works on free Notion — no automations, no setup FAQDo I need a paid Notion plan? No. Everything works on the free plan. There are no automations and nothing to connect.How long does setup take? About ten minutes: add your courses, then work through your syllabi once. You do not need to write first steps for everything — three is enough to start.What if I stop using it for a month? Nothing breaks. There are no streaks to lose and no rollover to run. Open ▶️ Pick one thing, pick one line, do the first step. There's a section in the guide specifically for this.Can I change the wording? Yes — rename any field. Brain load, First step, Next move are just labels; use whatever your brain answers to.Is this only for people with ADHD? It was designed around task initiation, which is an ADHD-specific bottleneck. But nothing in it is diagnostic or exclusive — if you're a chronic procrastinator, it's built for the same moment.Do I get updates? [Your call — "yes, free updates to this template" is standard and costs you nothing.]