# Time-Boxed Exercises

Concrete exercises grouped by duration. Use when the user wants to *do* an exercise, not be given ideas. Each entry: parent method, output expected.

## 5 minutes

**Single Oblique Strategy** *(`methods/oblique-strategies.md`)* — pick a card at random, apply literally to the next decision, make the move. Output: one move.

**Random word provocation** *(`methods/lateral-provocations.md`)* — pick a random noun; force five connections to your problem; use the strongest. Output: one new angle.

**Inversion check** *(`methods/premortem-and-inversion.md`)* — restate goal as opposite, list five things that would guarantee the inverted goal, check if you're doing any. Output: failure-paths self-check.

**S+7 on a paragraph** *(`methods/oulipo.md`)* — replace every noun with the 7th noun after it in a dictionary. Output: defamiliarized version of your text.

## 30 minutes

**Constraint dispatch** *(`full-prompt-library.md`)* — pick a constraint; 5 min per idea; generate 3; discard the obvious; generate a 4th; output the 3 strongest. Output: 3 candidate projects.

**SCAMPER on a base idea** *(`methods/scamper.md`)* — write base in one sentence; run all 7 operators; surface the surprising one; elaborate. Output: 7 raw, 1 elaborated.

**Premortem** *(`methods/premortem-and-inversion.md`)* — imagine the project failed catastrophically; 10 min writing the failure narrative; 10 min identifying addressable causes; 10 min mitigation plan. Output: failure story + mitigation plan.

**Crazy 8s** *(`methods/volume-generation.md`)* — fold sheet to 8 panels; 8 min total; 1 idea per panel; sketch don't write; pick 2 strongest. Output: 8 raw, 2 chosen.

**Defamiliarization on a paragraph** *(`methods/defamiliarization.md`)* — pick something extremely familiar in your subject; describe it for 200 words as if seeing it for the first time, no technical vocabulary. Output: defamiliarized description + list of newly-visible features.

## 1 hour

**TRIZ contradiction analysis** *(`methods/triz-principles.md`)* — state problem as contradiction (improving X degrades Y); look up 2–3 candidate principles; for each, generate one mechanism in your specific case; pick the strongest. Output: contradiction statement + 1 elaborated mechanism.

**James Webb Young, compressed** *(`methods/volume-generation.md`)* — gather specific material (15min) → digest, make connections (15min) → walk away (10min) → idea arrives (variable) → shape (20min). Output: a written idea that has been incubated.

**Affinity diagram** *(`methods/affinity-diagrams.md`)* — write each note/quote on its own card; spread them out; cluster silently; name each cluster; note orphans and gaps. Output: bottom-up taxonomy + list of gaps.

**Sol LeWitt instruction** *(`methods/creative-discipline.md`)* — define the work as an instruction not an object; write it as a single sentence; the work is the instruction. Optionally execute it once. Output: an instruction-as-work.

## 1 day

**Tharp's box** *(`methods/creative-discipline.md`)* — get a literal box; spend the day collecting everything related to your project (clippings, references, sketches, sources, objects); label it; keep adding for the project's duration. Output: physical archive + practice of returning.

**Single-day dérive** *(`methods/derive-and-mapping.md`)* — pick a territory you don't know well; spend the day wandering, no agenda; follow attractions; at end, draw a Lynch-style map (paths, edges, districts, nodes, landmarks); note surprises. Output: map + surprises + possibly a project.

**Hard-constraint writing day** *(`methods/oulipo.md`)* — pick one constraint (lipogram, univocalism, snowball, prisoner's, pilish); write 1000 words under it; resist abandoning when it gets hard. Output: 1000 constrained words.

**High concept low effort** *(`full-prompt-library.md`)* — pick a brilliant idea; execute lazily; ship by end of day. Output: a finished thing that exists.

## 1 week

**Compression-progress research week** *(`methods/compression-progress.md`)* — Day 1–2: identify a domain you have weak predictions in. Day 3–5: read deeply. Day 6: write the new patterns you can predict. Day 7: pick the question whose answer would most compress your model further. Output: a research question grounded in your current model.

**Pattern-language week** *(`methods/pattern-languages.md`)* — Day 1–2: identify ten recurring problems. Day 3–4: write each as a pattern (context, problem, generative solution). Day 5: arrange in partial order. Day 6: design using the patterns as vocabulary. Day 7: review. Output: a small pattern language and a design that uses it.

**Cleese open-mode week** *(`methods/creative-discipline.md`)* — each day: protect 90 minutes during which you do nothing useful, don't check messages, don't finish anything. The work is to not be in closed mode. Output: not an idea — the conditions for ideas.

## Multi-week

**Cameron's *Artist's Way* (12 weeks)** *(`methods/creative-discipline.md`)* — daily morning pages (3 longhand pages, stream of consciousness, don't reread for 8 weeks). Weekly artist date (2 hours solo, doing something that interests you). Output: a different relationship to the work.

**Lynda Barry image-bath** *(`methods/creative-discipline.md`)* — daily for several weeks: list 10 things you saw today; pick one; draw it (badly is fine); write a paragraph from inside the memory it surfaces. Output: an archive of recovered specifics.

## When the user wants an exercise but doesn't say which

| Situation | Default exercise |
|---|---|
| "Want to make something but unsure what" | 30 min: constraint dispatch + 3 ideas |
| "Stuck" | 5 min: single Oblique Strategy |
| "Have ideas, can't pick" | 30 min: premortem on each |
| "Need to know more about X" | 1 hour: James Webb Young compressed, OR 1 day: dérive |
| "Want a long-term practice" | multi-week: morning pages, image-bath, Tharp's box |

Don't stack exercises on first invocation. Pick one, run it, see what comes back.
