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Small things: a small plan for low days
When everything feels heavy, the usual advice (“get out more”, “just exercise”) is too big to use. This page goes the other way. Pick one small thing you could do even on a bad day: 36 ideas, or your own words. Give it a day. Tick it when it is done, and say how you felt after. Over a few weeks the page shows you which small things left you feeling a little better, in your own words and by your own count.
Good to know
How it works
- The ideas come in six groups: look after my body, move a little, air and light, people, get one thing done, and something I like. Tap one to use it, change the words, or write your own.
- The day can be today or any of the next six days, with a part of the day if that helps.
- I did it ticks the thing and asks one question: how did you feel after? Worse, about the same, a little better, or better. You can skip it.
- What left me feeling better lists the things you marked A little better or Better in the last 30 days, with how many times.
- Print my plan makes one sheet with tick boxes and room to write.
What this page can’t do
- It cannot remind you. It has no alarm and sends no message. The plan is only seen when the page is open, or on the printed sheet.
- It is not treatment or therapy, and it does not diagnose anything.
- It cannot promise that any of these things will lift your mood. Some will do nothing. Some may leave you worse, and the page has a button for that.
- It does not count streaks or score you. A thing that did not happen can be moved or removed, and that is all.
- The plan does not move to another phone or computer by itself. Print it, download it, or use My data on this device to carry a backup across.
Making it small enough
- If you are not sure you could do it today, make it smaller. “Walk for five minutes” can become “put on my shoes and stand at the door”.
- Say what, and when. “Wash five dishes after breakfast” is easier to start than “clean the kitchen”.
- One thing a day is a full plan.
- For a task that will not shrink, One step at a time breaks it into steps.
- If your energy runs out fast, Energy budget plans a day around what you have.
These are everyday ideas in our own words. They are not advice from a clinician, and they do not suit everyone.
Where the idea comes from
Planning small activities, doing them, and noticing how you feel after is part of an approach that therapists call behavioral activation, which is used for depression. This page borrows that one plain idea. It is not that therapy, and nobody trained in it has looked at this page. If low mood has lasted for weeks, read When the heaviness won’t lift and talk to a doctor or a therapist if you can.
Tools that go with this
- One step at a time: for a task that feels too big to start.
- Check in with yourself: one gentle question at a time about water, food, sleep and people.
- Mood and sleep diary: one tap a day, and a summary for a doctor.
- Energy budget: plan a day around the energy you have.
- When you feel alone: small ways back toward people.
- When the heaviness won’t lift: what depression is, and where to get help.
- All the free tools, and how to save them on your phone.
The tool, the list of ideas and its wording were written with AI (Claude) for Scarlet Beast (our AI policy). The list is our own, and it was not reviewed by a clinician. Also in Spanish: Cosas pequeñas; both pages keep the same plan on this device. The page holds up to 30 things waiting and the last 300 in all, and keeps them until you erase them. Found a mistake? Email [email protected].