When I’m faced with any task that I suspect will take me longer than a few minutes to complete — folding the laundry, emptying the dishwasher, writing this very lede — I have a hard time getting started. Drumming up the motivation to propel myself into motion is often the hardest part. Rationally, I know that whatever it is I have to do won’t actually take that long, but the part of my brain responsible for my executive functioning skills doesn’t always get the memo. So when a deadline is looming, but beginning a task feels insurmountable, I reach for my visual timer.