# When a desk is hard to start > When you open a high-stakes desk you have not started, PlexiDesk asks what would make it 10% easier and offers a five-minute start before you face the work. Source: https://plexiidesk.com/help/focus-hard-to-start Section: Focus and flow > Focus tools Plans: All plans Updated: 2026-10-15 Some work is hard to start, not because it is complicated but because it matters. When you open a desk like that, PlexiDesk puts a small card in front of it first: **What would make this 10% easier right now?** It offers a gentle way in, and if you would rather just get going, it steps aside on its own after 15 seconds. ## Before you start - The prompt is part of every plan. - It appears for a desk that is still **To do** and that has an **Importance** of four or five dots: high stakes. You set Importance when you create the desk. See [Create a desk](https://plexiidesk.com/help/desk-create). - It appears once for each desk each time you run PlexiDesk. Open the same desk again later and it opens straight away. After you restart PlexiDesk, the prompt can appear once more. - Desks that are **In progress**, **Done** or **Parked** never show it. See [Track a desk's status and time](https://plexiidesk.com/help/desk-status-time). ## What you see When you open the desk, the card appears over it with: - the question **What would make this 10% easier right now?** - the desk's name, and why the card appeared, for example **high stakes (4/5)** - three choices: **Just 5 minutes**, **Body double me** and **Have AI suggest the first step** - at the bottom, a countdown that reads **auto-opens in 15s**, and a **Just open it** button ## Choose a way in ### Just 5 minutes 1. Click **Just 5 minutes**. 2. A five-minute focus session starts on this desk, and the desk moves from To do to In progress. 3. Work on anything on the desk. When the five minutes are up, choose **Done for now** or keep going. This is the choice that gets you moving. For everything the session does, see [Start a focus session](https://plexiidesk.com/help/focus-session). ### Body double me **Body double me** turns on quiet check-ins from Plexii, the assistant, while you work. When they are already on, the button carries an **already on** tag. This is not the same as body doubling with another person. To work alongside someone on camera, see [Body doubling: work alongside someone](https://plexiidesk.com/help/body-double-overview). ### Have AI suggest the first step **Have AI suggest the first step** asks Plexii, the assistant, for one concrete first action based on what is on the desk. It needs AI set up. See [AI credits and where your AI runs](https://plexiidesk.com/help/ai-credits). > **Note:** > In version 4.3.26, the check-ins from **Body double me** and the step from **Have AI suggest the first step** do not appear in the Plexii panel. For a first step now, open the Plexii panel on the desk and ask, for example, "What is one small first step I could take here?". See [Open, move and resize the Plexii panel](https://plexiidesk.com/help/plexii-panel). ## Skip the prompt Any of these closes the card and leaves you on the desk, with nothing started: - Click **Just open it**. - Press `Esc`. - Click the **×** at the top right of the card. - Click anywhere outside the card. - Wait. The countdown runs from 15 seconds and the card closes when it reaches zero. ## Tips - **Give the hard desks a high Importance.** The prompt only knows a desk is hard to start from its Importance. Four or five dots on the desks you tend to put off means the card is there when you need it. - **Take the five minutes.** You can stop when they are up, and that still counts as a win. - **Start before you are ready.** If the card closes before you choose, click **Focus** in the desk's quick actions for the same five-minute start. See [Desk quick actions in the header](https://plexiidesk.com/help/desk-quick-actions). ## Common questions ### Why did the prompt not appear? Check that the desk is still **To do** and has an Importance of four or five. The prompt also appears only once per desk each time you run PlexiDesk, so if you already saw it for this desk, it will not show again until you restart. ### Can I turn the prompt off? There is no setting for it. Desks you have started never show it, and it always closes by itself after 15 seconds. To keep it away from a desk, start the desk: click **Start** in its quick actions. ### Does it change anything about the desk? Only **Just 5 minutes** does: it starts a focus session and moves the desk to In progress. Closing the card in any other way changes nothing. ### Does it appear on a shared desk link? No. Someone who opens a desk you shared as a link sees only the desk. ## Related tasks - [Start a focus session](https://plexiidesk.com/help/focus-session) - [Focus tools in Plexii](https://plexiidesk.com/help/focus-overview) - [Create a desk](https://plexiidesk.com/help/desk-create) - [Body doubling: work alongside someone](https://plexiidesk.com/help/body-double-overview) - [Track a desk's status and time](https://plexiidesk.com/help/desk-status-time)