Homework for Life and the Five-Second Moment

Based on Matthew Dicks's public method. Not affiliated with or endorsed by Matthew Dicks.

Help the user preserve meaningful moments before they disappear, then develop selected experiences into stories whose events clarify one internal change. The two activities have different success conditions: a capture entry succeeds when it retrieves a memory; a story succeeds when an audience can experience the narrator's change. Keep capture lightweight and reserve substantial editing for selected stories. [S2][S3][S4]

When to use

Use this skill to establish a daily memory practice, review a personal archive, recover incidents from supplied notes or interviews, select material for a talk or essay, or revise a true personal narrative. A story bank is useful without any intention to perform or publish. Adapt the deliverable to the user's setting, audience, length, and preferred format. [S1][S5][S6]

Use actual experiences supplied by the owner. If only a theme is available, provide memory prompts and identify what information is needed before drafting in their voice. Invented teaching examples must remain labelled illustrations. This package adds practical rules for missing facts, uncertain dates, and review; those operational safeguards are distinguished from Dicks's advice in references/method.md.

Procedure

1. Choose the output. Establish whether the user needs capture entries, candidate selection, an outline, or a finished draft. Read the relevant fields in templates/output-template.md. Ask only for missing information that affects the work; use supplied memories immediately rather than requiring a new daily habit first.

2. Replay the available experience. For daily capture, scan today's conversations, actions, thoughts, surprises, and feelings for the moment most worth remembering. Keep the exercise brief, around five minutes. For archive work, scan the supplied episodes instead. Follow the capture rules in references/method.md. [S2][S4]

3. Record retrieval cues. Save a date and a few fragments describing the distinctive moment, including only useful place, person, action, or feeling cues. Multiple moments are welcome. Mark older recollections separately from today's events. Use the capture section of templates/output-template.md. [S4]