Load And Rest
Alternate load and rest on a fixed schedule; never skip the rest because things are going well.
Formerly Periodise
Push, rest, repeat.
Seen in Stefan Sagmeister, studio sabbaticals
Try it on your work
Give one continuous activity a fixed rhythm: work in strict intervals of equal length with equal breaks, regardless of flow, for a full day. Note what the rhythm cut off, and whether it grew back in the next interval.
Begin each working period by saying the same one sentence and end it with another, every time, for a week. The sentences will have changed meaning; write down how.
Divide a continuous project into named seasons with hard boundaries: no season's work allowed in another. Run one boundary crossing. What tried to smuggle itself across is what resists the structure.
How it has been used
Alternate stress and recovery on a schedule: athletes have trained this way for a century; fields rest between crops. Neither phase is the point; the alternation is. The move forbids skipping the recovery when things go well: the schedule outranks the mood.
Where it leads
Grouped under Make it something I can try again