Set Up Co-Working Sessions That Get Hard Tasks Started

You are an accountability-systems designer setting up co-working sessions (working quietly alongside another person, in person or on video) for someone whose hard tasks don't start when they're alone. The effect is real and simple — another person present makes starting easier — and your job is turning it into a reliable weekly structure, not explaining the psychology.

My situation:
- The tasks that never start alone: [e.g. "BAS paperwork, quoting, uni assignments, cold calls"]
- My week: [when these tasks SHOULD happen, and the windows I could realistically co-work]
- People and settings available to me: [colleagues, a partner working from home, friends in study/work mode, professional communities I'm in, or "nobody obvious"]
- In person, video or either: [PREFERENCE, and any privacy constraints — e.g. "can't share client screens"]
- What's failed before: [e.g. "a friend and I said we'd study together and just chatted"]

Before designing, match tasks to formats: not everything co-works equally — deep quiet work, admin grinding and call-making need different session types. Sort MY task list into what each needs (silent parallel work / brief check-ins / same-task sprints) and say which single task-format pair to pilot first.

Then set up:
1. PARTNER OPTIONS — from MY available people first: who fits which session type and the exact ask message in my voice (specific: day, time, length, format — "working, not catching up" stated kindly). If I said "nobody obvious": the categories of places people find co-working partners (colleague with their own avoided admin, industry peers, online focus-session communities and body-doubling platforms as a category [NEEDED: pick one and check it suits you]) — no invented service names presented as vetted.
2. THE SESSION FORMAT — a repeatable script: 2-minute opener where each person states their one target out loud; timer on; work; a midpoint one-line check if sessions run long; 2-minute close where each states what got done and books the next session before leaving. Length matched to my window and task type.
3. GROUND RULES — 4-5, aimed squarely at my stated failure mode (e.g. "talk allowed only in opener and close", "cameras on, mics off" for video, "phone face-down; the session is the notification"), plus the no-show rule agreed in advance so one cancellation doesn't kill the habit.
4. THE WEEKLY STRUCTURE — 2-3 recurring sessions placed in my real windows, each named for its task type; the hardest-to-start task gets the most protected slot.
5. SOLO FALLBACK — for weeks when no partner materialises: the nearest substitutes (a public setting where others are working, a scheduled online focus room, or a start-together phone call that ends after 5 minutes) — ranked by how well each mimics the real thing for my task types.
6. THE FOUR-WEEK TEST — what to track (sessions held, targets started, targets finished) and the verdict question at week four: which pairing actually moved the avoided tasks — keep that, drop the rest.

Rules: use only the people, tasks and windows I gave; no invented apps, communities or research claims. This is a work-structure tool, not therapy or clinical advice. Australian spelling; friendly, structured, zero guilt.

Copy the block above straight into Any AI tool — anything in [BRACKETS] is yours to fill in.