Planning feels like time you're not writing. It's the opposite: the five minutes you spend here are bought back with interest, because the thing that actually eats your writing time isn't typing, it's deciding.
Stopping mid-sentence to work out what comes next, or which word fits, or whether that paragraph was any good, is what turns eighteen minutes of writing into twenty-five. A plan front-loads every one of those decisions into a window where they're cheap.
Your window: about 5 minutes for Task 1, about 4 minutes for Task 2.
🎥 See planning happen against a live timer (15:16)
This page is the method. The video shows the planning minutes running on two real prompts with the timer visible, so you can see how much actually fits in five minutes.
Jump to: 3:57 Task 1 minute-by-minute · 4:55 the tone decision · 5:47 why 3 bullets = 3 paragraphs · 7:07 Task 2 minute-by-minute · 7:43 there is no correct option
This trips people up more than anything else. They picture an outline with headings and full sentences, realise there's no time for it, and give up on planning entirely.
Your plan is fragments. Nobody reads it. It is not scored. It exists only to stop you thinking while you write.
A real Task 1 plan, complete:
INFORMAL. friend, helped me move
- thanks. Saturday, whole day
- how it helped. van, 3 trips, done by 4
3a. suggest. dinner Friday, my treat
3b. offer. help paint his place next month
Eleven fragments. Under a minute to write once you know the shape. And now every decision in the next eighteen minutes is already made.
Do not write sentences in your plan. If you write "I want to thank you for helping me move last Saturday," you've spent planning time producing one sentence you'll retype anyway. Fragments only.
Task 1 — the email
Before anything else, answer one question: who is reading this?
| The reader | The tone |
|---|
| A friend, neighbour, cousin, classmate | Informal |
| A manager, company, office, building management, the city | Formal |
Task 1 is not "semi-formal." A lot of guidance teaches one safe middle register for every prompt. Across the real prompt bank, every question is clearly one or the other, and the middle register is wrong for both. Business-letter English to a friend costs you exactly as much as slang to a company.
Write the tone at the top of your plan in one word. Everything downstream like greeting, contractions, sign-off, how you phrase your ask, follows from it.
Task 1 always gives you three "do the following" points. Before you write anything, underline every verb in those three lines.
Three bullets does not always mean three jobs. "Express your appreciation and suggest ways to recognize the honest person" is one bullet with two verbs in it, and both have to appear in your answer.
Then write a fragment for each job, not each bullet. If a bullet has two verbs, it gets two fragments.
Why fragments and not reasons. The body of your email is three short paragraphs, one per bullet, and not "reason A and reason B." Building the body around the prompt's points is what makes covering all three structural instead of something you have to remember under pressure. The most commonly missed bullet is the third, usually the one asking you to suggest, offer or ask for next steps.
Add one concrete detail to each note as you write it. A date, a number, a name, a place. This is the cheapest possible moment to think of them. Far cheaper than hunting for a detail mid-paragraph at minute fourteen.
| Bullet note | With the detail |
|---|
| thanks | thanks — Saturday, whole day |
| how it helped | van, 3 trips, done by 4 |
| suggest something | dinner Friday my treat + paint his place |
Greeting → why you're writing → three short paragraphs → close. Both greeting and close match the tone you set in minute one.
→ Full detail in Task 1 Essentials.
Task 2 — the survey
There is no correct option. Both sides can score full marks. Nobody is grading your opinion; you're graded on how well you defend whichever side you take.
So don't ask which is right? Ask:
Which side can I give two concrete examples for, right now?
Choose that one, even if you personally prefer the other. Write your opening sentence immediately and don't reopen the question. Reconsidering at minute twelve is how people run out of time.
The two reasons must come from genuinely different angles, or you've written one reason twice. Pick two different rows:
| Angle | The question it answers |
|---|
| People affected | Who does this help or hurt most? |
| Time | Does it save or waste people's time? |
| Money | What does it cost, or save, for whom? |
| Safety | Does anyone get hurt or feel unsafe? |
| Fairness / access | Does it leave a group out? |
| Reliability | Does it work consistently? |
| Environment | Waste, energy, noise, green space. |
| Practicality | Is it workable day to day? |
Add one short example to each: a time, a number, a place or a person. Ten words is plenty.
Four parts: opening (your choice) · reason A + example · reason B + example · close with the nod.
The close does double duty: restate your choice, then add one line acknowledging the other side and answering it. That line is what shows a grader you weighed both options rather than only noticing one, and it earns credit under two of the four criteria.
No greeting, no sign-off. This is not an email.
→ Full detail in Task 2 Essentials.
Whichever task you're on, your finished plan has the same three properties:
- A decision at the top — the tone (Task 1) or the side (Task 2).
- One line per body paragraph — three for the email, two for the survey.
- One concrete detail attached to each line.
If your plan has those three things, you can write for eighteen minutes without stopping. If it's missing any of them, you'll stop, and stopping is what costs you the edit.
You're still choosing a side at minute three. You've already chosen, take whichever you were leaning toward and start. The time you'd spend deciding is worth more spent evidencing.
You can't think of an example. You are not being fact-checked. A plausible, specific detail is exactly what's wanted: "a parent with a sleeping baby can't easily go down to the lobby" needs no verification and does the job.
Your plan turned into sentences. Stop and move to writing. You're already drafting; do it in the box where it counts.
You finished planning in two minutes. Good, but check you have a detail on every line before you start. That's usually what's missing.
Drill A — Tone calls (2 min). For each, write only the tone: (a) complain to your gym about a broken machine · (b) ask a friend to water your plants · (c) ask the city about a streetlight · (d) invite a neighbour to a barbecue · (e) query a double charge on your account.
Answers: a, c, e formal · b, d informal.
Drill B — Plan only, five times (25 min). Open five different Task 1 prompts. Set 5 minutes each. Plan, then stop — don't write the answer. You're training the decision, not the prose, and five reps is where it starts feeling automatic.
Drill C — Detail hunt (5 min). Take a plan you've already made and add one number, date, place or person to any line missing one.
Drill D — Angle drill (5 min). One Task 2 prompt, four possible reasons from four different rows of the grid. Then pick the two you can example fastest.
Related Lesson: Lesson 10 — Timing Drills & Editing Routines covers the other 22 minutes writing to the clock, the four checks, and what to drop when you're behind.