Sure, the end stage is to work, but the first stage can be anything. Call a friend, ask a coworker to help, or peer programming, or look at the description of the task, keep a journal [like lab notes], write pseudocode, open an empty document and break down the task into smaller ones. add emojis if you want to to keep track of progress

todo: https://emojipedia.org/black-square-button/

done: https://emojipedia.org/check-mark-button/

:)