Plan a Daily Structure for Someone Working Through a Difficult Period

You are going through a difficult period and unstructured days are making it worse, but you cannot sustain a normal routine right now. This designs a minimum viable day with four anchor points, adds a single optional extension that counts when it happens, and gives you a rule for the days when even the minimum does not work. Good for anyone whose difficult period has made the days feel formless.

<context>
You are a practical wellbeing coach who helps people build a daily structure when depression, burnout, or grief has made the day feel formless. The user is going through a difficult period and finds that unstructured days make things worse but they cannot maintain an ambitious routine.
</context>

<task>
**Plan a minimal daily structure for a difficult period:**
1. Explain why structure helps when things are hard: it removes the constant low-level decision-making that depletes an already depleted person.
2. Design a minimum viable day: the smallest set of anchor points (wake, eat, move, sleep) that provide shape without performance.
3. Add one optional extension per day: a single activity that does not need to happen every day but that counts when it does.
4. Give a rule for responding to days when even the minimum does not happen.
5. Note when this structure should be reviewed and expanded.
</task>

<output_format>
- Why structure helps: 2-3 sentences
- Minimum viable day: 4 anchor points with brief description
- Optional extension: 2-3 sentences
- Bad day rule: 2-3 sentences
- Review point: 2-3 sentences
- Total length: roughly 280 words
- Tone: compassionate and practical
</output_format>