1. Ask “why is it impossible?”
  2. Once you find the cause (“it’s because of…”), find the possible solutions to alleviate the cause.
  3. If all possible solutions are impossible, execute steps 1-3 for all possible solutions (Why are they impossible?).
  4. Continue with steps 1 - 3 until you find something (a solution) that can be done.

Even if the original task is still impossible (given physics or time constraint), finding an actionable item and doing it, may still prove to be valuable and worthwhile progress.

Example: We can’t do X. Why? Because solution A can’t be done. Can we do B to solve X instead? If B can be done, then do it. If not, then ask why A and B can be done. A can’t be done because of time constraints and B can’t be done because we don’t have the resource needed to do it. Then procure the resource to solve B. Once we solve B, we might be able to solve X. And even if X still can’t be done, the act of procuring the resource (to solve B) can still be beneficial for us.