At the start of a session each person says, in one sentence, what they are going to do. It looks like a formality, and it is the part that decides whether the next half hour holds.
The question that stops people who have never tried is always the same: what do I talk about with a stranger for half an hour? The answer is that you don't have to talk about yourself, and you don't have to talk for half an hour. You have to say one thing, at the start: what you will do in the next twenty-five minutes.
Marshall Rosenberg, in a 1999 book, separates observation from judgement: saying what you see instead of what you think about yourself. Applied here it becomes a handy rule. "I'm finishing chapter three" is an observation. "I absolutely have to catch up, I'm miles behind" is a judgement on yourself, and it loads a weight neither of you needs.
Chris Voss, in a 2016 book, insists on how much you get from repeating the other person's last words instead of asking questions. In a session that takes almost nothing: an "ah, the thesis" is already everything it needs to be, and it forces nobody to say more.
Dale Carnegie, in a 1936 book, put the same thing at the centre: being interested costs less than trying to be interesting. In two minutes it is also the only strategy that fits.
They are short on purpose. A sentence holding a task and a length does two things at once: it tells the other person they can sit quietly in silence, and it tells you that you have just made a commitment in front of someone.
At the end, in the last two minutes, you say how it went. One line is enough there too: "done", "halfway", "nothing, bad day". It is there to close, not to report.
If you would rather not speak at all, you can stay muted for the whole slot: there is a page about coworking in silence.
It can happen. The opening sentence is short on purpose, and if you don't understand each other you can nod and begin: the rest of the session is silence.
It happens. Say your own sentence and start working: the session does not depend on that answer.
A session starts on video, and both the camera and the microphone switch off with a button inside the room.
The ideas are summarised, not quoted, and credited to the people who wrote them. No text is taken from the books.