OK, so you’ve figured out you’re in a time loop. You know about how far you can get within the time allotted and your travel limitations. You know when the loop resets or what causes it to restart.

Great. Now what?

Well, with the very basics out of the way, you need to see how much you can influence the loop. By the time you’ve gotten to this point, you may have already noticed that loop to loop isn’t identical. The loop reacts to your actions, maybe in small ways, but you have some control.

Play with this.

Push this idea.

Go to extremes.

With a resetting loop, once you’re convinced what won’t end the loop, you’re free to do whatever you like inside it. Act out of character. Break rules and conventions. If you think you need to know what’s behind a locked door, steal a key. If you can’t steal key, break the door down. If the door’s too sturdy for your shoulder or a fire extinguisher (or whatever your improvised battering ram of choice), bring a forklift, a pickup truck, or an acetylene torch. You can rest easy; your dumbest attempts will only embarrass you until the loop resets.

Figure out what events you can’t change, or can’t change easily. There’s a good chance that your loop is tied to a key event. Altering that event, and how, may be the key to your escape. Escape is for a later lesson, but for now, figuring out what you can’t change is almost more important that discovering what you can.

You may be adjacent to a key moment in history or in the life of the loop’s focus. You can pat yourself on the back for finding an unattended iPad that no one will miss or knowing how many scratch tickets to buy to add a quick thousand bucks to your loop’s budget. But it’s very like that if there is something that seems like you can’t change it, you’re eventually going to have to.

For now, just focus on learning to change what you can, and keeping track of what you (at least seemingly) can’t.

Once you’ve nailed that, you’re ready to proceed to the next step.

• Step One: Recognizing a Time Loop
• Step Two: Changing Things
• Step Three: Getting to Know the People [UP NEXT]
• Step Four: Learning New Skills
• Step Five: Avoiding Boredom
• Step Six: Escaping the Time Loop