Don’t Eat The Whole Elephant. Do This Instead.
You may just furrow your brows when you’ve read the title. Don’t worry, it’s not literal. However, it’s life-changing. Once I’ve heard this principle of how one eats an elephant it made my life and work easier.
You’ve probably experienced this before. You were about to start the project, study for a test, or do something huge and then, you’ve stopped. You ended up frozen and motionless, wondering where should I start? The enormous task in front of you just made you so uncomfortable and demotivated that you simply stopped even trying.
I personally had this problem when writing a piece of essay or a screenplay. I used to procrastinate a lot because I had no idea where to start the task. Luckily, I came across this technique, and now, I have no problems with getting the hard task done. And I genuinely hope, after reading this article, you won’t too.
Break It Down — You Can’t Eat The Whole Elephant At Once
It makes sense. You simply can’t. The same applies to our tasks and projects. Once we’re delegated a big task that might take a couple of weeks, or even months to finish, we need a strategy. We need a roadmap that will get us there. If you will try to do it at once, you can, but the results may not be that good, and you will be burnt out. Guaranteed.
Therefore, you need to split this BIG task into smaller ones. I can’t tell you the exact number, because that’s on each individual and on the given task.
When you will make your big project smaller, by dividing it into more actionable and specific actions, you would be surprised how much you can get done. And the best part is that you would hardly procrastinate.
So, the action steps for you today.
- Pick the project/task you need to submit. Something that scares you. Something that you procrastinated on for a while now, but you know it’s important.
- Grab a piece of paper and pen, write down all the things that need to be done in order for you to finish the project. It doesn’t have to be in order, but it needs to make sense.
- Now your big task appears smaller. Give the smaller actionable task deadlines and start working!
This step-by-step process is what works for me every time. When I break down the tasks into smaller ones, my head is immediately clearer and I tend to work more efficiently. With that said, good luck!
