Table of contents:
- Reason # 1. Weapons for Dealing with Stress
- Reason # 2. A remedy for laziness
- Reason number 3. Fight against force majeure
- How to deeply break a task?
- What does a good subproblem look like?
- Outcomes
2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44
This article is about breaking down large tasks into smaller subtasks. Why is it important and how to do it right.
Can a person eat a cow?
Of course it can. Cutlets, dumplings, sausage … For a couple of years, a person eats a cow. And someone and not one.
No, I'm talking about taking and swallowing a cow whole.
Hmm … Even if you take the biggest man and the smallest cow … No! Definitely not!
Why then, when it comes to time management, do we often try to swallow a cow? This article is about breaking down large tasks into smaller subtasks. Why is it important and how to do it right?
Reason # 1. Weapons for Dealing with Stress
What is the main cause of stress?
It is that a person never stops thinking for a minute. He thinks in the shower, in the car, in the elevator … And he thinks about the same thing. On the fifth circle, on the tenth … As if chewing gum, which has long since lost its taste.
And all you need is to sit down and write down the matter that worries, into small subtasks. With goals, deadlines, with "reminders".
Do this, and, as if by magic, the thoughts about the case will simply stop popping up in your head. I remember I was happy about it, like a miracle, when this happened for the first time.
For me then, such a thing was to retake the computer science exam. You can have it:
- talking to your boss about a pay raise;
- moving to a new apartment;
- Or maybe you want to wean your child from sweets?
In short, some kind of unpleasant or just big, but necessary business.
Reason # 2. A remedy for laziness
However, not everyone is stressed by a large, overwhelming task. It makes some people lazy.
For example, you are too lazy to “change the oil in the car”. Why? Your subconscious mind does not clearly see this task. It seems to be clear what needs to be done. But some details are in the fog. Laziness is often just a reluctance to do something about which you have little information.
Let's try to describe this task:
The seemingly obvious task of “changing the oil” has turned into a small project. A project that does not go down our throats entirely. But which we happily eat piece by piece.
If I hadn’t scheduled this task, then we would have needed willpower to get started. To break your laziness. But willpower is a fickle thing. Sometimes there is a lot of it, and sometimes its supply is almost zero.
There is no need to waste willpower in vain - just write down a large task into subtasks, and the process will go smoothly, without "gags".
Reason number 3. Fight against force majeure
The habit of scheduling cases into subtasks will protect you from many force majeure. And this saves time and all the same nerves.
Just sit down and answer the question: "What can prevent me from changing the oil?":
- The service does not accept the card.
- The service is not working.
- The wife took the car.
All these "fears" develop into specific tasks:
- Withdraw money from an ATM.
- Call the service, find out the opening hours.
- Warn my wife that I'm going to the service in the morning.
How to deeply break a task?
Without fanaticism.
Break the task down so deeply that you stop worrying about it.
It comes with experience.
It is only important that your scheduler makes it easy to work with tasks. Many are too lazy not to break up tasks, but to poke at an uncomfortable screen. Therefore, I recommend everyone to schedule tasks on a computer, not on a smartphone. A smartphone can always be hooked up to a computer.
What does a good subproblem look like?
A good subtask starts with the verb: buy, call, write …
Plus, I want to share my little secret …
See, the different subtasks have a lot in common. For example:
| Buy | PMC |
| Call | RING |
| Search the Internet | GUGL |
| Write a letter | IPR |
| Draw a mental map | COP |
| Read | CHIT |
| Think out | MOZGSH |
| FURNACE | |
| Photograph | PHOTO |
»
The secret is that I have provided codes to the frequent actions.
This is how our project looks now:
Why is this needed? Was it just to save space?
No! This is done so that at the first glance, in a split second, you understand what is at stake and what is required of you. Give it a try and you will see how much easier it becomes to work with subtasks.
Outcomes
Stop torturing yourself and the unfortunate animal!
Don't try to swallow a whole cow. Break down your tasks. Now you know how to do it right.
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