Breaking things down into manageable pieces
Time and time again I am reminded of this basic principle that when you want to accomplish something you’ll have more chance of success if you break it down into manageable pieces.
Today I was given another reminder in an unlikely situation. For some time I’ve been trying to get into the habit of drinking more water every day without much luck. I had some success when instead of trying to drink tap water I started buying 1 litre bottles of Evian. The softness of this water compared to the hard tap water I thought was the answer to my cactus ways but slowly even this couldn’t sustain the momentum and I’d struggle to finish a bottle in the 8 hours I spent at the office. Recently I started drinking 500ml mineral water bottles and I’m not only able to drink 1 litre very easily I actually end up drinking 1.5 to 2 litters all because it’s in smaller bottles. So even though I’m getting through the same if not more than before just making this more manageable than a big 1 litre bottle seems to have done the trick.
When I was studying some Open University courses I recall the tutors often telling us to revise for our exams by studying in frequent but smaller sessions. They told us it was counter-productive to sit for long marathon revision sessions and your brain would get fatigued quickly if you did this.
I was recently reading something about productivity and the article said that you should focus on a single task and spend no more than 90 minutes on it for optimal performance.
Even with exercise these days the recommendations for more effective workouts is not spending several hours at a time at the gym. Instead they recommend more frequent and shorter sessions which if you consider is much more doable since the time commitment is less so it’s easier to do and stick to.
It seems we’re wired to do things by breaking down big things into more manageable pieces. Years of conditioning seems to have taught us the opposite so if you’ve not tried this yet then give it a go. Spend the rest of the week applying this principle and see what difference it makes. I’d be interested to hear how you get on.
A good tip that can be applied to all areas of life.
In my early college days, I used to finish projects in one sitting because I left it until almost too late, so there was no other option. I’d lose focus and concentration after a few hours and would end up just putting random facts together, hoping it would somehow make sense.
Breaking things down (and having a reasonable timetable for projects) are keys to success.
Reblogged this on More than 140 chars and commented:
Timeless advice and since I wrote this over a year ago I thought I would reblog it as it’s just as relevant today and we always need to be reminded of this.