There’s a TL;DR at the end, so if you don’t feel like reading go ahead and skip down there (I get it, we’re all busy!).
So as you can probably see from the date of my last posts, I haven’t been writing nearly as often as I want. I got a new job last year doing mainly project management (in addition to other tasks related to product management), and have been pushing hard to get up to speed in that field. This is a perfect time for me to test new techniques and strategies to help optimize my workflow, in an effort to not only get more done, but also reduce overall timelines AND reduce the amount of hours that I need spend on things in the office (the goal here is improved output so I can spend more time doing other things). While there has definitely been a learning curve with a ton of hours and late nights (I feel like this is true of most jobs when you first hop on board), I’m getting to the point where all my strategies are beginning to pay off, meaning I am able to work fewer hours and still get more stuff done. None of the above happened over night though, and while some strategies had huge payoffs, others I needed to settle for incremental improvements. This brings me to what I want to talk about, which is what I like to call “micro-tasks” or “baby-steps”.
There are many times when there’s something that you’re not hugely motivated to do, so you put it off or just full blown avoid doing it. Maybe it’s not interesting or fun, maybe the idea of doing it puts you to sleep, but you know it needs to get it done. Examples here are things like exercise (I know some people really enjoy working out, but this is just something that’s hard for me to get motivated to do) or picking up/cleaning the house. These are things that don’t get you excited, so you continually find reasons to put them off. It’s so easy to rationalize why you haven’t done them, with excuses like “oh, well I’m just too busy!”, or “I’ll get to it next week!”. The fact is that you’re just being lazy, which I totally get because I’m the same way. If it’s something that I’m not interested in, my brain will find a way to put it off (interesting how creative my brain can be when trying to avoid doing something, but when I want to write I hit a huge road block). I’ve found though that if I can get started and gradually build upon tasks that I can first do very easily, I end up using that momentum to do much much more, all I need to do is get started.
Note on this: Make sure that what you’re doing actually needs to get done/is important (ie. not wasting time doing stuff that doesn’t matter). This relates to a whole other topic of doing things that matter, which there’s a ton of content on out there, but I may eventually do a post on how I prioritize and decide what’s worth doing.
Now then, we’ve decided that the tasks we’re wanting to get done are all things that really do need to be done, but how do we go about motivating ourselves to do them? Here is where the “micro-tasks” come into play. Mentally, what you can do is decide “what is the smallest amount of work I can do here?” and figure out how long I want to take (I’m going to arbitrarily choose 5 minutes). With the cleaning example, let’s say you want to clean the entire bathroom, top to bottom. Take 30 seconds and decide one tiny task that you can do in say 5 minutes. “Scrub the sink”, that’s one you can do in 5 minutes, so now go ahead and just do that, then you get to walk away. Pat yourself on the back, you did something! Now you can choose to move on to other things, knowing that you made some sort of progress. Then the next time you come back to clean, try adding a little more time to the task, say something that can be done in 6 minutes, or you can add an additional 5 minute task, like “wiping down the counter top”, progressively increasing the time/frequency of the work you’re putting in, while still keeping things very easy/simple. The important thing here is just getting started, just getting a little something accomplished.
The idea here is to make it so you don’t feel like you’re dedicating a huge amount of time to something you don’t want to do, this way you can just get things started. I’ve been spending at least 5 minutes a couple times a week to get some cleaning done, and more often than not I end up doing 3 or 4 of the 5 minute tasks. This really adds up (and has resulted in a much cleaner house!) and I don’t feel like I have to block out valuable time since “it’s only 5 minutes”. Then by adding a tiny bit to each task I have gradually built towards getting more and more done, and eventually it became a productive routine!
These “micro-tasks” don’t always need to be time related (ie. 5 minutes), an example here is with exercise. I’m a slug when it comes to exercise, even though I KNOW I need to do it (health reasons, looking better, losing weight, blah blah blah), every fiber of my being fights me on it. Many times people will come at me with “You just need to find some kind of exercise you enjoy!”, which I totally get, but I find doing “micro-tasks” far easier to move forward and stick with regardless. So an example of this is the way I initially started exercising myself, just doing something small and easy. Initially I started with 5 push-ups each morning, easy enough right? Then on subsequent mornings I would tack on another one each day. Eventually I got to a point where I said “what about doing 10 body weight squats too?” and added those, followed by a set of kettle bell swings (20 reps/swings in this case). A few months later and now I have a regular workout routine going a few days a week, and I continue to add more reps and more exercises. Building upon these small tasks each time gets you started in the direction that you want to go.
The overall goal with “micro-tasks” is to not only get a tiny bit of something done, but to also give you that mental boost of succeeding at something. By breaking things down into very small tasks, it’s easy to succeed and difficult to fail. Even if you don’t feel like making any major progress that day it’s much easier to get started since it’s “just 5 minutes” or “only 5 push-ups”, allowing you time to get more and more comfortable with what you’re doing.
I have come across a number of “naysayers” when I bring this idea up in conversation, “only 5 push-ups? what’s that going to do?”. Many times people have the idea that if it isn’t a larger task then why do it, although this rationale boggles my mind. So you’re saying you would rather someone make NO progress instead of making SOME progress? 5 push-ups turns into 6, turns into 7, etc, so at the very least you’re moving the needle.
Look, I totally agree that it would be far better to do a full 30-45 min workout routine every day, consisting of stretching, cardio, and strength training, as well as eating a balanced plant based diet, deep cleaning your house every day, and learning 6 languages at the same time (I’m exaggerating here, but you get the idea). The point is that not everyone is wired to start getting a million things done all at the same time, and the point of “micro-tasks” is to help you do things you DON’T want to do, making progress on things you DON’T feel like spending time on, even though you know you should. If it gets you moving, gets you doing the things you need to do, then something is better than nothing, and it starts you off in the right direction of where you want to end up.
So give it a try, since it’s “only 5 minutes”. -J
TL;DR:
- Pick a task that needs to get done (ex. cleaning your house)
- Decide on part of that task that can be done in 5 minutes (ex. scrub the bathroom sink). Do it then walk away guilt free.
- The next day, do something you can do in 6 minutes (ex. wipe down the counter tops).
- Continue to add more time/frequency to you “micro-tasks”. Time doesn’t need to increase every day, but it’s a good goal.
- Bask in the awesomeness of having a cleaner house!