MAKING BIG TASKS SMALLER
A great trick for reaching your goals is knowing how to break large tasks into smaller ones. Or, as is sometimes said, you can eat an elephant, but only by taking one bite at a time.
I use the word chunking to describe this process. For instance, when I landed a contract to write my first book, Non-Manipulative Selling, I had six months to write it. On my “To Do” list every day of those six months was: Write book.
Six months went by, no book. The publisher gave me another three months. For three more months Write book appeared daily on my “To Do” list. Still no book. Finally, the publisher gave me a final three months, or else I’d lose the contract.
Fortunately, Karl Albrecht, author of Service America, gave me the concept of “chunking.” He asked me how many pages I had to write. Answer: 180. How many days to write it? Answer: 90. So he told me that every day my “To Do” list should contain this note: Write 2 pages of book. I must write two pages. If I got on a roll, I could write four or five. But the next day, I still had to write a minimum of two. By following his advice, I finished the book in thirty days!
A final technique for managing your goals comes from Dr. John Lee, author, speaker, and time-management expert. He says when a new task pops up, or an old one resurfaces, apply one of the four D’s: Drop it , Delegate it , Delay it , or Do it . Consciously choosing one of those strategies every time you face a task will keep things progressing smoothly.
