Writing detailed computer programs, like most large goals, can be overwhelming at times. To break ground on a new major program and have it finished in only a day – packaged and ready for market – would take a miracle. Programs can be huge, detailed projects.
If I were to sit down and try to absorb all 15,000 lines of code in my project, you would probably have to lock me up. It’s simply too overwhelming to deal with. As a developer, I have to consistently break huge, overwhelming subprojects down into small, easily performed tasks.
So instead of taking the grand 15,000 line view, I break down each bug fix, improvement and style change into separate and workable projects. And then I break those projects down into separate little tasks. I call this “breaking it down to the ridiculous.”
At any one time, a full featured application can have upwards of hundreds of items that need to improvement. Looking at all of them at the same time is simply too much to mentally grasp in one sitting. Breaking it down to the ridiculous helps me deal with the mental side of the project by giving you many small wins that eventually add up to one big win.
I pick about 3 subprojects I can work on today that will make the most impact. Three may sound like a small number but if you break them down to the ridiculous – into their individual little parts, my work normally includes 10 or 15 smaller items to do on the list.
Some Small work is better than no work
Keeping in mind how overwhelming all of this work can be, I have to always focus on forward momentum — Even if the progress seems small. Sure, sometimes I’d love to wipe my entire source code and rebuild it all in one day, but like I mentioned, that’s not gonna happen. Small progresses eventually do add up to the greater progresses.
And while we are on the subject, fretting about the tasks you didn’t do yesterday is wasted effort. It will bring you no closer to your finish line. If you can’t do the tasks you planned for today because of interruptions, do some task. In development, I have to sometimes adjust. I may want to program a new button on Tuesday. I may want to program a new form on Wednesday, but computer glitches can get in the way, people can interfere. So sometimes all I can do is change the fonts, or colors. But what is important is forward progress. Make a few steps forward today.
How can you apply this to other goals?
One of the biggest obstacles I find when working with others are the overwhelming thoughts and feelings involved with starting a big goal. They may not say it, but I can still sense from the expression of panic, they might be telling themselves “If I do this, then I’ll have to do that, then that then that…I can’t do that!”
A teacher I worked with once came to me because she wanted her and her family to be able to move out of their rental and for her and her husband to buy their own house. But she felt she not go looking at houses because she didn’t have $150,000 in the bank to buy one. I said, “That makes you like everybody else. Nobody goes and pays cash for a house. You have to start at the beginning — paying for the house comes at the end. So to get a house, you have to make it a project with a beginning, middle and end.”
It may sound basic to many of you, but I sat down with her and drew out a plan for how she and her family could get a new house. The first step was start looking. Get some ideas and visit open houses. I won’t bore you with the rest of the plan, but I will note when certain tasks made her nervous or unsure – such as calling a realtor, I broke it down to the ridiculous:
1. Look up phone number
2. Write down home specifications you are looking for
3. Set planner next to the phone
4. Call realtor!
Sometimes we want our goals achieved yesterday…or today at the latest. You might be able to do some small goal related tasks in that period of time, but the “big picture” ones will take a lot longer. That is why we say having a vision is so important.
1-day goals are only projects or sub-projects. Think bigger pilgrim, there’s gold in them thar hills! Take these big goals and break them down to the ridiculous. And then have the foresight to take today’s tasks and do them today.
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I enjoyed your post, Brad. Thanks.
Thanks Brad. Your post a little while ago about making lists, getting down twenty things, has got me making lists once a day. Here are today’s tasks that I want to get done. Of course one can always stoop to Frazz’s level. (http://www.comics.com/comics/frazz/archive/frazz-20060217.html)
I am not sure how much more productive I am, but I am more calm and directed and that is a huge help. And for a pat on the back I can review what I did get done and not just try and recall it in my head.
Dale, I’m glad it’s giving you some benefits of calm. What I think the 20 list does best is enhance creativity. Even if you pick one or two things from the list and throw out the rest, I’ve found the excercize pays off really well.
That Frazz cartoon reminds me of a true situation where I told a former co-worker this technique and he ran up to me with his list a few hours later and it had “Drive home after work” on it. There’s probably more to his reasoning for putting that down, but I didn’t ask. Since I believe there are no wrong answers when doing this…just come up with 20. Maybe he wrote that to avoid driving around town wasting time, etc.