A Bit At A Time

[babr]

I decided this month I am going to do just small things at a time; one shelf; one box; so far i have gone through our box of winter gear; gloves, hats etc.; then did a small box of medicines; this feels really good; as it doesn't take too long; isn't overwhelming and you can go throughout the house; so you feel like you are accomplishing things; just a bit at a time!:)

[Mrs. Hermit]

Good idea! It always amazes me how much I get done by doing "littles"-- a little bit here, a little bit there.

[fidgiegirl]

Totally! I feel I have accomplished more at work since I adopted this attitude. I used to only start/do a project if I had 10 minutes available or so. I had to really train myself that I wasn't always going to have big chunks of time available so that even with two minutes, it was worth it to start on something. Well, I don't know how many times I've gone for it and it's been plenty of time to just do it, or my class was five or ten minutes late so I ended up with more time to finish, etc.

Also, here at home I am focusing on really using the elements of OmniFocus that I have set up. OmniFocus is a computer program that supports the Getting Things Done approach to managing projects/time/life. I have taken a lot of time to set it up but then wasn't really using it regularly, which is of course where the power is at. So I am trying to, in the evenings, choose even just one small action off my OmniFocus list and do it. I've felt a lot better about myself since doing even just a few small things, knowing that I was actually doing things to get myself closer to my goals, not wasting away time online all evening after work.

So yes! Here's to bit by bit!

[Sad Eyed Lady]

Yes, a good approach. Then, instead of looking at the whole and thinking how much is left to do, you can look at the smaller picture and see how much you have accomplished. It does feel good.

[JaneV2.0]

An incremental approach works best for me,too. Otherwise, I get overwhelmed and intimidated by the task at hand and bolt at the first distraction.

[Zoe Girl]

Baby steps, all the time around here! Sometimes I get some time or a burst of energy but most of the time I am just chipping away at the ice berg.

[loosechickens]

Back when we lived a fixed based lifestyle, we built a second story onto our house (it had started as a small, flat roofed summer cottage, and we added the second floor). Of course we tried doing that at the same time as my sweetie was working a demanding fulltime job, doing his master's at night, I had my own small business, we put up a freezer full of food each year as well as canning up to 500 jars of stuff, and I baked all our bread and cooked from scratch. We had NO time, and sometimes weeks went by without much getting done. One discouraging period it was three months with no progress.

Finally, we sat down one weekend and we listed every single thing that needed to be done to finish the second story, kind of in the order in which it needed to be accomplished. THEN we took each one of those jobs and divided them as best we could into "bites" of something that could be accomplished in an hour or a bit more.

We started the next night.....when we got home from work, before doing anything else, we looked at the next "bite" on the list and DID it. THEN we fixed supper and did whatever else needed to be done. On the weekends, we tried to do three or four "bites" a day, or chose a bite that couldn't be chopped down into less than a three or four hour project.

Maybe one night's "bite" would be set in four floor joists in middle room of upstairs. Another might be put up one sheet of drywall on south wall of library.

In six months, it was AMAZING how much had gotten done. We were practically finished. Honestly it was just like starting to save a little each day and being flabbergasted at how much you end up with at the end of the year.

Ever since then, when we've had jobs that looked too big, or so complicated that we couldn't figure out how to start, or found ourselves procrastinating from even starting on them, we've sat down and done a "bite" system for the project.

We just never let ourselves look at the whole project of building and finishing that second story. It was too intimidating, so we just procrastinated. But once we sat down and made that long list and broke down the steps into little bites, all we paid attention to was that day's bite, and let the whole take care of itself. It was the most effective thing we ever learned to do and has been the basis for us getting a lot of other things accomplished since.

Hope this helps.

[Kat]

I really appreciate this thread. I am feeling a bit overwhelmed at everything that needs to be done after the remodel is complete--cleaning, re-organizing, getting the nursery together, staining the deck, planting flowers, etc. I think instead I will just make a list and break it up into "bites" like LC suggested. Thanks, everyone, for the reminder that I don't need to plow through it all in one day! ;-)

[larknm]

I'm going to try this as a week of not printing anything out, to not use up paper.

[sumarie]

Babr, thanks for starting this thread. It has been a great motivator to me too & I've accomplished alot more by thinking less and doing more.