Usually, people feel overwhelmed because they see a task as this mammoth mountain that they need to tackle. This is a rather natural response to when a new task comes our way. When you receive a new work, a new project or some new opportunity comes along – always take a moment to reflect on it and your approach regarding the work that it is going to need.
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Breaking Down Your Tasks
Breaking down the tasks in small workable parts is something people either overdo or don’t do enough. The reason why breaking the work is important is that it brings your task into perspective. This helps micromanage your way through the work without being overwhelmed. When I say micromanage, I don’t mean fretting over every little detail, I simply mean paying attention to every part of the work.
- What happens when you overdo it?
When you divide the tasks into a million pieces where even subtasks have a mile-long list of subtasks – you will end up complicating the process. Seeing so many things on your list is also bound to get you overwhelmed. This also stops you from taking into account the tasks that are co-dependent. - What happens when you don’t do it enough?
When you divide the work randomly, without regards to what task is dependent on what other task or what tasks go in the same work-family, you aren’t making your work efficient. You need to first analyze the aspects of the work and then divide them.
Breaking Down Your Time
Nobody is productive all of the hours they spend working. To make most of the hours you spend working count, you should break down your time in blocks and take breaks in between. Taking breaks in between helps you work the next block of time with renewed energy.
You can either break your work down to each hour or make rough blocks of the hours before lunch, after lunch, before snacks, etc. Design the time slots according to how much time you can spend working without it starting to get to you.
Final Thoughts
Breaking down your time and tasks into smaller chunks is a smart way to help you complete the said tasks more efficiently without doing something extra. You know what time works best for you for what work and when you are the most productive, so you can group similar tasks and do it in the timeframe that works for that particular job.
Alternatively, you can also try different productivity techniques that will help you like the Pomodoro technique. This Technique basically breaks down your time in chunks of 25 minutes each and allowing a 5-minute break after each session (or Pomodoro). After four Pomodoros (four 25 minute sessions), you can take a longer 15-minute break.
This makes bigger tasks much more manageable. You can start making progress every day by achieving small tasks, rather than being overwhelmed by one big task on which you don’t make any progress.
