Big Project Small Steps

After receiving the publishing contract for my latest book, How Efficiency Changes the Game, I broke the total word count down—50,000 words—to write 1000 per day. I knew that if I achieved this, the draft would be completed in 50 days. Then, when I had finished the draft, I started the rewriting process. Following a similar pattern, I divided each chapter into daily goals and focused intently on those small milestones. All of these small daily steps contributed to a long progressive walk toward the destination; 9 months later the book was completed.

Similarly, I take the same approach with clients who have significant improvements or corrections to make. Take invoicing or debtor arrears for example. We initially look up at the arrears mountain and then lay out the steps to conquer it. Broken into daily and weekly completion goals, the arrears are brought up to date over time with the sweet reward of increased cashflow.

​If you have a mountainous task or project in front of you, instead of saying, I'll get to that one day (and those days rarely come), plan out the steps and then proceed, one step at a time. In this way you'll move forward to full completion without losing sight of the other tasks you are responsible for and, you will do it with a greater sense of ease.