Three Dishes

Did you know that you don’t have to do daunting tasks all at once? You can sneak up on them.

We’ve probably all heard the wisdom that you should break large tasks down into smaller chunks; it’s much more manageable to write in blocks, for example, than to try to crank out a hundred-page essay in one sitting (and the end result is usually better, too). But we tend to think that advice only applies to large projects. But with large projects, it’s obvious to the point of silliness – some projects are so big you couldn’t do otherwise.

But you can break small projects down, and that’s the real cheat code. If there are just three dishes in your sink, you don’t have to wash all of them at once. You can wash one dish every time you walk through the kitchen. You can wash one dish per hour. You can even “just wash one dish,” and then decide later when to wash the next one.

Seem absurd? Who cares? It’s your life, arrange things in the way that gets you to the destination you want, not in service of a path someone else thinks you should take to get there.