Blog Post by Jiri Novotny published on Sunday, 02 December 2012 in Productivity

Complex tasks are like oranges. It’s rather difficult to “eat” them, until you “peel” them and divide them into pieces (subtasks).

The wrong way

You can’t just eat a whole orange -

Likewise, you can’t just “do” a huge, complex task. You can only do the actions (subtasks) that lead to its completion.

The right way

Break the task down into subtasks -

Following the steps is easy. Anyone can do it if the steps are small and clear enough.

Write all the subtasks for your dreaded task X. Write a “How to do task X for dummies” manual for yourself. Then follow it and have fun.

Goodbye procrastination, hello productivity!

Once you break a complex unpleasant task into subtasks, you will be much more inclined to take action.

It just works. If you make something easy, it is easy. Dead simple.

I think that the orange is a perfect metaphor for this. It took me several weeks to come up with it.

In case you are wondering about the illustrations, they were drawn by my girlfriend Eileen, and are part of my new e-book “Swift Mind Freedom“, which explains 11 Principles of getting (and staying) organized. Breaking tasks down into subtasks is Principle #8.

Now it’s your turn – which task are you afraid of the most? Write down the steps you need to take. Then do them. It’s quite refreshing.

PS: Check our new Swift To-Do List 8 for Windows. I am especially proud of the new killer subtasks feature.

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