The Little Things That Matter

Do you ever feel a little overwhelmed – or a lot? Do the mountains of to-do’s seem overwhelming or the projects seem daunting?

Sanity comes from being able to maintain productivity in highly demanding environments. If you wonder about the magic of how people take on huge projects and complete them so effortlessly, there is a simple secret:

Take it apart and distill the “goal” or “project” down into easily achievable parts or milestones. This has two overall positive results:

1. Sense of accomplishment: You feel like you are really in a zone of productivity when you can check off item after item you have completed.
2. Ensures project success: By completing each milestone you take one step close to completing your quest and diffuse possible obstacles to success.

However, one key component of the “break-down” is that you maintain your milestones in relation to your overall vision. That is, all of your roads (milestones) must lead you to Rome (your goal).

You’ve got to think about the big things while you’re doing the small things, so that the small things go in the right direction. – Alivin Toffler

All too often, in a project and in life, we allow ourselves to lose focus of our vision and focus on the problems at hand. This causes us to replace our original goal with a smaller much less meaningful goal that was originally a milestone – a  stepping stone in our project.

Only when we practice overcoming our milestone tasks in the context of achieving our grander plan, do we truly progress towards a path of accomplishment.

PS – a friend of mine over at KnowTheNetwork had some tips.

What tips do you have?

Ken Stewart’s blog, ChangeForge.com, focuses on the collision between the constantly changing worlds of business and technology. Ken is also the Director of Technology at Kearns Business Solutions.