Second Cup: Big goals, little steps

Conquer procrastination by breaking a big goal into small chunks

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio.

Speaker 2 (00:08):
Good Morning.

Speaker 1 (00:09):
This is Laura, Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. This
is the second episode in my five part series on procrastination.
Today's tip is to conquer a task you've been resisting
by breaking it into very small steps.

Speaker 2 (00:25):
There's been a lot written about success over.

Speaker 1 (00:27):
The years, but I think one of the most profound
insights is this small things done repeatedly truly do add up.
As the poet Avid once put it, dripping water hollows stone.
Later writers added their addendum to this quote, not by force,

(00:47):
but by persistence. If you think about it, the Grand
Canyon is the result of a river subtracting just a
little bit from the hills at a time. Lots of
little steps can yield big results. Say you want to
write a book, well, write five hundred words a day,
four days a week. Five hundred words isn't much of anything.

(01:09):
The script for this episode is longer than five hundred words,
But two thousand words a week gives you fifty thousand
words in six months. You'll get seventy five thousand words
in nine months. I write books for a living, and
I don't come anywhere near that level of output. Learning
a language seems like a huge undertaking, but it's not

(01:30):
an endless undertaking. According to the Foreign Service Institute, an
English speaker could reach general proficiency with a language such
as Spanish, French, or Italian in about six hundred hours
over two years. That's less than an hour a day.
Working with a language app during your commute and then
meeting a native speaker for lunch once every other week

(01:51):
could get you there. This insight is important for procrastination
because often when we resist a task, it's because it
seems big and nebulous, or possibly scary. This insight is
important for procrastination because often when we resist a task,
it's because it seems big and nebulous, or possibly scary.

(02:13):
Get a new job, go back to school, start a business,
start a nonprofit, meet someone special. All of this might
be amazing, but life's pretty busy right now, all about
next year or the next decade. One way to conquer
this resistance is to break the task down into tiny,
doable steps. Let's say you're procrastinating writing a report. Break

(02:37):
this down into tasks so small that you feel no
resistance to them, like write the title.

Speaker 2 (02:45):
Okay, that's not so hard.

Speaker 1 (02:46):
I mean, who's bent out of shape by typing the title.
Then maybe another step is writing down the main point.
You want to make one sentence, what is this report about?
Hopefully you know, because that's how you're describing it to people.
So you write that one sentence down, just one sentence
that wasn't bad at all. Then maybe another step is

(03:08):
including three data points you know are important.

Speaker 2 (03:11):
Okay, we'll get those in there.

Speaker 1 (03:13):
Oh and then here's something interesting we could say to
connect the main point in those data points. Oh and
by the way, I know, this is how I want
to sum up and explain those data points. And next thing,
you know, the momentum is there and the report is
pretty much written. And here's the crazy thing. If you
start early enough, you don't even have to do all
of this on the same day. It never has to

(03:35):
be unpleasant, and you never have to feel like there's
too much to do because all these steps are small
enough that you just don't feel like it's a big deal.
If you do feel like it's a big deal and
you start feeling that resistance, back up and make the
step smaller. But I promise that progress is inherently motivational.
We overestimate what we can do in the short run,

(03:57):
but we underestimate what we can do in the long run.
Even a nebulous project like meeting someone special could be
done in small steps. You aim to go on one
first date a week. That's not so bad. I mean,
just one coffee date. It's not too much of an
investment of time. But for every four first dates you
might meet someone you want to go on a second

(04:18):
date with, maybe one out of every three second dates
turns into a third date. In a year, you would
have met four people you were willing to go on
three dates. With the odds that one of those turns
into something bigger is pretty good. So today, think about
some task that you've been putting off. Think about how
you could break it up into tiny steps. Think about

(04:40):
making those steps so small that they're really just a
little better than nothing. If writing five hundred words a
day is too much, right two hundred. I bet you've
sent two hundred words of emails by eight thirty am.
But almost nothing isn't actually nothing, and a little bit
of something, done over and over again can move mountains

(05:03):
over the long haul. What big project have you broken
into tiny steps? I'd love to hear about it. You
can email me at Before Breakfast podcast at iHeartMedia dot com.
In the meantime, this is Laura. Thanks for listening and
here's to making the most of our time. Hey, everybody,

(05:28):
I'd love to hear from you. You can send me
your tips, your questions, or anything else. Just connect with
me on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram at Before Breakfast Pod.
That's b E the number four then Breakfast pod. You
can also shoot me an email at Before Breakfast podcast
at iHeartMedia dot com. That Before Breakfast is spelled out

(05:51):
with all the letters.

Speaker 2 (05:53):
Thanks so much.

Speaker 1 (05:53):
Should I look forward to staying in touch. Before Breakfast
is a production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio,
visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen
to your favorite shows.