Breaking down a project in smaller tasks

photo credit: wbaiv

When I was writing my doctoral dissertation, I read a lot of books about “how to finish your PhD thesis and not go insane in the process”. Well, that was the gist of it anyways. I most often laughed (particularly at the beginning of my PhD) because everywhere I found the same piece of advice – “break down your project into smaller tasks”. I laughed because I thought to myself “oh, geez – let’s see, today I am going to read 5 articles on industrial restructuring, and write 4 pages on environmental policy in Latin America, and answer only 10 emails”. It looked to me as though silly advice. As my doctoral research progressed, I learned how to break down specific elements of the dissertation into smaller, more manageable tasks.

I devised ways to write just some sections of the thesis, and read only literature associated with it. This piece of advice, that once I laughed at, has stayed with me and helped me complete other projects, even those that aren’t related to research.

For example, I hate doing dishes. With extreme hate, I might add. So I decided to apply this piece of advice to myself. I washed first all the cutlery, then all the plates, then I took a break, then I washed pots, pans and bowls. At the end of 3 hours, I was all done. In between tasks, I read, I wrote, I made a few phone calls. But I got it all done.

So it’s time for me to admit that yes, most of the time, breaking down a project into smaller tasks can be helpful to your productivity. I think the key is to find which tasks are the most helpful.

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