If someone told you that you had to paint the Mona Lisa the same way Leonardo da Vinci did above, what would be your initial response? Chances are it probably isn’t going to be “I’ll have it ready by next week”. Maybe you would feel overwhelmed by the task, not knowing where to even begin, and quickly dismiss it as “I can’t do that”. But what if you were told to paint just the top left square in the picture below? Maybe you would still wonder how you would get the colors right, but it certainly is much less overwhelming and might incline you to at least give it a shot. And what if you managed to get it done, maybe not exactly but close enough, and you moved on to the next square to the right? Suddenly you’re making progress, moving from one square to the next.

This is the same case when we’re looking at getting something done. We often get overwhelmed with everything it involves, we don’t know where to start, and eventually we drop it. But if we break it down into a bunch of smaller tasks and we focus on getting those done, it becomes much more manageable, and it gives us a sense of accomplishment as we get those smaller tasks done, which in turn keeps us engaged. This approach of course works wonders for big projects, but can also be applied for every day things. We use it at home when cleaning the house. Like most busy families, our kitchen can get out of hand quickly and it can get pretty overwhelming to clean it up, especially when we’re pressed for time. But we start breaking it down: clean the kitchen table, clean the counter to right of stove, then to left of stove, then stove itself, right of kitchen sink… you get the picture.

This will involve some planning, more some on the bigger projects of course, so the more time you spend on planning the better you can break it down and be on your way to getting it done!

“Every minute you spend in planning saves 10 minutes in execution; this gives you a 1,000 percent return on energy!” ― Brian Tracy