Loughborough

#23 – 22nd July 2008

Time Management – Elephant Tasks

In life and in business, we often find ourselves presented with projects or tasks which, on first (and second!!) inspection appear to be just too big to handle. Then we make one (or both) of two major errors:

• Procrastination - we panic and start looking for ways to avoid getting started;
• Busy at all costs – we jump straight in and start doing something (anything) without thinking.

What are elephant tasks?
Elephant tasks are those enormous projects that we find hard to start:

• Overwhelming tasks demanding prolonged effort
• Tasks in which little progress can be seen after each stage
• Tasks often put off or reduced in priority in the short term

Examples:

• Developing a new product
• Learning a language
• Losing weight and getting fit
• Writing a book

In principle the only way to eat large elephants with a small mouth is by making the elephant smaller. There are two different ways to do this:

• You can distance yourself from them. View them on the horizon so at least they look smaller.
  • While you wait for the tea to brew, you can then congratulate yourself on having avoided making a start for today.
• You can divide them into "bite-size" pieces.
  • Take your project or task and break it down into smaller elements;
  • Aim for each “bite” to be something that you can be sure of finishing in one go;

The Elephant Technique

• Divide the elephant (task or project) into "bite-size" pieces.
  • Make sure that the pieces are logically ordered – if you are building something or writing an article, some form of plan is a great first step, but then you need to put a little more detail into your plan before you allocate sections of the plan as “bites” of the elephant.
• Schedule regular "bites" of the elephant as "task of the day" "task of the week" etc.
  • You know when you are most productive in terms of your own ability to concentrate and in terms of possible interruptions. Choose a regular time each day to complete one item off your elephant task plan.
• Make sure you "eat" a bite every day in addition to completing your other routine tasks.
  • If something goes wrong, then you need to think about the short-fall:
    • Will you complete two “bites” the next day?
    • Or, tell yourself and others that you have fallen behind?
• Keep track of your progress through the elephant:
  • If you told yourself, or others, that you would take 3 months to complete the project, then 6 weeks from the start you need to know for sure that you have 50% completed the project.
• Make sure you finish the elephant.
  • Promises to other people, or yourself, must be kept – your reputation and self-esteem depend on it.
• Do not start more than 1 or 2 elephant tasks at a time.

 

Paul Fileman MIET CEng MCIM
Chartered Marketer
paul.fileman@talktosps.com
Tel:  01509 854447
Mob: 07969 188820
www.talktosps.com