Episode 3: A road-map for breaking tasks down

Welcome to the podcast. This podcast is a "mini" episode which talks through a process for breaking tasks down and getting them done - eventually!

The podcast episode talks you through the below process diagram, so you may want to study it or print it to follow along with as you listen. 

This process isn't perfect (you can adopt and adapt bits of it to suit you) and it also isn't finished because...you also need energy and motivation to get things done. However, this is a good "starter for 10" if you have little confidence or skill in breaking down a bigger task to make sure you get it over the line on time. 

I hope the episode is useful, and reach out to me with any questions/if you need coaching on www.thequirkybrain.coach.

An auto-generated transcript is available after the diagram. Scroll down for this.

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Hello,

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I'm Dr Rebecca Jackson and welcome to a mini episode of the Quirky Brain coach podcast.

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So I'm going to break with my traditional structure and offer you a really useful and impactful short episode on the process for breaking down bigger tasks.

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So a lot of my clients know that in order to complete a more complex task that they might want to break that down somehow,

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but they're not sure how to do it.

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So in this episode,

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that's slightly different,

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I'm going to give you in the show notes,

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a visual breakdown of what you can do,

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what you might choose to do to go through a road map for breaking down bigger tasks to make sure that they're more manageable that you feel like you've got control and that you're not overwhelmed and importantly,

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doing something like this allows you to stop stuff from becoming kind of urgent and last minute it allows you to do important but not urgent things uh in a way that prevents them becoming urgent and becoming kind of frantic and panicked for you.

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So what I'd advise you to do is get hold of the diagram and let me quickly talk you through it,

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pause the podcast here if that's what you need to do.

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OK.

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So you've got the diagram.

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Fantastic.

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So take a look at that as I talk you through.

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So we have to start off by getting clear on the big task.

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So let's suppose you're doing something like writing a research paper.

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So you need to be clear on what exactly you need to do by when and why,

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what is the outcome you need to get to.

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So it might be about working out which journal you're going to submit to how long the paper is,

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what you're trying to say in the paper and the impact of it and why it's important to you to get this research out there.

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And of course,

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you want to have a deadline that you're gonna commit to for getting that paper off to the journal.

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So get really clear on what you're doing when and why then in step two,

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you could check any deadlines.

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So you might have set one for yourself.

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But also if you're doing something like a special issue,

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it may be that actually a deadline has been given to you.

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And there are maybe even some sub deadlines for when you have to submit particular drafts or get revisions back.

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So it's helpful to know if there are any sub deadlines that you need to factor into your planning and breaking down process as well.

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Once you've got clear on your deadlines,

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it's time to move to stage three.

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So you need to brain dump all the sub tasks.

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So thinking about getting that article submitted,

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which is your big task,

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what are all the steps that you need to go through?

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They don't even have to be in an order at this point.

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And actually for creativity and lowering,

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you're overwhelmed,

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you probably don't want to do this in order just yet.

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But what are all the little itty bits that you would need to do?

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So writing,

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drafting,

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editing,

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dealing with revisions,

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checking your reference list,

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anything that you would need to do to get to that final outcome needs to go into your brain dump each of those things on that brain dump is actually a subtask.

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And so to make those sub tasks happen in a way that works and is comfortable,

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you need to get really clear on what the sub tasks are.

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So for any subtask to complete,

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ask again what you need to do and by when and it's also helpful to consider any resources or help that you need.

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So do you need to do some literature searching?

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Do you need to speak to your coach?

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Do you need to meet with a collaborator?

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Get really clear on those things and then move to step five estimate time for sub tasks.

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This can be really hard,

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especially if you have a DH D,

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we can have an interesting relationship with time.

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But actually estimating rough time periods for tasks is possible if you're able to draw on what you've done in the past and how long it took you.

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So if you know that the last time you wrote a paper of a similar length,

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it took you two days to do the edits for the final draft,

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then you might choose to schedule two days to do the edits for this draft,

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for example.

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And it can be helpful to talk to a collaborator or coach to help you pull out that intelligence about how long things might take you.

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So once you know what these sub tasks are and how long you think they might take,

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it's time to pick how you're going to prioritize because prioritizing is how we stop important but not urgent things from becoming on fire.

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Oh my God,

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I have to submit this tomorrow.

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So you have to think about how you're going to prioritize.

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In other words,

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judge what you're going to do and when and in what order you have to find a way of doing this that works for you.

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So it could just be a list,

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it could be some kind of matrix,

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it could be some kind of task management system like Asana or Trello.

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And you might just make one big list and pick things off according to what you think your interest or energy levels will be.

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But you have to have some kind of rough attempt at a system in place.

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Now,

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when you've decided how you want to prioritize,

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it's on to step seven,

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you actually prioritize and rank those sub tasks that get you to completion of the bigger task.

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So record your working set of priorities in some way so that you've got that to refer back to and work from.

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It could be a list,

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a mind map,

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a matrix,

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a diagram,

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a set of diary entries,

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whatever works,

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it's really key that what you choose here works for you and is accessible,

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safe and doable for you.

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Once you've done that,

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we can go to eight,

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which is determining your golden time.

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Golden time is one of my favorite things to bring into coaching conversations.

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And that is a piece of wisdom around the best time to do something hard is when you're best equipped to do the hard thing.

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So your golden time is the time of day on average that your brain works best and you feel most motivated and most energized for me.

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I wake up in the morning like the Duracell bunny.

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So that is about 6 a.m. to 9 a.m. for me.

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So I do my hard things first thing in the morning.

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But for you,

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your executive functioning could for example,

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be best later in the day or you may enjoy writing on a Sunday afternoon when you're not stressed and you don't have commitments.

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The bottom line is you have to determine your golden time for doing hard things,

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then you can move to step nine,

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which is Dior harder tasks for golden times.

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Ok.

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So it's a bit cheesy.

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It's a bit dad coaching here.

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But I always say that we do what we diaries,

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the literature on habit change and behavior change tells us that we do actually need prompts and reminders and commitments to help us to get things done a lot of the time.

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So once you know,

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your golden time and the best time to do hard things,

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that's when you need to go to the diary and actually put in a time slot to do those hard things.

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And you can refer to your notes from stage five here.

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You can actually look at how long you think certain tasks will take and use that information to help you put the right amount of time into the diary.

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Then it's the step 10 here.

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It's diar when you'll do the easier tasks.

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So Dior easier tasks for when you think you can cope with them or naturally want to do them.

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So if you know that you're often bored on a Saturday afternoon,

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and actually,

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you're quite interested in this project and you could pick off some easy tasks because you'll be fairly relaxed and motivated,

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then choose that time to do the easy stuff and have some quick wins and really feel like you're progressing quickly.

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Now,

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of course,

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we're all a bit different,

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some parts of this process will be easier or harder for you or more enjoyable or less enjoyable for you.

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So,

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as I would always say,

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pick what works,

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discard what doesn't work,

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but at least you have a road map.

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At least you have a process now to say,

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OK,

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this is what I could do.

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I'm gonna do these bits.

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I'm not gonna try this bit of the process.

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You can really make this your own.

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This is yours to use in a way that will help you get your projects done,

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help you to finish things,

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help you to get your research tasks over the line.

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Now,

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of course,

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there is more to be done beyond stage 10.

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Quite obviously,

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I don't need to tell you that you then actually need to do the things and that's a whole other podcast on motivation and how to create energy and motivation to get things done.

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But you can always reach out to ask me your questions about motivation.

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And of course,

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I will do multiple podcasts on motivation in the future,

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but there you have it.

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That's my mini episode on a process for breaking down bigger tasks.

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If you need me,

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you can reach me on your coach at the Quirky brain dot coach or you can visit the Quirky brain dot coach.

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You can also sign up for my newsletter at the website and you can find me across all of the social media platforms as well apart from tiktok but I'll get round to that eventually.

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I am sure.

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So,

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thank you very much for listening to this episode of the Quirky Brain Coach podcast and I will see you next time.