Breaking a Task Into Steps When It Is Too Big to Start
· Maksym Bardakh Ivko
A task that will not start is usually three tasks wearing one label. How to split it, how small is small enough, and where a tool helps rather than adds work.
The task that sits untouched for a week
"Sort out the insurance" is not a task. It is a phone call, a document you cannot find, and a decision you have been avoiding. Nothing starts because the first move is unclear, and the label hides that.
Splitting it
- Write the first physical action. Not "research options" but "open the renewal email and write down the renewal date".
- Cut until the first step takes under fifteen minutes. If you cannot picture doing it, it is still too big.
- Name the step that needs someone else. Those wait on other people's time, so they go first or they stall everything.
- Keep the steps in one place as tasks, not as a note about a task.
- Give each step a duration. A step without one cannot be scheduled, so it drifts.
What Flowo does with this
Braindump stores the thought before you have decided what it is. When a task feels too broad, task breakdown proposes editable steps on request, and you keep, cut or rewrite them. The steps are then ordinary tasks with durations, so the scheduler can place them in the day like anything else. Nothing runs unless you ask for it.
Related: capturing a thought before you classify it, and how placements are decided.
Flowo is free to download on the App Store for iPhone and on Google Play for Android, with optional in-app purchases.