When the boulder won't move
Yesterday, we talked about how tasks are like boulders and pebbles.
Remove the smaller pebbles and rocks, and the boulder often just starts rolling down the hill on its own.
But what happens when it doesn’t? What if it’s stuck?
Those days, you need to take a big old sledge hammer and smash the boulder into a bunch of smaller rocks. Grab a piece of paper and write down all of the little things that need to happen to get that big task done.
This summer, we transformed a part of yard where nothing grows into an enchanted garden. I started by writing down everything that needed to happen…
- Buy material
- Native seeds
- Gravel
- Edging
- A tamper
- Mulch
- Research how to build a gravel walking path
- Research native plants that thrive in shade
Each of these became a new pebble or small rock. Some of them turned into more pebbles (after researching how to build a walking path, I had a bunch of subtasks related to actually building it).
For UI-related coding projects, I’ll often sketch out the actual UI and map out what needs to happen for each one (this form needs an API, this field needs to be validated, and so on).
If your boulder won’t move, it’s too big. Smash it to pieces.