Task decomposition for when you feel overwhelmed.

Imani Thomas
Aug 9, 2017 · 1 min read
  1. pick a task you need to do at random
  2. If there are no tasks left to pick go to step 10
  3. If you get distracted go to step 11
  4. write down what the task is.
  5. Imagine someone who is an expert at doing this task. write down what you think they would do in order to complete the task.
  6. Try to break up that task into steps.
  7. If it is too simple to break down then do it right now or schedule when to do it, then go to step 1.
  8. If you don’t understand it well enough to break it down, write down “figure out steps for (task name)” as a new task and return to step 1
  9. If you can break it down, take the first step of that task and go to step 2 of this list.
  10. Congratulations you’re done! Stop reading.
  11. Make yourself feel like you are at least doing something related by writing up a medium post of your task decomposition strategy with the hopes that you’ll return to relevant tasks after you finish.