In my last article, ‘what to do if you fall out of love with your business’, I explained how to set SMART goals and gave you some tips on how to regain your mojo and motivation for your business. This month, I am going to show you how to break tasks down, and why this technique is so effective.
Why should you break large tasks down?
Because you can give your full attention to achieving one small step at a time.
Managing a large project can leave you feeling overloaded, and it can result in procrastination.
Breaking the task down enables you to focus your full attention on completing one small step before moving on to the next.
How to break tasks down - Improve efficiency
I have explained above how large tasks or projects can seem daunting, even overwhelming.
But by breaking a large project down, it will become manageable.
You will be able to tackle it one step at a time until the final goal has been reached.
There are benefits to your team and the business as a whole in breaking down tasks:
- Clarity
A large task or project is normally complex and may be too much to take in or confusing when you look at the whole.
However, by breaking a task down into smaller manageable chunks, it can seem less complicated, and explanation become simpler.
- Focus
Do you worry about things being missed or falling off the grid?
Attention to detail is more achievable on smaller tasks.
It allows your team to concentrate on smaller, more specific areas, with fewer distractions.
- Reduce overwhelm
Overwhelm can result in demotivation and a loss of focus, especially when under time pressure.
But by focusing team efforts on one part of the project at a time, it will become more manageable, and they will be motivated to complete each individual step.
- Measuring progress
By breaking projects down into smaller parts or processes, progress can easily be seen and measured.
Plus, your team will have a greater sense of achievement as they tick off each completed part, improving motivation and engagement.
You can read more about setting SMART goals in my article ‘What to do if you have fallen out of love with your business’.
- Planning
The allocation of resources becomes more effective when you break tasks down.
Smaller steps are easier to manage from a planning perspective, and the efficient allocation of resources reduces the chance of bottlenecks arising.
You can make small adjustments and adapt to changes or circumstances in a timely manner, without impacting resources.
This increases the probability of staying on track, preventing bottlenecks, and completing the project on time.
- Problem solving
I am sure that you will agree that it is preferable to solve problems on a small scale, rather than suddenly realising that a few small hiccups have accumulated into something major.
Complicated setbacks could severely impact the outcome and timing of projects, costing time, money, and extra resources.
When tasks are smaller, it is easier to manage risk and prevent potentially damaging issues from arising in the first place.
- Delegation
I talked about the importance of delegation in my blog, ‘How to stop doing everything in your business’.
When breaking tasks down, each individual part can be allocated to the right individual, team, or cross-functional group to manage, improving overall efficiency.
- Communication
It is important that your team members work together effectively.
Working on smaller tasks concentrates expertise in the right areas, allowing people to pull together, communicate better and collaborate when required to achieve the desired outcome.
How to break tasks down - My approach
Now you have seen how the process of breaking tasks down into manageable chunks helps with the successful completion of large projects, here are my tips on how to break tasks down:
- Firstly, write down your headline tasks. For example, create new sales process. Everyone who works with me knows that I love a good Excel sheet - so my plans are always created in Excel, but there are lots of project apps to choose from. Use one that you find easy to understand and make sure that it is collaborative, with team access to the relevant parts.
- Under your headline task - start to think about the little jobs you have to do to make this a reality. In our ‘create new sales process’ example, these could be: Have a meeting with the team to seek input; do some CRM training; read that great sales book that has been gathering dust on the shelf; create templates & scripts. Think about everything you will need to complete the project.
- The next stage is to allocate time to each of the small jobs you have outlined. In the example we are using here, these may be:
Team meeting – two hours (includes one hour of preparation)
CRM training – four hours
Reading a sales book – eight hours
Create templates and scripts – eight hours
And so on.
- The next step is to make sure that you block off the time slots required for these small tasks in your diary or calendar. I am sure that you are familiar with the Bill Gates quote,
“Most people overestimate what they can do in one year and underestimate what they can do in ten years”
This is true!
So, be generous with the amount of time you allocate to each small task, being careful not to overload yourself. Small consistent steps will feel much better than being overwhelmed and feeling like a failure.
- It’s super important to monitor and track your progress. It’s not only a great feeling to tick things off the list, it will help you to realise what’s been achieved within a particular time period, clearly showing how many steps have been completed towards your end goal.
If you feel overwhelmed by large projects in your business, the good news is that you don’t have to take everything on yourself.
If you feel you are procrastinating on that major project, call Elaine at Spero Solutions on 07846 754 747 today to discuss how an online business manager can break tasks down and implement procedures to make sure large projects stay on track.
An online business manager package from Spero Solutions can help you to establish SMART goals, show you how to break tasks down and allocate resources to projects effectively, leaving you free to focus on business growth.