I was trying to cook a delicious dish that took a long time. It’s been a while since I cooked the dish I forgot what I needed to do first. I also forgot how long it actually takes to cook the dish from preparation to finish, only about 3 hours. This does not include eating, just getting the wonderful dish ready.
There is buying the groceries, knowing what ingredients go into the dish and having them prep ready such as chopped, skin, removed, marinated, etc. Then when you actually start cooking, you have to know which ingredients go first and then what do you do with it while it is in the pot on the hot stove? Sauté or boil?
When you think about what you have to do for a complex project or an assignment you are trying to make progress with, there is a good chance you can get overwhelmed by the sheer size of it or the amount of time it may take you to complete the task.
This reminded me of what one of my teammates told me at graduate school when we were assigned to dissect a complex business case and to have it ready for a class for discussion.
I asked, “How are we going to complete this assignment? This case is way longer and more Greek than the last one.”
He said, “Compartmentalize.”
“What?”
“Take the sections divide them into smaller chunks.”
In other words cut them and separate and handle each little at a time methodologically.
I had to actually write that down in a notebook: Section 1 of the case: focus on its history and background data. Section II of the case: focus on financial data and capture years that they were doing well and why they were doing well? Section III of the case: what were our recommendations?
This gave us a basis, and we revised as we were working on the case.
Same goes for cooking or other tasks that are big and lengthy and complicated.
Ask, what needs to be done first, second, third? Does it have to be in a certain order? Or can it be done way before?
I went to the grocery store the day before to get the ingredients, which helped with the time.
Then I chopped, diced, sliced all that I needed to once.
Then I added the rest of the ingredients, sautéed, stirred, and boiled. Then I enjoyed the heck out of the dish.
Compartmentalizing will help you make it easier for you take the might tasks into smaller sections.
Enjoy the process.