How Do You Eat an Elephant? One Bite at a Time

I know that in my life some of the things I have had to do simply overwhelmed me.  How was I going to make this happen?  I am pretty good with problems, and I can handle a great deal. But sometimes—well—I can’t even describe what I was feeling.  I know this sounds pretty simple but the truth is: one bite at a time.  Once I figured this out, I could do almost anything.

Take whatever the business problem or the project is and break it up into all its many parts.  I will use my real-life example: How did I manage to pull off three weddings in nine months?  I did it in bite-size chunks.  Take the project and lay out all the elements.  For each wedding, the categories included things like: music (ceremony and dinner), transportation, flowers and other décor, favors, invitations, hotel needs, other parties, out-of-town guests, attire, menus, lighting, tents, table seating.  (I could go on and on here with all the other categories, but you get the idea.)  And then I would separate each of these categories into what I needed to do myself (challenge yourself: do you really need to do all that?), what could be done by others, and exactly when it needed to be completed.

I created a master list for each wedding on my computer; but I like to visually see stuff  “move off my list,” so I also created giant bulletin boards for each event.  On my computer when the item was done or in good shape—as in no more work to be done—I turned it from black type to green.  And on each wedding’s bulletin board were Post-it notes that detailed all the jobs other folks could help me do: my daughter and my future daughters-in-law, their families, and my friends could take a job (explained on the Post-it note, which sometimes had a file to go with it), complete it, and report back.  I know it sounds a bit nuts, but moving those notes from the top side of the board to the bottom, where all things completed were placed, was important.  While our boards showed all that was left to do, it was also really motivating to see what we had accomplished.

When you are overwhelmed with a project: 1) figure out who can help you and don’t be afraid to ask, 2) if need be, hire competent help, and 3) create the master list and break the project into bite-size chunks. Just taking the time to do this lowers your blood pressure.  I have used this process when creating a new brand, building a home, starting a charity from scratch, and merging two organizations. With almost any big endeavor, it helps.