Small decisions, big results
Get it done
1. Write the title and take the trash out
(First paragraph). Last weekend I ran an ultramarathon. I spent quite a lot of time preparing for it and I am now in recovery mode. I traveled back on Monday. I also had a VERY busy day at work yesterday and I am behind on my writing.
(Get changed. → Second paragraph). Because I’m so behind I didn’t think I would get chance to do an article today. So I thought I would get a bit creative and demonstrate how I managed to get this article done in multiple stages.
(Make coffee → New section).
The writing process
Every time I do a bit of work on this article I add a number, describe the bit of work I did, and then add the content. Sitting down and writing the entire thing in one go might end up taking more time than just doing micro sections like this. Will this produce anything worthwhile? Not sure. But here we go.
(Finish getting ready for run → New section)
Little by little
Little by little the jobs I’ve needed to do are getting done. I went from thinking to myself that I don’t have time to get an article done today to suddenly having the beginnings of an article done and I’m now ready to go for a short run. I’m still pretty sore from that ultramarathon but I’m determined to get things going again.
(Run 5K → Upload run stats → Write another paragraph)
Looks like my legs still work. It wasn’t exactly easy going while being in recovery mode but I managed to get it done. At the end of the day, everything we do is just a series of small decisions that we work through in order to achieve a greater goal.
(Shower → New section → Add photo → More writing)
Small decisions, big results
I tend to think of ultramarathons as thousands (probably tens of thousands) of small decisions. Each step is a conscious decision to move forward a little bit more. This is especially apparent when you are climbing massive hills. Literally the only way to climb a massive hill is to keep making small steps until the distance is completed.
One of the most miserable climbs I had during the Kai 70K was the “final boss” climb up Mt. Shimoyama (霜山). It was a 600 meter climb in total darkness that just seemed to go on forever. I kept trudging up the mountain and looking at my watch, wishing the climb would be over but knowing that the only way to do it would be to just keep going one step at a time. 10% done, 25% done, 50% left, only 100 meters, only 10 meters, DONE! All of these were points that I focused on over what felt like an hour of climbing.
You can conquer mountains with small steps. You can also get a lot of other things done with small steps. Like this short article I thought I didn’t have time for.
(Make another coffee → Add some final thoughts)
Final thoughts and take home messages
I really didn’t think I’d have time to write anything today. But chunking it out into small sections between doing other tasks made it manageable. It’s probably not the best article I’ve ever written, but I managed to put something together, do something a bit thematic based on both the writing process and a recent experience, and get it out of the door on time.
When you’ve got something you need to do but don’t think you’ve got time to do it, consider moving incrementally down towards the goal until you get it done. It might take a while (it’s taken me about 3 hours from initiation to completion (including the run time)) but I managed to get it done.
Hopefully things will be back to normal next week.
Thank you very much for reading. If you enjoy my work please share it with someone you think would also enjoy it.
If you aren’t subscribed, please sign up to keep up to date.
If social media is more your thing I’m active on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
And if you are feeling generous but don’t want to commit to a monthly subscription, you can send a small donation to my Buy me a coffee page below.
Osu!
Pretty cool seeing the process in action
Nice article. I tend to try and do everything in one go when working on something like writing.
Even with a recent translation project I was hired to help with, I can't help but work on it for 2-3 hours until I find a good stopping point - I find it harder to some back to something if I was right in the middle of it...