on a good day when i make tea i only see 3 steps 1) boil water 2) take out a mug & tea 3) pour water over tea bag in the mug & enjoy!
on a bad day when i make tea i see 11 steps 1) pour water into kettle 2) turn the kettle on 3) find mug 4) take out mug 5) find tea 6) take out a tea bag 7) put tea bag in mug 8) make sure the water doesn’t reach boil [most teas need 90°C to brew well] 9) pour the water into the mug 10) don’t forget to take the mug with you 11) don’t forget to drink once it cools down
it’s the same action, and on all days i can easily do 3 actions, the problem begins when those 3 actions start looking like 11 actions
Other people see just A and B. We start from A and get to B.
I see immediately that there are at least 5 more steps in between, and each of those can have multiple steps inside them. And until I’ve solved the maze of interconnected issues, I’m not going to start moving towards B because I might get stuck in the middle with an incomplete task.
It pisses me off so much when people are like “have you tried breaking up the task into smaller tasks?” Yes Janet, my brain has already broken the task up into infinite smaller tasks. That’s the problem.
I do the same thing. Get one backup of everything that I normally keep in stock. If I have to go to the grocery store on a day that is not my grocery shopping day… Well, I just don’t.
i usually explain it like that:
on a good day when i make tea i only see 3 steps 1) boil water 2) take out a mug & tea 3) pour water over tea bag in the mug & enjoy!
on a bad day when i make tea i see 11 steps 1) pour water into kettle 2) turn the kettle on 3) find mug 4) take out mug 5) find tea 6) take out a tea bag 7) put tea bag in mug 8) make sure the water doesn’t reach boil [most teas need 90°C to brew well] 9) pour the water into the mug 10) don’t forget to take the mug with you 11) don’t forget to drink once it cools down
it’s the same action, and on all days i can easily do 3 actions, the problem begins when those 3 actions start looking like 11 actions
It’s the Coastline paradox: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coastline_paradox
Other people see just A and B. We start from A and get to B.
I see immediately that there are at least 5 more steps in between, and each of those can have multiple steps inside them. And until I’ve solved the maze of interconnected issues, I’m not going to start moving towards B because I might get stuck in the middle with an incomplete task.
It pisses me off so much when people are like “have you tried breaking up the task into smaller tasks?” Yes Janet, my brain has already broken the task up into infinite smaller tasks. That’s the problem.
Yes, Janet, I have tried 42 different task management systems to solve this issue =)
The kettle needs water and I wasn’t mentally prepared for an extra step so I just give up.
I genuinly will buy 2 of lots of things, so if I run out I dont need to add go to the store, or find alternate to the task list
I do the same thing. Get one backup of everything that I normally keep in stock. If I have to go to the grocery store on a day that is not my grocery shopping day… Well, I just don’t.
You forgot 12) Put the tea away 13) put the kettle away 14) clean the mug 15) put the mug away.
unfortunately for the future me those are considered fully optional
Future you will do those happily, it will be easier later
When breaking things down causes more overwhelm than it solves, have you found any strategy that does help?
“no think, do” works, but it’s hard to get into that mode. mindfulness sometimes helps but that’s a habit and habits are hard
Thanks for sharing.
You’ve articulated this perfectly.