Count the Small Stuff

Q: How do you eat an elephant?

A: One bite at a time.

It’s amazing how great you can feel when you accomplish something. It’s also amazing how lousy you can feel when you’ve been bogged down by a large unmovable project. I’ve been feeling pretty lousy at work lately, but finally got to feel great today.

I’ve got several projects going on right now. They’re all very large and I’m trying to tackle them one bite at a time. Today I finally took some time to take care of all of the small stuff that’s been haunting my inbox for entirely too long. I got nothing done on the large projects, but I cleared a lot of the small stuff off of my plate, and that made me feel like I had actually gotten something done.

Many times we sweep the small stuff under the carpet and only take a peek under there when the pile is large enough to trip over. Rather than brushing them aside, we should be relishing the opportunity to accomplish those tasks… no matter how small. It’s those small victories that give us the motivation to keep eating the elephant.

I’m going to set aside 30 minutes after lunch every day to concentrate on small tasks. Maybe you should too!

(As I write this, I’ve got a big smile on my face because my desk and computer are now in the new office upstairs!)

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