Tiny Tasks and Micro Actions: Meet More Big Project Success with Less Effort
Introduction
What is a Micro Action?
Start With Personal Care
Improve Your Routines
When You Feel Like You Have Many Tasks
Break Down the Big to Small, Even Tiny
Slow Down to Speed Up
Compound Your Completions
Apply Micro Actions at Work
Your Enthusiasm Level
Get a Micro Action Mindset
Conclusion
Tiny Tasks and Micro Actions: Meet More Big Project Success with Less Effort
Do you have a micro action wall? Do you notice that you have a big project you’re not finishing? Or multiple unfinished big projects? And you’re hurting your self-confidence because you’re not able to finish those big projects?
And you feel at the end of the at the end of those months or more of effort than you’ve wasted your time because you couldn’t pull that thing through to completion?
The reason for that has a few factors. When you understand them, those things willl be a lot easier.
This article will cover the factors and how you can use tiny tasks to reach macro goals.
What is a Micro Action?
A micro action is a simple, easy-to-do action that takes very little time.
Micro-actions may seem small, but they are very real. Keep in mind that every decision you make in life is important, and that the little things do matter.
When you make a decision to take a micro action, you make an important life decision.
Start With Personal Care
- what you do in the bathroom
- what you do in the kitchen
- what you do at your desk
Improve Your Routines
If you notice in your daily operations that you have an opportunity for improvement, that’s the best place to start. See where you can make things easier and simpler.
Small, consistent actions are more reliable. We have the ability and resources to complete and continue small actions. Any form of success, even if trifling and incremental, is important at first. Momentum builds on any success; nothing succeeds like success, and it feels great, too. Disgust and its memory soon dissipate, as these positive changes spill over into other domains needing and waiting for growth.
When You Feel Like You Have Too Many Tasks
Break Down the Big to Small, Even Tiny
Slow Down to Speed Up
Rushing through the task makes it easy to not do it well. Or if it is a larger task, to skip a step. When you focus on the small tasks and get each one done, you build a solid foundation for completing more tasks.
Focus on one task at a time.
Allow for adequate breaks between micro actions. You need breaks between tasks to keep you focused. A break, and then the next task. Breaks actually keep you from constantly quitting tasks you haven’t planned for, or “moving on” to time on social media. Those distractions can make you “feel good” about getting burned out. You get a quick pleasure moment that leaves you with the angst of not completing your task.
Think of something you need to do at home. Maybe it’s a sink and counter filled with dirty dishes. When you look at it you feel like the kid who is told, “Clean your room,” doesn’t know where to begin and breaks down in tears.
Then a big brother or Mom shows the kid how to find all the blocks and put them away in the small toy box. Then all the stuffed animals. Then the crayons and pencils. And soon the room is clean.
You can do the same thing with the pile of dirty dishes. Ir it feels to daunting to wahs them all, wash them one dish at a time.
That’s right. Wash a cup. Then walk away. Pretty easy right? One cup. Later, wash a bowl. Then walk away. If you keep washing one dish at a time, you’ll finish washing all the dishes. It may take a couple of days, but you’ll have finished the big task.
Compound Your Completions
That’s the power of compounding your micro successes.
Now that you’ve seen that sink and counter cleaned of all dirty dishes. You can understand how the tiniest actions compound to complete a big project.
And that’s how micro actions work on a larger scale. Whether it’s that do-it-yourself home project or a big project at work, micro actions bring you to completion.
The leadership company Franklin Covey said while describing micro action results:
Wherever you are in your overwhelm or excitement, put one foot in front of the other. Imagine if a month from now, thirty days, you’d taken one micro-action a day toward building or rebuilding your business or project—even thirty micro-actions is undeniably great progress.
Apply Micro Actions at Work
Your Enthusiasm Level
But because you’re excited you want to see this thing through. You’re able to muster that last bit of physical energy to get the thing done in the time that you have available.
The same thing goes for bigger projects where you’re looking for a career or doing a personal project or launching a business. Those things take months and years to bring to completion. Making sure at the beginning, you are aligned with your excitement, your motivation, will pull you through.
So look at your excitement level. If you look at your excitement level on a scale of one to 10 on a new project, evaluate that carefully. Only if it’s an eight or higher, do you have a good chance of pulling through.
Maybe the start is going to be at eight but when things get tough, it’s going to drop down to a five or a four or three. But even in a three you can still pull it through if you understand your purpose.
But if you’re starting the project at a five, six, or seven, you’re not likely to finish it. That’s bad because it hurts your self-esteem. You want to complete things because it’s important for your self-esteem and reporting to get positive feedback loops in your life.