Breaking Projects Down Into Tasks: How Small is Small Enough?
If you’re struggling to get started on a large project, common wisdom suggests breaking it down into manageable tasks. This is solid, logical advice. But it doesn’t always work, often because the chunks are still too big.
Take knitting a sweater (no knitting experience required for this example).
You might break the project down into parts: front, back, sleeves, and sewing the pieces together. That feels more manageable, but each part is still a sizeable piece of work. Even “knit a sleeve” includes multiple steps: casting on, knitting rows, shaping, finishing.
And before you even reach that stage, there are earlier tasks to complete. You need to choose a pattern, gather inspiration, decide on colour and fibre, select yarn, and find the right needles.
All of that happens before the first stitch is even made.
This is why truly small tasks matter. Choosing a pattern is a task. So is winding the yarn or knitting just the first row.
If a project feels stuck, try going smaller. Then go smaller again. Keep breaking it down until the first task feels so easy you can do it today.
