Three Steps to ACTUALLY Break Down Big Tasks
“Just break it down!”
“Oh hey! I never thought of that!” said no person struggling to break a chunky task down ever.
Neurodivergent brains are great at a whole lot of things. Divergent thinking, creativity, problem solving, and seeing alternative perspectives... But for many of us, working memory issues make seemingly simple tasks feel insurmountable. Breaking down a large task into smaller pieces is one of those things so many of you have told me you struggle with, so it’s about time I wrote a blog outlining the ND friendly steps you can take - and bonus, this process lets you use your divergent and creative brain as an advantage!
Step 1 | Empty your brain onto some post it notes
When your working memory feels full and the fan in your brain is going full tilt, we need to free up memory space for processing space.
That means writing it all down where we can see it. When you can see everything, you won’t forget it, which means you can play with the pieces without having to juggle them all in your mind!
Grab some post its and coloured pens.
Write down EVERYTHING that’s occupying your mind right now - it doesn’t matter how small/big/abstract/specific, just get everything down on paper.
Keep going until you can take a big sigh of relief that it’s all out there - phew!
Step 2 | Create your ‘now’ and ‘not now’ lists
So I’m writing from the perspective of an overwhelmed-computer-says-no-moment, but if you’re taking on a bigger or multi-day task you can choose whichever categories suit your needs!
Once you have EVERYTHING written down, it’s time to curate what you’re going to do. If you need to do something and this is how you’re getting unstuck, here’s how to categorise your tasks:
NOT NOW - This is the DEFAULT SETTING. You are not doing everything now (that’s probably been the problem, this is what you’ve been trying to do!), so everything is a not now unless you can make a clear case for doing it now.
NOW - So what qualifies a task as a now task?
It is URGENT and there are consequences to not doing it (i.e., you’re going to be fined if you don’t return that form).
It is a quick win that will mobilise you towards a bigger task.
It is something you want to do that will move you towards your wider goals (i.e., writing a blog post like this one to help your audience!).
It is what you intended to do with your day.
If your now list starts looking busy, whittle it down. Get ready strict. You can always add other items later, but for now if you finish up with one single solitary post it then you are onto a winner.
Step 3 | Use your awesome divergent thinking brain to mind map out everything to do with the tasks on your now list
This is where the rubber meets the road. You’ve got some freed up space in your working memory, and your now list to work with. Let’s do this one now task at a time…
Pop your post in the middle of a page
Grab a pen (or a few, colours help!) and write down anything you need to do to complete the task in the middle of the page. Go weird, go details, draw items off items. Write down ANYTHING you might need to do to chuck this post it on the done pile.
Once you’ve written down EVERYTHING - create a new now and not now list for this task. That could look like crossing everything out that doesn’t make the cut.
Then, with your task-specific now list, order them 1 - however many!
Any rogue thoughts can be added to your ‘not now’ list and saved for later!
Now you have a broken down task and an order of play to make it happen… But what if it doesn’t work?
Troubleshooting Tip #1
If one of the tasks on your mind mapped page still feels to big - mind map that specific task on its own page. You may find you've bitten off something huge, and this approach will help you see the work involved at each stage. You cannot go too many layers deep if you are still feeling stuck!
Troubleshooting Tip #2
Goblin Tools is an AI assistant that could get you started. It breaks down the steps based on your spiciness level, and that just speaks to me!
Troubleshooting Tip #3
Is there something else going on with this task?
If you feel a lot of resistance or there are other barriers, go upstream and work on those first. Emotional and mental barriers are as legit as physical ones, so get extra support if that’s what you need first! That is still a productive step!
And if you want my help going through this process and adapting it for your mind, let’s chat!
