Swiss cheese and sausage techniques help you tackle a big project
Productivity / / January 06, 2021
What are the methods
1. Swiss cheese method
You gradually "bite off" the project, making holes in it, like in cheese. There is another analogy to explain this principle. Imagine ants chewing on a large piece of wood. They take on their titanic labor, digging into wood in arbitrary places. Gradually, so many holes are formed inside that a piece of wood crumbles from a light touch. It's the same with a big project. By taking a bite of it, you slowly move it from to-do to to-do.
Small steps like this show progress and motivate you to move on.
You don't need to set aside several hours to complete a task. It's important to just start, and not necessarily from the beginning. Make the first hole in a random spot and continue to bite off from different sides.
For example, you need to write a blog post, but your head is spinning when you think about structure, titles, editing, and more. You start to panic from the feeling that you need to do a lot of everything at once. To avoid this, make the first hole in your head of cheese: set aside 10 minutes to write a summary of the future post. Then another one: sketch out the subheadings and start expanding the text of your previous outline. Next time, make a list of scientific sources to add to your post. Soon, only holes will remain in your cheese, that is, the post will be ready.
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2. Sausage method
It consists in working on a project, "eating" one piece after another in turn. For example, the writer Joe Lunevich used it to create his book. Three to five days a week, he set aside 20-60 minutes to write the next few pages.
This is exactly how the process of working with this method looks like:
- You get a stick of sausage that cannot be eaten whole (a task that is paralyzing in its volume).
- You cut it into thin pieces - make a list of subtasks to be completed.
- You eat these pieces one by one - you complete small subtasks that make up the whole project.
This method is well suited for those who prefer to divide the project into sequential smaller chunks. Unlike the cheese method, it is important to work in an organized manner, not in a random order.
Why these methods are good
Both productivity methods work for the same reason - the effectiveness of small steps. According toThe power of small wins researchers from Harvard Business School, small wins are very important. “Of all the factors that stimulate mood, motivation and insights throughout the workday, the single most important is to see your progress in important work, ”says lead author Teresa Amabile.
The more often you feel your progress, the more likely you are to be creatively productive in the long run. And, according to the researchers, it doesn't matter if you're trying to solve a big scientific puzzle or provide quality products and services. Your daily progress - even small ones - will greatly affect how you feel and work.
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