How do you eat an elephant?

This time 5 years ago, I was in a pretty stressful situation…

My wife and I got married, we bought our first out of state rental property, and I closed the largest sale I had ever made in my career at that point. This all happened within a 90 day period.

3 elephant sized projects. All happening at the same time.

Emotions were high! I remember my boss at work giving me some advice to help manage everything. He said:

Wake up each day and think, “What 30 minute task can I do to bring me closer to one of my goals?”

While my wife/family tackled 99% of the wedding stuff, I took on the other 2 projects. I broke everything down into 30 minute chunks, and tackled a few each day.

For the rental property, my 30 minute tasks were things like, read a contract, call my realtor, or find and send 4 documents to the bank. For my work project, my 30 minute tasks were things like, schedule meetings with xyz team members, redesign the proposal, or practice my presentation.

Breaking everything down helped me compartmentalize. Every day, even though I was only doing small tasks, I was slowly progressing towards my goals. This helped manage stress because I always felt accomplishment and things were always moving forward.

In the end, we got it all done. Whenever I’m going through a stressful time today, I think back to 5 years ago.

How do you eat an elephant? 1 bite at a time.

What’s your massive project(s) you’re working on right now? What 30 minutes task can you do today that will bring you closer to that goal?