Small beats big

You’re probably reading this guide on productivity because you have big ideas, ambitions, desires that you want to fulfill. Which is why it’s often hard to hear that “small beats big”.

I know all about it: I was in the same boat. I wanted to make huge innovative games. I wanted to make the biggest bestest tutorial website evah.

But we are puny humans. Our brains can’t comprehend tasks so big. It feels daunting, overwhelming, a waste of time.

Our brains can only handle very small and straightforward tasks.

The lessons from this chapter won’t surprise you.

Break every task down into its smallest parts.

Don’t plan ahead or write global, big plans.

We, humans, are also risk averse. We want to know where we’re going. We want to be certain, so we usually make plans, schedules, roadmaps for projects. We make long detailed to-do lists.

But this is also overwhelming. Even if you break it down into the smallest possible steps, this means you see the long, long road ahead every time you cross a task off that list.

As hard as it sounds, only plan ahead a little bit. Let the rest become clear once you get there. Because, once you get there, your situation probably changed and you need to adjust your plan anyway.

We cannot predict the future. Trying to do so is foolish and only hinders you.

Relation to habits

This is directly related to what I said in the chapter on habits.

It’s better to do 2 push-ups a day, than to plan 10 push-ups and end up doing none at all.

It’s better to make a habit of doing one tiny thing for your project every evening, than to plan large amounts of work and never being able to do so.

How I implemented this

Every evening, when I stop working, I write my tasks in a notebook. Yes, I write on physical paper, with my hand.

I don’t write something like “Work on game X”. Or “Continue with chapter 3 for book Y”.

I write the absolute smallest, most obvious tasks I can think of. If I don’t manage to complete them, I simply write them again for the next day. (I burn through a lot of paper this way.)

Think of tasks like:

• Add a comment explaining the code at lines 30-40
• Add a paragraph to chapter 3 describing the landscape
• Update the three invalid links in my tutorial X
• Move folder X to location Y on my computer
• Watch the YouTube video about programming practices that’s open in my browser
• Change the background of my game to color Z

Very small. Very actionable. Usually, within 30 minutes of waking up, I already crossed 10 tasks of that list.

It’s like that quote about writing: “How do you write a book? Well, you put one word after another, day after day.”

Everything that is big, was built from tiny elements. Tiny elements we can understand. Tiny elements we can turn into habits that we can do every day, because they are so small and easy.

The skill of breaking something down into its smallest parts is, in my opinion, one of the most important skills for life.

• It helps accomplishing anything, of any size. (As discussed in this chapter.)
• It helps learn new information. (Smaller parts are easier to learn and help build intuitive associations.)
• It helps simplify ideas, which is one of the key components to making something good. (Most of the work when creating games goes into simplifying the ideas, rules, input, systems, etcetera.)

When in doubt

Let’s say you’re struggling. You try to follow the advice so far, but it’s just too much. You try to accomplish something, but your brain is just a chaotic mess of intention and doubt.

Whenever that happens, this is the chapter I’d point you towards. When in doubt, look at the tasks you have, and make them smaller.

Literally. Spend as long as you need. Just look at every element on that list, and turn it into smaller tasks.

• Either you figure out what you want to work on now, and do it
• Or you end up with a better and easier to execute plan for when you wake up tomorrow.

It’s a win-win situation.