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Incrementalism: Win Big By Acting Small
We all have goals we want to achieve, and that desire can make us impatient when it comes to getting results. But life has a habit of not giving us what we wish for overnight, and that’s okay. Patience is a virtue, after all.
Working incrementally (i.e., little and often) can get us significant results without ever feeling like we have had to do a mammoth amount of work. The key word here is often, not little. It is by repeatedly showing up, sitting down, and doing the work that you get your end result. This is how weightlifters get strong. A single gym session won’t make much difference on its own — it is the cumulative effect of showing up regularly that brings about their gains.
Working on a project for two hours a day, Monday to Friday feels like less of a slog than putting in one ten-hour session. It will also give you time to reflect along the way and end up with better work as a result.
Writing a book may seem like a huge task, and it is certainly a commendable achievement. But if you break it down incrementally, it suddenly becomes a realistic goal. If you wrote 1,000 words a night (approximately an hour’s work), you would have a first draft ready in two months. And you would never have worked more than an hour a day at it. See how powerful this idea is?
